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important social impact. Social innovation At PLU, we’ve been studying social innovation all year in our new Innovation Studies program. As part of our work, we invited Alice Steinglass to share her organization’s strategy during this year’s Benson Lecture in Business and Economic History. Steinglass participated in a workshop on teaching computer science in local schools (with Heavenly Cole and Laurie Murphy), and she delivered an exciting evening talk for about 180-students, faculty, and alumni

for greater attention to equity are all around us. This is the state of the university—and this is our goal: I would like PLU to become known for inclusive excellence: a welcoming community that engages all of its diversity in the service of student and organizational learning. We need this kind of diversity to achieve our mission. One of our new initiatives along these lines is the Bias Incident Response Team (BIRT), an electronic reporting system that will help us develop an environment of

list of possible careers. At the top of that list was anthropology and archaeology. “Hm,” she remembered thinking. “That could be pretty cool.” But it was a passing thought. She never thought that would open the door to studying ancient civilizations, going on digs and travelling to East Africa. Now a senior at Pacific Lutheran University, Wonderly is graduating with degrees in anthropology and history. She recently finished an internship at Mount Rainier National Park and traveled to Ethiopia to

through two courses in the Innovation Studies program with Professor Michael Halvorson. Despite learning online, the lessons stuck. “The goal of Innovation Studies is to help us be creative and multiply our impact through teaming and social initiatives. I was hooked!” Lund continued to experiment with clothing design and her friends began to notice. During Winter 2020, she decided to advertise some of her hand-made products to people in the Oslo area. The response was strong enough that she launched

Center for Global and Community Engaged Education. In partnership with the PLU Diversity Center, the trip sent eight students to Georgia and South Carolina to study environmental justice in a civil rights context. The trip focused largely on the history of racism and slavery, the importance of primary resources in an economic context and modern devices in society that unjustly divide people into different socioeconomic and racial areas. “The whole experience was very meaningful,” Dobies said. “It put

of a young man of Lencan indigenous and Honduran backgrounds, who was awarded asylum under US law after enduring and escaping gang-related violence. Expert witness testimony is a way that sociocultural anthropology scholars are applying research for real-world results.   Levy’s concern and care for Honduran people is rooted in both academic research and personal experience. “I fell in love with the people and the country, even before I met my partner,” he says. “People were friendly, welcoming

Alaska-Canada Highway,” which premiered at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma and ultimately was broadcast regionally by KBTC, Tacoma’s local PBS affiliate, as well as other public broadcasting member stations across the nation. “Building Connections” also received a first-place award from the National Broadcasting Society. Originally, “Building Connections” was conceived as an academic journal article, or possibly a book. The film was not an intended part of the original project. “It was

bonding opportunity, since all of us took part in exhibition competition, visited historic landmarks and experienced professional European soccer. “It was an outstanding trip, an awesome trip,” PLU women’s soccer coach Seth Spidahl said. “It was an unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime experience for the student-athletes. It was something that we’d look to do again.” We played three games against three professional English teams—Blackburn, Manchester City and Crystal Palace—spread out over the trip with

delay in financial aid notification and possibly a reduced amount of financial aid. In the new system, PPY will allow schools to use information from two years prior that already has been verified by the IRS–meaning the information will be more accurate, and the schools will do less searching and estimating of a family’s financial status. “This is going to be such a great thing; nobody needs to be afraid of the change,” Soltis said. “It allows us to provide students and their parents with

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