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creates colored-pencil masterpieces.Born in rural Japan to Lutheran missionary parents, Kullberg lived there until she was 7 and has loved drawing for as long as she can remember. She said her parents were incredibly supportive, always making sure she had art materials even “when the budget was already stretched too tight, and there really was no extra money.” Arriving at PLU in 1975 from her new home in Oregon, Kullberg was drawn (pun intended) not to art but instead to classes in Japanese, thanks to

to think metacognitively about their learning and advocate for their learning needs. I started to draw on my experiences as a one-room schoolhouse teacher where students were self-paced and received immediate one-on-one feedback from me. I decided to eliminate the deadlines in my classes, only give mastery-based grades (students’ contracted for the grade they wanted for each unit), and to motivate students’ progression through the curriculum with gamification. Was it while you were implementing

they are at right now,” Gardner said. “And then we put all those pieces together for them.” In many cases, care managers coach students through the higher education process, including picking the right classes, working through challenging courses or helping them reimagine their major or career. “What do you do when your dream job is nursing, you can’t pass biology 205 or you don’t want to pass biology 205?” said Kris Plaehn, senior advisor and director for retention. “There are all sorts of other

sitting in his first few classes.“Professors were encouraging students to expand our worldviews, take all sorts of different prospectives into account, and challenge what we previously held to be true,” he says. “I was into it from the start.” Wright has successfully embarked on a career at the nexus of the two driving interests with which he arrived at PLU. After graduating magnum cum laude six years ago, he’s worked for an education foundation and an environmental advocacy organization, and now

me about ways people perceive and interact with the environment and asked me to critically consider negative social externalities that arise from pollution and other concerns. I really enjoyed these classes but wanted the opportunity to take more math and science courses and ended up shifting the environmental studies degree to a minor and adding a chemistry major. The Hispanic Studies degree was really inspired by my high school Spanish teacher. I took AP Spanish 4 and 5 in high school and loved

take ownership of, be accountable for, and feel good about.”  Benge’s foster experience not only shaped her dissertation work, but her educational journey as a whole. At PLU, Benge was originally a communications major who signed up for one of Smith’s women’s and gender studies classes on a whim. By the end of her time at PLU, she would take another four courses, for a total of 20 credits, with Smith. In fact, the two often joke that Benge earned “a minor in Jen Smith,” with Smith going so far as

mentoring elementary students, creating a podcast, and getting involved in leadership. I was even more shocked to find that she was doing all this as a first-year student, within the first few weeks of school. I made a note to myself: ‘April is amazing.’ ” “The classes April took at PLU allowed her to build on her interpersonal skills and leadership abilities,” Fitzwater Gonzales continued. “April often took on a leadership role during in-class group work. She is not afraid to share her opinion, yet she

research and explores the challenges of moral distress in correctional settings, particularly in comparison to traditional settings. Surla also offers policy recommendations and ways to combat moral distress in real time, including peer support and self-assessment tools. Surla is the first of her family to graduate from college. Her existing nursing background helped her navigate PLU’s classes. Over time, she had to develop an effective approach for school, including being organized and reaching out

debut in late 2014, I have been deeply intrigued with Alexa, the virtual assistant or “brain” that powers Amazon Echo and other intriguing voice service products developed by Amazon. Echo is essentially a ‘smart speaker’ animated by a voice-controlled, intelligent personal assistant who responds to the name ‘Alexa’. The low-cost unit is capable of voice interaction, playing music, controlling devices in the home, and basic conversation about the weather, local traffic, and publicly-available

meeting of Ignite, one of the more popular groups on campus. Here, the music is also full throttle. A band onstage leads the group in praise songs, followed by a traditional service.   Bashair Alazadi ’13 and her husband Carlos Sandoval ’13 use the Reflection Room on the PLU Campus for devotions. (Photo by John Froschauer) These types of events happen at PLU all the time. If break dancing isn’t your thing – or mainstream Christianity, for that matter – there’s still a group for you. After all