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A conversation with novelist Mari Matthias ‘94, author of “The Runestone’s Promise” Posted by: Zach Powers / November 9, 2022 November 9, 2022 Mari Matthias ‘94 loved diagramming sentences back in the ninth grade. Later, she served on the staff of Saxifrage, PLU’s student-run literary and art magazine, during all four of her years on campus.Matthias describes herself as a self-taught novelist. “Once I decided to write the book, I started really paying attention to how authors crafted stories

photo from senior Kelly Hall's youth Tribal Canoe Journey (courtesy of Hall). “I was lucky there was a group already making this major,” Hall said. “I get to kind of be the guinea pig.” So, an independently designed major was created and approved. Focusing on the four disciplines of religion, anthropology, history and language, Hall and Crawford-O’Brien came up with a list of classes for Hall to choose from. Now a senior, the only thing between Hall and graduation is her capstone. Her project

science and French while working with the nonprofit World Vision on its malaria program. When I graduated, I was deep into the world of public health and applying to graduate schools. But then the unthinkable happened; I was diagnosed with cancer and my whole life seemed to spin off the rails. It took two years of surgeries and treatments to come out on the other side, and by that time my life was unrecognizable. I could no longer physically work a normal 9-to-5 job and grad school seemed out of the

Neurodiversity Club is basically a community for those on campus who are neurodivergent. Before, we didn’t really have another space other than the OAA [Office of Accessibility and Accommodation]. So we wanted to create a place to talk about our own struggles and experiences going through college, or just through life, with different disabilities. What inspired your team to create the club? I worked with Rayleah Trice, who is also president of the Active Minds Club on campus. She had the idea of starting

students a lot of flexibility for the remainder of their education, because we actually need a total of 128 credits to graduate with a bachelor’s degree. When I realized this, I started to consider a double major or a set of minors to round out my education. But what to pick? What I settled on is an interesting new program called Innovation Studies, which is an interdisciplinary minor requiring 20 credits of coursework (or five classes). When combined with my History degree, I think I’ve found a great