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Fall 2020

Education

Spring 2003

Eldridge sees WSU as a tight-knit family

Ray Eldridge doesn’t usually recommend hitchhiking. However, he didn’t have many options a few years ago, when his car gave out near North Bend enroute to Pullman from Seattle. Not to worry. From the back seat, he retrieved a Washington State University sweatshirt and cap, slipped them on, and thumbed a ride.

The “good Samaritan” who picked him up proved to be a Seattle-area veterinarian traveling to WSU to join his daughter for Dad’s Weekend.

“That’s the kind of tight-knit family we are in. Some people don’t understand that about Washington State University,” the 2002-03 WSU Alumni Association president says.

Eldridge’s own WSU ties are … » More …

Winter 2004

Hazy, crazy days of summer… science

In the chemistry laboratory in Fuller Hall, Cougar Summer Science campers are either making bouncy balls through cross-linking polymers or figuring out the generation properties of oxygen. Tossing her laboratory-produced ball in the air, Kyleigh Kake of Spokane says that she has always wanted to be a doctor. Her lab partner, Elizabeth Perez of Grandview, Washington, attends Cougar Summer Science Camp through an award from her local science fair.

A camper from the next group, slightly less successful with his bouncy ball, says he “did some science at his house.” His description of his experiments make it clear he is better off in the hands … » More …

Winter 2004

Guiding Student-Athletes to Academic Success

Balancing academic and athletic commitments in college can be a tough. On top of classes, labs, assignments, studying, and tests, student-athletes devote an enormous amount of time to conditioning and practice, plus travel and competing. Some 450 Washington State University athletes face the challenge every year.

“If you don’t establish priorities, you may be staring at the top of the mountain and wondering how to get there,” says Adam Hawkins, captain of the 2001 Cougar football team.

Hawkins cherishes his five years on the team and his degrees in management information systems and in marketing. “I couldn’t be happier with the toolbox and the personal … » More …

Fall 2004

The art of communicating by signing

Fingers flew at a rapid pace for Nancy Kikendall during the 2002-03 academic year at Gallaudet University for the deaf and hard of hearing in Washington, D.C. She was among only a few hearing students accepted into the school’s graduate program. The experience, she says, greatly improved her American Sign Language (ASL) skills.

“Anyone in the deaf community knows Gallaudet is the top of the top. It was an honor,” said Kikendall, while relaxing at her Liberty Lake home near Spokane last November. About 98 percent of Gallaudet’s 2,000 students are deaf or hard of hearing.

“Most classes are taught in sign, so you have … » More …

Fall 2005

Camp Larson—a heritage reclaimed

For the first time in maybe a century, ceremonial songs of the Coeur d’Alene tribe floated across Cottonwood Bay on Lake Coeur d’Alene last spring. The Coeur d’Alenes were reclaiming a portion of their ancestral lands, a place where they can connect with their past and create a future of education and counseling programs for their children and families.

The site, Camp Larson, was an educational venture started by a group of Washington State University instructors nearly 50 years ago, when Roger Larson and several colleagues found the picturesque property for sale at the south end of the Idaho lake. Through the University they created … » More …

Summer 2006

Can America compete in a 'Flat' World?

Many of you are familiar with Thomas Friedman’s argument, in The World is Flat, that technology has eliminated many barriers to competition and thus created today’s globally competitive economic environment. His dramatic examples of outsourcing show that key services, including high-level engineering and scientific tasks, can be effectively accomplished without regard to the workers’ physical location. This allows imaginative businesses to tap talent from around the globe, often at considerable savings.

Friedman, a foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, uses this evidence to reach some alarming conclusions about how America will fare in the future. After establishing the central thesis that location is … » More …

Summer 2002

School superintendent recognized on state, national levels

R. Stephen Rasmussen capped two-plus decades as a school administrator by being named Washington Superintendent of the Year for 2001 and one of four finalists for National Superintendent of the Year.

Rasmussen, 51, has been superintendent of the 7,900-student Franklin Pierce School District since 1992. The district south of Tacoma serves a growing community with increasing ethnic and linguistic diversity.

When he was hired, the district faced a $600,000 deficit. In 1998, the district became the first in the state to pass a four-year school levy. The same year, voters approved a $25.6 million bond for construction.

The superintendent gladly shares his recognition. “It is … » More …

Spring 2002

Alumni president Ed Little: “I always wanted to work with children”

It’s been almost 30 years now, but Ed Little, president of the Washington State University Alumni Association, remembers it like yesterday.

A sophomore and a member of the Cougar Yell Team, he was in Eugene, Oregon, for WSU’s 1974 football game with Oregon in Autzen Stadium. Before the Cougars secured their 21-16 victory, Little received an urgent message on the sideline.

His father, Gerald, had been seriously injured in an industrial accident. Little was needed in Seattle. Athletic director Sam Jankovich immediately had his wife, Patty, drive Little to the Eugene airport. When they arrived, a ticket was waiting for the next flight north. The … » More …