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Instructor sees value in great instruction
From PLU to a one-room school house, instructor sees value in great instruction
As a teacher for 35 years, Margaret Dakan ’38 saw the difference an education could make in a person’s life.
Her belief in the kind of education Pacific Lutheran University provides is why she has supported the university through scholarship programs like Q Club, Project Access and an endowed scholarship that benefits education students: the Margaret Melver Dakan Endowed Scholarship.
Margaret Dakan ’38
It’s a place that leads to a successful vocation, she said.
“I try to encourage other children who are ready to go college to go to PLU,” Dakan said.
She looks back fondly at her time at PLU.
“There weren’t that many students at the time because it was a hard time for parents to send their kids to college.”
There were also only three buildings on campus. The school was co-ed with one side of the residence hall for boys and the other for girls. Every day they’d go to chapel – something she really enjoyed. Everybody got to know each other and she still stays in touch with friends.
Dakan has enjoyed seeing the university grow. That is evidenced by her support of the Eastvold renovation.
“The campus is beautiful with all those new buildings,” she said.
The opportunity for an education is very important to Dakan. Her time at PLC led to a career as an educator. She started as a teacher in one room classroom in Manchester, Wash. and continued to Port Orchard, Wash., to Seattle to Europe and finally to California.
“The training at PLU,” she said, “really gave me a great background for teaching.”