![Class Notes](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2015/08/classnotes.png)
Alumni
![Class Notes](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2015/08/classnotes.png)
Getting things done
![WSU Cougar head logo made of wine bottle corks](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2023/04/2023summer-cougswine-thumb-198x198.gif)
Cougs + wine
![alumni tour photo](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2023/04/2023summer-spain-tour-thumb-198x198.jpg)
A tour of Spain with Cougar winemakers
When the former executive director of the Washington State University Alumni Association asked Melanie Krause (’00 Spanish, Biol.) and Joe Schnerr (’99 Chem.), founders of Cinder Wines in Garden City, Idaho, near Boise, to design a trip for WSU alumni through northern Spain, they didn’t hesitate.
Not only are they proud Cougs, they’ve already visited the Rioja region, which “grows a lot of tempranillo, one of our focus grapes at Cinder. It’s also close to Basque country, and Boise has a lot of Basque descendants, so it’s a good fit for us on several levels,” says Krause, who “picked out beautiful coastal parts of Basque … » More …
![](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2023/04/2023summer-cougar-x-thumb-198x198.jpg)
Cougar X winemaker Cameron Rushton (and his wine tasting tips)
Cameron Rushton is happy to sip other winemakers’ whites. But when it comes to crafting his own wine, he sticks to his specialty: robust reds.
Rushton (’10 Hort.), co-owner and assistant winemaker at Five Star Cellars in Walla Walla and creator of Cougar X, makes the wines he especially enjoys pairing with a juicy steak. Cabernet franc tops his list of varietals. Merlot is right up there, too. He also likes tempranillo, malbec, and sangiovese—big, bold, highly ageable reds.
“I don’t make a lot of white,” he says. “I’d rather drink everybody else’s”—Poet’s Leap by Long Shadows Vintners, for example. “I … » More …
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Helen Szablya in her own words
Helen Szablya’s recent memoir details her escape from Communism in her native Hungary, her time at Washington State University, and then her roles as an honorary consul to Hungary.
Szablya and her family fled their home country of Hungary and its Communist regime in a harrowing journey under the cover of night in 1956.
They traveled to Austria, Canada, and then to Pullman, Washington, where Helen received a degree, her husband John was an engineering professor, and they raised their family.
She tells the full story in the second volume of her memoir, From Refugee to Consul. Adriana Janovich, associate editor of Washington State Magazine, … » More …
![WSU kicker Jason Hanson makes a field goal attempt.](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2023/02/2023spring-long-kick-2-198x198.jpg)
The long kick
![Andrea Perry wither her two young children and husband](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2023/02/2023spring-mvp-off-field.700-EC-198x198.jpg)
An MVP off the field
![Book cover of Highest and Hardest](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2023/02/2023spring-highet-hardest.700-198x198.jpg)
Highest and Hardest: A Mountain Climber’s Lifetime Odyssey to the Top of the World
![Ron Howell smiles at two people](https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/902/2023/02/2023spring-investing-invention-2-198x198.jpg)