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built his confidence for defending and promoting his ideas. “My high school education centered around memorizing facts and regurgitating information,” Bliss said. “When I got to PLU, I was exposed to all sorts of concepts and theories and my coursework was graded on my ability to articulate my own thoughts and form persuasive arguments. PLU was a good fit for me.” After graduation, Bliss worked in the mortgage business for 15 years before Stoecker’s 2010 Alzheimer’s diagnosis spurred Bliss to turn

intercultural relationships, willing to step out of their comfort zones, committed to serving those around them, and want to use their college education to make a difference on campus and in their communities at home. Since coming to PLU, Soliai has been active in many clubs and even played for the Lutes Softball team. She says PLU has given her a stronger sense of who she is and what she believes in. “PLU has changed me,” she said. “I wasn’t the kind of person who advocated for what I believed in, but at

to pursue, it was far enough away from Tukwila to feel like he was going off to college, but close enough to home that he could easily return for visits.  Founded and run by the Tacoma-based nonprofit Degrees of Change, the Act Six program identifies and rewards scholars who are passionate about learning, eager to foster intercultural relationships, willing to step out of their comfort zones, committed to serving those around them, and want to use their college education to make a difference on

-monitoring technology, eradicate invasive species, build an outdoor education center, and work on wetland delineation.  What do you enjoy about your internship? I love this amalgam of scientific research and manual labor. There are plenty of chances to read and evaluate data, but it’s also truly satisfying to learn by physically living here. It may sound sentimentalized to say this; there’s something irreplaceable about waking up in nature, working outside, and listening to the outdoors. You’d be

collaborate across departments to bring forth rich and intersectional programming, and more work has prepared me to do that. Tell us more about your role at PLU as the coordinator of the Center for Gender Equity. I also support Queer programming for students across campus by partnering with various student leaders. Advocacy services are centered around encouraging the empowerment of victim-survivors during their healing process, supporting friends and family, and providing education about the issues

powerlessness through empowerment and community.” Indivisible Gig Harbor is a highly inclusive group and one of its purposes is to guide individuals through this time of political confusion. Professor Albrecht discussed the role of education in that guidance: “We have literacy events, we have candidates come in and speak, and we educate members on how to research voting records for members of Congress. It takes public action to raise awareness.”   Professor Rona Kaufman joined Indivisible Gig Harbor and

Languages’ Society comes from his fondness of learning dead languages when he was in college. Brown earned his Bachelor’s degree in German at PLU in 2010 before moving on to a graduate program at the University of Texas in Austin. There, he earned his Master’s in Germanic Linguistics in 2014 and then continued his education to receive his PhD in Germanic Studies in 2018.When Brown enrolled at PLU, he initially focused on studying German. Not long after, he met the woman who would later become his wife

staff to draw on the interdisciplinarity emphasized throughout their PLU education. Tutors sometimes work in their areas of expertise, but they also regularly step outside their comfort zone to help with subjects that might not be quite so familiar to them.  On any given day, PLC staff may be balancing out formulas or helping students write essays. For example, Nick, an English Writing and Hispanic Studies major who aspires to be a poet, helps students understand algebraic equations, too. The beauty

guidance of people like retired senior advisor for academic success Rick Seeger, by getting involved in campus organizations and even working in PLU’s Conferences and Events, PLU became his home. He and his co-workers would organize groups hosted on campus. “We were the ‘go to’ people,” Akuien said. “That was the first time I felt at home. That’s when I felt a sense of belonging.” And this place as home may not end just yet. He’s considering getting his Masters in Education. What he’s learned is that

student who took advantage of getting a variety of experiences, many of them not associated with formal courses—what I call a student who went the ‘extra mile’ to get the most out of her education.” Hunt didn’t just get an education at PLU; she also got a lot of support. “PLU has been so phenomenal through so much—beginnings, endings and hardships in between,” Hunt said. Health, Hardships and Healing Hardships don’t come much harder: In the summer of 2009, Hunt was diagnosed with cancer. “It was a