The College of liberal arTs Newsletter • Fall 2012 Live Your Passion with the College of Liberal Arts he 41,913 living alumni of the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University are employed in an extraordinary Tvariety of careers. Your achievements are as impressive as they are varied. Your stories motivate our graduating seniors. They become the stories we tell about the College of Liberal Arts to those across as well as outside the University. Most recently, they inspired our new recruiting campaign. To ensure that individuals have the information they need to make informed choices about which university to attend, each college at CSU is developing a campaign to inform high school students and others of the opportunities that await them if they study in Fort Collins. Our theme for the recruitment campaign is: “Live Your Passion with the College of Liberal Arts.” Some might argue we do not need to recruit more students. Liberal Arts is the largest college on campus. In the last academic year, 4,735 undergraduates were pursuing a primary major in one of our 13 departments or interdisciplinary programs, and a whopping 7,469 – more than 33 percent of all CSU undergraduates – were enrolled in a primary or secondary major or a minor in the College of Liberal Arts. Nevertheless, we are excited about reaching even more students and, thanks to the inspiration provided by you and your careers, we plan to do just that. To launch our new recruitment campaign, this edition of the newsletter features a few of our alumni who are living their passions and whose careers and lives illustrate the amazing possibilities for individuals who study liberal arts at Colorado State. We intend this as a salute to all of you. You make us proud. Libby James photo © Aaron Montoya Aaron © photo James Libby This page, clockwise from top left: Robbie Myers; Matt Shoup meets with a customer; Libby James and a pair of her favorite running shoes; Tim Schlattmann on the set of Dexter; and Blanche Hughes, CSU vice president for student affairs. Opposite page, clockwise from top left: Ashley Colburn; Dave Goodman; Susie Wargin; Maj. Erin Hadlock; and Aaron Madonna and business partner Juwon Melvin. cover story continued from front page Among Tim’s other writing credentials are Roseanne, and Northern Colorado’s largest painting contractor. Get Real, Smallville, and the web series, Dexter Early Following that success, he founded Shoup Consulting, Robbie Myers, ’82, (political science) lives her Cuts: Dark Echo. He also is writer/executive producer through which he lives his passion for inspiring other passion in fashion as the editor-in-chief for of a new USA Network series, Bang Bang, that is cur- entrepreneurs. Matt gives seminars on how to unlock Elle. Called by some a “fashionista,” her original plan rently in development. your business potential and has written a book to was to become a First Amendment attorney. Then, inspire others to entrepreneurial success. she fell in love with magazines. Her first position was Libby James, ’71, (M.A., English) has worked as editorial assistant at Rolling Stone. She also worked as a sixth-grade, community college, and Dr. Blanche Hughes, ’95, (Ph.D., sociology) under Andy Warhol at Interview and for Seventeen, English-as-second-language teacher; feature lives her passion for enabling student suc- InStyle, and Tell. Her first editor position was at writer; magazine editor; and book editor, cess as CSU’s vice president for student af- Careers when she was only 25. She later served as among other things. Her passion is for running, fairs. She also teaches in the student affairs in higher editor-in-chief of Mirabella, and then was named to which she took up in the 1970s and continues today education master’s program. Previous positions she her current position at Elle in 2000. Robbie not only at 76 years of age. She recently was inducted into the has held at CSU include director of Black Student creates media but also stars in it, having appeared on Colorado Running Hall of Fame and holds age- Services. Legions of CSU students have known the an episode of Ugly Betty as herself. In addition, she group records nationally for 5K and 10K and a world inspirational power of Blanche and her commitment was featured in a short-run reality show, The City, record for 10 miles. Libby recently finished chapter to their academic and personal success. Recently, she which focused on the women of Elle magazine. book for 4th- to 6th-grade students that features a received the James J. Rhatigan Outstanding Dean grandmother who decides to run a marathon and award from the national student affairs organization. Tim Schlattmann, ’88, (M.A., speech communi- her couch-potato grandson. She has no plans to cation) spent time as a college professor and retire from running. Dave Goodman, ’79, (music) lives his pas- a disc jockey before he found his passion sion by creating entertainment extravagan- in screenwriting. He has spent the last 21 years Matt Shoup, ’03, (Spanish) turned a job that zas. Following positions as vice president/executive in Los Angeles as a writer and is currently an execu- put him through college into an amazingly producer at companies such as Disney California tive producer for the Showtime series Dexter, which successful business. After being laid off his job as Adventure, Tokyo Disneyland, and SeaWorld Orlan- has earned him three Emmy award nominations as a mortgage banker in 2005, Matt founded M&E do’s Dolphin Cove where he created and produced well as multiple Writers Guild of America nomina- Painting with $100, a lot of determination, and a sin- entertainment such as Carnivale in Rio de Janeiro, tions. The show also received the prestigious Peabody cere dedication to service and excellence. It has grown Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parades, Major League Award and numerous Golden Globe nominations. into an award-winning, multimillion dollar company Baseball All Star Game, Dubai Shopping Festivals, film premieres and shows for Pixar Studios, Disney, 2 Touchstone, and others, he now has his own consult- as well as in Colombia. She has experience in military cul-de-sac in whatever game they were playing. She ing firm with a client list of Universal Studios Japan, intelligence operations, as well. While a graduate stu- began her broadcasting career in 1992 as a DJ at a the White House, and various government entities in dent at CSU, her research focused on her passions by Fort Collins radio station. She moved on to Rock the Malaysia and Canada. analyzing the work of veterans in writing-intensive Rockies for nine years at KBPI in Denver and, along courses. The title of her thesis is, “The Role of Genre, the way, also became the first female sports reporter Ashley Colburn, ’08, (journalism and technical Identity, and Rhetorical Agency in the Military Writ- for KOA radio. She spent two seasons as sideline communication) landed a job as host, pro- ings of Post-9/11 Student-Veterans.” reporter for CSU football games and later hosted the ducer, and writer for Wealth TV after gradua- Rams Coaches show on 9News. She joined 9News in tion, which combined her passions for travel Aaron Madonna, ’08, (sociology) and fellow 2001, and currently is the morning weekday sports and media. The first travel show she produced, CSU student Juwon Melvin founded Dream- anchor for the station, winning an Emmy in 2009. WOW Croatia!, received Croatia’s Golden Pen award Reel Media, which inspires young adults Susie still challenges the guys in sports. She ran the for best U.S. media and also won an Emmy in 2010. to “pursue their passions.” Aaron speaks on Boston Marathon this year, participates in numerous Following that success, she created TAKEOFF with this topic and has authored two books, Destination bike events, and races in triathlons. She also strives to Ashley Colburn, which was a travel series on Wealth College and Help! IDK What I Want to Do with My find the important balance of being a wife to another TV. Over two seasons, the series took her to more Life (for readers not conversant with Internet slang, CSU graduate and mother to their two children. than 25 countries on six continents. She has started “IDK” stands for “I don’t know.”) After graduation, her own production company, Ashley Colburn the two friends founded LifeSoap, a company that Shaesby Scott, ’97, (art) began his career as Productions, and she blogs (“Off the Beaten Track”) sells organic soap and gives a portion of the profits to a sculptor. Then, while living in Rio de Janeiro, for a shoe sponsor that has allowed her “to leave her bring clean water to schools in developing countries, he discovered a passion for creating jewelry. He footprints all across the map.” in partnership with H2O for Life. LifeSoap has been describes his perspective on jewelry this way: “One featured in O, the Oprah Magazine, and Aaron and Ju- of my design principles is to distill what is found in Maj. Erin Hadlock, ’12, (M.A., English) is a won already have completed two clean-water projects nature into a wearable, comfortable piece of jewelry. professor at the U.S. Military Academy at in Nicaragua. My work does not truly come to life until worn.” West Point, serving as part of the rotating The Shaesby jewelry collection features brilliantly active-duty faculty. She is an aviator with spe- Susie Wargin, ’92, (speech communication) colored Brazilian gemstones and expressive styles, cialization in helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft. Her has a passion for sports, music, and broad- which he designs and produces in his Austin, Texas, Army career has been defined by the recent wars, casting.