In high school, I was fascinated by the laws and equations developed to govern nature and mathematics. I felt so happy after putting all the pieces together to complete a multi-page problem, or when I connected a concept I was taught in class to explain something I had experienced personally.
The last six weeks of high school I led a class project investigating the top ten innovations of prosthetics. It sparked my interest in robotics, the complex motions these prosthetics were able to achieve with electrical signals stimulated by nerves. Specific signals corresponding to mechanical movements allowing for the function of the prosthetic.
The first story Adam Householder was assigned at the Snohomish County Tribune was about white-nose syndrome in bats. He was determined to do a good job but, he says, he “didn’t know anything” about bats let alone the fungal disease which causes a white growth on the infected mammals’ muzzles and wings.It was fall 2017 and his first semester in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at WSU Everett, and he was new to news writing. So he asked his professor for help. When Clinical Assistant Professor Lucrezia Cuen Paxson called him back, he was driving. “I did not intend to write the piece in the Safeway parking lot,” he says. But that’s what happened.
Data scientists are critical to industries on the cutting edge of technology. Data analytics students acquire skills to create, analyze, manage and explore incredibly complex data and communicate past and future trends to solve real-world problems. Graduates in the field are some of the best positioned among their peers to add value immediately when they are hired and see growth in the early days of their career. Haylie Murray, among the first Washington State University graduates in the field, hopes to be an example for future data analytics, mathematics and computer science students.
Sidney Shea was searching for ways to engage in the Puget Sound communication industry when she discovered that Washington State University had an award-winning student chapter of the Association for Women in Communications (AWC). AWC is a professional organization that provides a community for networking, professional development and empowerment. But that chapter was located in Pullman, Wash.
Having traded in the hills of the Palouse and the large Washington State University Pullman campus for the incredible cultural amenities of the Puget Sound and small urban campus of WSU Everett, Brenda Madrid is chasing her dreams. One dream: pursuing a major in Organic and Sustainable Agriculture while staying close to her roots on the west side of Washington state.
Hospitality student Spencer Fee has had a running start toward his future career as an event coordinator in more ways than one. As a child growing up in Freeland, Washington, he was naturally drawn to orderliness and liked to be in charge of organizing his family’s schedules. These qualities led to leadership roles in high school and volunteer organizations. He enrolled in his school’s Running Start program to earn college credits and was working at the Inn at Langley when he realized event organizing could be an amazing job.
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Graduating debt-free was a priority for Cascade High School alumna Hayley Statema. Cost-of-living in Puget Sound continues to increase and the prospect of increased debt is stressful for most students considering a four-year degree. But studies continue to demonstrate that earning a four-year degree creates better opportunities for young people to step into livable-wage jobs quickly.
“Between Washington State University’s (WSU) incredible financial support in Everett and my grandparents, I was able to work my job at Starbucks a little less my junior and senior years, and focus more on going to school and not building debt,” said Statema.
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U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Crystalynn Aurora Kneen thrives in stressful situations. Last year she has managed Joint Information Centers (JIC) in the middle of humanitarian and environmental crisis events including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
“We had one of the most catastrophic hurricane seasons on record. Being in a JIC at a response can be stressful and hectic,” Kneen said. “I do a lot of critical thinking, advise the unified command on public affairs, gather incident information, inform the media and public and monitor public perception.”
