Article

Summer 2003

Adjusting to life during college and after

By the time he graduated from Washington State University, Terry Arndt (’93 Horticulture) had accumulated $20,000 in student loans, $5,000 in credit card bills, and car payments.

Fortunately, he found a job right away, and a financial advisor. She suggested he pay off his high-interest credit cards first. Then he began making extra payments on his student loans, some with a 10-year payback period. There were other budget considerations. Health insurance premiums. Income tax. A vacation. A year after marrying Melissa Segars (’94 Music), he enrolled in the University of Florida’s M.B.A. program. More expenses.

Adjusting to life after college was not the smooth transition … » More …

Summer 2003

Picha, Herrick, Murdock honored by WSU Alunmi Association

Washington State University created the Alumni Achievement Award in 1969 to honor alumni who have provided significant service and contributions to their profession, community, and/or WSU. In recent months, three individuals have been recognized.

Douglas T. Picha

Douglas T. Picha, founding executive director of the Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Children’s Hospital Guild Association, was honored at the November 23, 2002 Apple Cup rally on the Pullman campus.

Picha is responsible for planning, managing, and directing a comprehensive effort to attract volunteers and private financial support for Children’s Hospital in Seattle. Gifts in fiscal 2000-2001 totalled more than $36 million. The foundation has been listed … » More …

Winter 2006

Jeff Clark: Elegant antiques

The object of Jeff Clark’s desire once belonged to the Shah of Iran. The shiny black 1939 Bugatti Type 57C was originally commissioned by the French government and given to the Shah as a present on the occasion of his first marriage. Today the roadster is part of the Petersen Automotive Museum collection in Los Angeles, and in September spent a night in a covered concrete parking garage in Kirkland.

Clark is there when a driver brings it in and parks it next to Fred Astaire’s Rolls-Royce, just up the ramp from the Porsche 917 Steve McQueen drove in Le Mans.

“It’s my favorite,” says … » More …

Winter 2006

Barbara Novak: Business as ministry

After Barbara Novak ’72 received an M.A. in bassoon performance from Southern Illinois University, she became second bassoonist in the Spokane Symphony. “I really got a chance to play everything from the great second bassoon parts to the great contra bassoon solos. I had a great time . . . . I think that the training I got in the orchestra here [Washington State University] was superb. It probably was the catalyst that . . . launched me into performing as a career.”

Novak’s life was changed, though, by the tragic death of her son, Steve, in a mine exploration accident.

“When my son died, … » More …

Winter 2006

John Gross: Walking in both worlds

During his nearly two decades as a forester, there were days when John Gross would gladly have traded jobs with his wife, a teacher.

Yet, after he realized his dream and started teaching in 1997, he would occasionally find himself glancing out the classroom window during a math or state history lesson, longing to be tromping through the woods again.

When Gross (’77 Forest Mgt., Bus.) gave up his first professional passion, forestry, to indulge a long-growing love of teaching, he made the type of trade-off many people face during their careers. But it’s a sacrifice he no longer shoulders. Three years ago, he started … » More …

Winter 2006

Vicki Owens: Into Africa

Twenty-one years ago Vicki Owens stepped off an airplane into the hot air of Kampala, Uganda, thinking she had come for a brief stay, just long enough to help Christian missionary pastors start a primary school.

“I thought I’d do my little thing for humanity and then go home,” she says. It was her first time traveling overseas, and she really had no idea of what she would face in this country in the center of Africa.

Owens, who admits she was naïve to the culture, dangers, and challenges of living in a place like Uganda, had arrived two months after one military coup and … » More …

Winter 2006

The sportswriter

If Janie McCauley were telling this story, she wouldn’t bury the lead. She’d say right away that she is the Associated Press’s 2006 Sports Writer of the Year.

Add a little color, some solid quotes like, “I was surprised to get the award. There are so many good writers doing good stories all around the country,” and a few action words like “dwell,” “delve,” and “dive,” and that’s where many writers would stop.

But Janie looks for the story beneath the story. She dwells on details, delves into players’ personal interests, dives into their lives outside of the stadiums and ball parks.

As far back … » More …

Winter 2006

What color is your potato?

Remember when picking a potato was easy? You had your choice: bake or boil?

Today there are dozens of decisions. Waxy? dry? fingerling? yellow? red? blue? banana?

That world of choice started the early 1980s, when the Yukon Gold emerged from a breeding program in Canada. The yellow potato’s creamy texture and buttery taste made it an instant hit. Chefs roasted it with garlic, mashed it with Gorgonzola, and paired it with the likes of duck and filet mignon.

But while our potato palate was expanding in one direction, it was narrowing in another. Shortly after Yukon Gold’s debut, the Russet Norkotah sprouted on the … » More …

Winter 2006

An American in Albania

Adapted from a series of e-mail messages from the author to friends and associates.

Introduction

Since serving three terms as ASWSU president as an undergraduate, I have never lost my passion for the process of student representation. I’ve tried to be a help to as many student leaders as possible, and I have wound up speaking at a lot of conferences around the nation, and even helped found the American Student Government Association (the only professional association for student governments) in 2003.

Earlier this year, I was asked by the State Department to do a speaking/training tour in Albania … » More …

Winter 2006

Book burden

It’s not news to anyone that textbooks are among a student’s biggest expenses. But some of us have figured ways around paying the high prices.

This fall, I coaxed my freshman sister, Kaytee, into sharing her book for the human development class we are taking together. The two of us were able to outsmart the system by buying just one heavy hardback for a steep $90. It didn’t take much to convince her: I promised she could keep it in her dorm room and explained that we were helping our parents, who usually pay for our books.

I’ve come a long way from my freshman … » More …