The Evergreen State College Magazine Spring 2005 For People, Planet, Purpose: Making Choices that Matter EVERGREEN MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS From the President Vol. 26, No. 02 Spring 2005 Member, Council for Advancement and Support of Education oo often it is perceived that higher education is a private Tbenefit to the individual. But in reality, throughout the history of the United States, higher education has been a Vice President for Advancement tremendous public benefit – harder to measure in economic Francis C. McGovern terms, but no less important. Director of College Relations Jim Beaver Significant sectors of our economy – aerospace, computers, biotechnology – require an educated work force and the Editor ongoing research that our colleges and universities produce. Ann Mary Quarandillo We benefit as our students graduate to become the teachers, Art Director / Designer doctors, engineers, social workers, artists, librarians, police Tony Kirkland officers, forest rangers, and so many others who enrich all of Judy Nuñez-Piñedo our lives. College graduates generally contribute more to the Contributing Writers tax base, providing much-needed services to the community, Ann Mary Quarandillo and are more likely to volunteer in their communities, Jim Beaver participate in elections, and contribute to charitable causes. Vicki Hanna Scott Pinkston Here at Evergreen, we have always been committed to our Jessica Thorne, ’06 public purpose. Work in the community begins with core Contributing Photographers programs in the first year and is interwoven throughout the Martin Kane Evergreen interdisciplinary experience. Maybe that’s why Jessica Thorne, ’06 Evergreen alumni volunteer in their communities at a much higher rate than other college graduates. Integrating theory and practice in the real world is one of the hallmarks of this institution. From academic programs like Local Knowledge that The Evergreen Magazine is published foster students’ civic engagement to Evergreen’s 12 state twice annually by the Office of Advancement. legislative interns, from students and alumni advocating The Evergreen State College commuting alternatives to our many Peace Corps volunteers, LIB 3122, Olympia, WA 98505 Evergreen is making our world a better place to live. To submit items for class notes, contact the Office of Alumni Affairs 360.867.6551 or [email protected]. The Evergreen Magazine accepts paid advertising. For more information about advertising or other items contact Pat Barte at 360.867.6128 or Thomas L. “Les” Purce [email protected]. President © 2005 The Evergreen State College Inside Evergreen p02 Leading the Change in Urban Portland Vanessa Gaston ’95 is the CEO of change as president of Portland’s Urban League. News & Notes p06 News p18-29 Finding Real Class Notes p18-33 Alternatives Greeners are doing Sports p30 their part to reduce our environmental impact. In Memoriam p33 p10 Freshman Year Though they’re on opposite sides of the aisle, new state legislators Chris Strow and Brendan Williams are serving Washington – together. Cover Image p12 Brady Clark ’06 has made it his mission to reduce car trips Creating Community to and from Evergreen. His job as student transportation Local Knowledge program coordinator is the fi rst of its connects students with kind in Washington state. the community. LEADING By Jim Beaver THE CHANGE IN URBAN PORTLAND 2 | Spring 2005 very Friday at noon, several hundred business, government and civic leaders gather in the third floor ballroom of Portland, EOregon’s Governor Hotel to hear prominent speakers discuss the big issues of the day. The “Friday Forum” presented by the City Club of Portland is a local institution. It’s where news is made in Oregon’s largest city. The meetings are broadcast on local TV and radio and reported in the newspaper. Vanessa Gaston ’95 was preparing for her speech at the Friday Forum when we interviewed her at the Urban League of Portland headquarters. Gaston, 35, has been president and CEO of the Portland Urban League since March 2003. Although she was looking forward to her upcoming public appearance, Gaston says she would have felt differently ten years ago. >> “I’M MORE INTERESTED IN HELPING PEOPLE IMPROVE THEIR LIVES AND THEIR COMMUNITY.” 4 | Spring 2005 was uncomfortable with speaking, family moved to Alaska. Her family’s move narrowed the league’s focus, streamlined writing and group work before I ended Gaston’s eligibility for state grants the office and developed a new strategic “Icame to Evergreen,” says Gaston. and she decided to leave college and join plan for the agency. As Barb West, the “But I stayed with it. Dr. Joye Hardiman the Army. During her three years in the league’s board chair, told the Portland (director of Evergreen’s Tacoma program) military, Gaston became a legal specialist. Oregonian, “Vanessa thinks about the encouraged me to grow as a person. Dr. nonprofit world like a business leader Artee Young challenged me to defend After the service, Gaston rejoined her would think of running a business.” my positions. I came (to Evergreen) in family who had relocated again to Fort a shell and bloomed into a butterfly.” Lewis, near Tacoma. Gaston’s mother Under Gaston’s leadership, the Portland was already enrolled at The Evergreen league has closed its health programs and Gaston was invited to speak to the civic State College program in Tacoma and alternative school and refocused on economic leaders because she is at the forefront of she encouraged her daughter to join her. development and support for existing schools. change in Portland’s African American “She said this school will challenge you in community. The black population is ways that a traditional college will not,” One of the league’s new programs is dispersing from its traditional base in says Gaston, who began taking classes the Centers for Academic Readiness the north and northeast sections of the and working in a nonprofit organization. and Success. CARS sends teams of city. Rising property values are bringing After graduating in 1995, Gaston took a teachers into Portland’s middle schools gentrification to Portland’s low-income and job with Washington state’s Department to help at-risk students with their math minority neighborhoods. The Urban League of Social and Health Services, starting as a homework. Each team member serves of Portland now serves African Americans clerk and quickly rising through the ranks 15 to 20 students and their families. in the suburbs of Gresham, Multnomah to program manager, deputy administrator Gaston has quickly made her mark on County, Washington County, Clackamas and administrator of the agency’s Rainier the Rose City. A recent news article County and Clark County, Washington. Valley office in Seattle. She also earned listed her as one of the “50 most an MPA from the Evans School of Public powerful women in Portland.” Gaston is used to change. She grew up Affairs at the University of Washington. on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South She’s also making waves in the national Dakota. Her mother is Oglalla Sioux and Gaston then was named associate superintendent Urban League organization. Portland’s her father is African American. When she at the Washington Soldiers Home & Colony, office is one of the few of the Urban was 10, the family moved from their rural a long-term care facility for veterans where League’s 103 affiliates to be led by a home to an inner-city African American she supervised a staff of 174 and a biennial woman. The 11 affiliated offices in the neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio. “I went budget of $20 million. “Long term care is western region recently named Gaston to urban schools and saw that they do not about helping people have quality of life their representative to the national Urban help children of color and poor children,” at the end of their life,” says Gaston. “I’m League’s strategic planning project. says Gaston. “My father decided his children more interested in helping people improve needed a better education and he moved their lives and their community. That’s why Gaston says her position with the us to a white suburb. We had to deal with I became interested in the Urban League.” Urban League is “my way of giving racism, but we also got a quality education.” back to the community. I’m focused on As CEO of the Urban League of Portland, issues, especially around children.” x With the help of state education grants, Gaston has a staff of 15 and an annual Gaston went on to Ohio State University. budget of $1.2 million. That’s one third While she was at college, the rest of the less than when she took over. Gaston has Spring 2005 | 5 Finding Real By Ann Mary Quarandillo Alternatives“$48.40, please.” “$48.40? That’s ridiculous!” As you reach for your wallet and hand over When he began working with parking the credit card to the gas station attendant, services, Clark was primarily interested you shake your head and wonder who’s in one thing – improving conditions for going to do something about these gas bicyclists. As a bike commuter, he felt that prices – prices that, this spring, rose to the access to the campus could be made safer highest levels ever in the United States. and more direct. But the more he learned, the more he realized that by educating Here in the Pacific Northwest, gas prices and reaching out to other commuters, he are averaging $2.42 per gallon. The federal could help make a much larger impact government is searching for oil anywhere we on campus transportation issues. can find it – even in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The military is embroiled “Many people, when they hear the words in conflicts in the Middle East related to oil ‘alternative transportation,’ tend to think supply.