College Years

The first college I attended was Washington State University. Although it took me a while to decide upon a major and minor, I have used some aspect of every course I completed. I graduated in 3.5 years with a BS in Psychology (Cognitive and Behavioral). As an undergraduate student, I conducted experiments with guidance of graduate students in the Operant Conditioning Lab. Those graduate students collected and published research for Dr. Fran McSweeney. If I went back to WSU today, I likely would have a degree in Viticulture and Enology or at the very least a minor.

For those who are not familiar with Washington State University, it is located in the Palouse. The Palouse Region of Eastern Washington is one of the most highly productive farm regions in the world.

Another significant Washington college I attended was St. Martins (now university). St. Martin’s is well known for their school of education. My teaching credentials were obtained from this university. My experiences at St. Martin’s enabled a highly successful career in education predominately in middle school Math and Science and incorporated engineering and technology in those classes.

Shortly after obtaining my teaching certificate, I completed a course at Central Washington University. One of the most memorable experiences at CWU was walking bulls across the arena at the rodeo. A few cowboys talked myself and a few other new teachers into walking baby bulls across the field prior to the event. Since I’ve bottle fed cows and bulls before, this wasn’t a challenging experience for me.

To maintain teacher certification, I had to go back to college every 5 years. One of the courses I completed required us to go on a hike around the Olympics with the Forest Ranger to identify plants, animals, and practice various wilderness survival techniques. I learned how to stand up against cougars (do not run, be loud and tall) and identify bear tracks. After completion of this course, I was able to borrow a science kit that enabled my class to handle furs, identify animal tracks and view animal bones.

Another memorable class was a biology course sponsored by Fred Hutchison at University of Washington designed for middle school science teachers. This was a fun 8 week course (8 hours/day, 5 days a week). One of the days we worked with Ciscoe Morris on ways to incorporate gardening and plants into the classroom. We also went kayaking around Lake Union to collect water samples for other science experiments.

Although I have been to various colleges and universities in Washington state, I will always be a COUG. It doesn’t matter where we go, we will always find our way back home! #GoCougs