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College of Arts and Sciences Alumni

Young alumna honored for legal services work

Brenda Rodriguez with awardees.WSU graduate Brenda Rodriguez (’18 Spanish), the Eastern Washington network coordinator for the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN),  received the 2019 Visionary of the Year award from  Columbia Legal Services. Rodriguez, along with her WAISN colleague Monserrat Padilla, was honored on Oct. 16 at the Imagine Justice fundraiser.

The legal service honors leaders each year for their impact and commitment to racial equality, and for having inspiring and transformative » More …

Alumna pursues passion for design

Dana Dollarhyde - WSU Tri-Cities digital technology and culture alumna.Life preparation. It was the thing that most drove Dana Dollarhyde to get a college degree and the thing that she said she is most grateful for her college experience.

One reason Dollarhyde (’18 DTC) chose WSU Tri-Cities was because it was affordable: she received thousands in scholarships and also qualified for the College Bound Program which would paid her tuition in full. But it was WSU Tri-Cities staff and faculty that helped her find her passion and a career pathway » More …

Book review: Baseball in a Grain of Sand

A baseball player holding a bat casts a shadow across the orange gravel of the playfield.Baseball, writes Bill Gruber (’79 PhD English), evokes a literary state of mind. Now an English professor at Emory University, he explains that the suspense, narrative, soaring victories, and crushing tragedies of stories also appear in baseball, perhaps more than any other sport.

In Baseball in a Grain of Sand, Gruber explores baseball history and drama through one summer season of an American Legion team in Moscow, Idaho, the Blue Devils. Along the way, he meets and introduces fascinating people, many of whom share Gruber’s unabashed sentimentality for the sport. » More …

Olympos to Olympia

The director of the Office of Chief Information Officer for the State of Washington, who studied history at WSU, has a reminder for everyone who works in technology: “If you don’t understand history, you’re bound to repeat it.”

Sue Langen ’78 may work on the fifth floor of a huge office building in downtown Olympia, but she’s completely down to earth. Making technology work for the people of the state, she says, is a matter of both pride and ethical responsibility. » More …

Making the difference

“The fact that I’m a teacher now is just the greatest turn of events—my old high school teachers would be shocked,” says Kerry Clark (’11 Hum., ’14 MA English). He’s sharing his improbable story as we tour Saint George’s School, a private K–12 preparatory institute nestled in the woods along the Little Spokane River.

Clark teaches English and history classes for the International Baccalaureate Diploma program at Saint George’s and is also a college counselor. On top of that, he coaches soccer, basketball, and baseball. The notable achievement is made more impressive when you learn » More …

Power of words

Sandra Williams and a stack of Black Lens newspapers.When Sandy Williams (’83 psych.) was in the eighth grade, she discovered that only boys were allowed to take shop class, while girls had to take home economics. To Williams, this was unfair.

Instead of standing idly by, she wrote a persuasive essay calling for a change. Thanks to Williams, girls like her who had no interest in home economics could take shop if they wanted to. » More …

WSU Fight Song, composed by students, turns 100

WSU Fight Song music and photos of original composersAs the patriotic fervor from World War I began to subside, students at then-Washington State College found themselves uninspired by the songs associated with the school. Two senior music students, Zella Melcher of Spokane, Wash., and Phyllis Sayles of Lapwai, Idaho, took on the task of writing new music to energize the student body.

“They debuted their creation to great acclaim on Feb. 20, 1919, at a student body meeting in Bryan Hall, and one century later their Fight Song still inspires WSU students,” said Mark O’English, university archivist.

The Evergreen claimed it “at once scored a hit,” and declared » More …

International student-athlete reflects on WSU career

Linnea LindbergLIke many undergraduates, swimmer Linnea Lindberg says she now considers Pullman “home.”

The lone senior on the WSU swimming team, Lindberg is from Stockholm, Sweden, and is earning a degree in psychology at WSU Pullman.

“It is difficult to come to a new culture and experience a whole new place and language and everything,” Lindberg said.

Despite the geographical difference, Lindberg has enjoyed her time in Pullman. As she prepares for her final home swim meet, she fondly recalls » More …

A story of one student

James WhitbreadJames Whitbread, one of WSU’s 2018 Top Ten Seniors, is now attending Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“Medical school is everything I ever hoped it would be and more than I ever expected,” he shared in a post on the Department of Mathematics and Statistics website. Read on to learn more about his journey. >>  » More …

WSU med student elected to national association role

David ChoiMedical students at Washington State University have a national voice, thanks to David Choi (’16 biology).

A devoted Coug who graduated from WSU Vancouver and is now enrolled at the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Choi was elected last spring to represent students in nine states as western region chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ student branch. » More …