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profile of Terri Card. From the exam room to executive leadershipWhen Mark Mariani ’98 was a student at PLU his singular goal was to become a medical doctor. A member of the football team and a biology major, Mariani loved his science courses, but he also found he was interested in a range of disciplines from economics to the humanities. He achieved his goal a few years later, earning a M.D. at the University of Washington. And while working with patients was just as rewarding as he’d hoped, his broad

bus from the airport [in Oxford] was that there were magpies everywhere. I started learning about the birds there, and when I came back, I started learning about the birds here." (PLU Photo / Sy Bean) RELATED: Learn more about environmental studies at PLU with Professors Suzanne Crawford O’Brien, Adela Ramos, and Kevin O’Brien. What do you enjoy about the two programs? Both degrees are super flexible. I like environmental studies because you take courses in every discipline and have many

two or three years ago to do summer courses that were all online. One thing that was really helpful about that was that I didn’t have to suddenly try to convert things under stressful circumstances when I didn’t know the interface.” She also explains that she wanted to provide students with a set schedule when the transition hit, with specific activities on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. “By regimenting it in that way, hopefully folks get a chance to know what to expect pedagogically, so

courses can have on the academic accomplishments of first-year student-athletes when he was coaching at Trinity University. “All the first-years came in together, got to know each other, but then got to dig into the transitions of the writing skills, research resources, time management,” he said. “The changes we saw were an increase in freshman GPA and then over the course of four years we saw an increase in team GPA.” When McAdams discovered that his new job had a similar program, he was ready to get

and application in many disciplines from cooking to aerospace. Tell us a bit about your journey as an artist. How did you discover your vocation? Ebbinga: According to my parents I have been a creator since I was able to squish play dough. I find the most satisfaction, and learn more readily, when I am using my hands in concert with my brain and heart. My best classes all throughout my primary and secondary education were art and shop classes, or courses that had some creative hands-on component

situations of social upheaval and war. Large sections of Cai Yan’s original poems are used amongst Zhang Er’s own elegant language. In 2011 she showed a draft to composer Gregory Youtz who has long studied and taught Chinese culture in his PLU courses and written numerous works exploring the combination of western and Chinese musical ideas. Youtz was immediately intrigued and set several scenes as experiments. Both librettist and composer were delighted with the results, but unsure whether to proceed in

concentration in finance. What prompted that switch? Accounting just wasn’t for me. I am not a human calculator. When I took my first finance class, the professor told me I should do finance. I took a couple more advanced finance classes and went, “I want to do finance.”When did you add the double major in economics? I was taking economics courses for my business degree, and Dr. Priscilla St. Clair—huge shoutout to her—pushed me to think about how humans make choices. I thought that intersected with

profession. “I always thought I’m glad I don’t do scholarship on immigration because it would get me too fired up,” she said. “But that was when it all came together.” At PLU, Ramos has been able to combine her interests in language and immigration through courses she teaches, as well as through the university’s Common Reading Program. This year for the first time, the entire campus – students, staff and faculty – is reading the same book at the same time, exploring immigration, race and gender identity

around on his bike. Kinney later completed his associate’s degree at Pierce County Community College and transferred his credits to PLU just before his accident. After he re-entered courses at PLU, he started encouraging Jennifer to do the same. So she started her own journey. There may be a second generation of Kinneys on the way, as their daughter Aleesha, 17, is also considering PLU. “I would just say, if you have a dream, go for it, just do it,” Jennifer Kinney said. And Jym’s advice: Get back on

learn a great deal from each other.” By no later than spring 2015, the center also will begin offering continuing-education classes, evening and weekend workshops, and online courses, all of which will be open to the general public, not just PLU students. “Stay tuned. A lot of exciting new things are in the works,” said Wells. “Our ultimate goal is to make PLU the destination point for anyone who wants to learn about arts, design, communication or media.” Read Previous Convocation 2014 Read Next