Winona State University OpenRiver Winona Currents Winona State University Publications Winter 12-1-2012 Winona Currents Magazine University Advancement - Winona State University Follow this and additional works at: https://openriver.winona.edu/winonacurrents Part of the Journalism Studies Commons, and the Mass Communication Commons Recommended Citation University Advancement - Winona State University, "Winona Currents Magazine" (2012). Winona Currents. 19. https://openriver.winona.edu/winonacurrents/19 This Periodical is brought to you for free and open access by the Winona State University Publications at OpenRiver. It has been accepted for inclusion in Winona Currents by an authorized administrator of OpenRiver. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WINTER 2012 The Winona State University Magazine Putting Winona State’s young alumni DegreesTheir toWor k Also Inside: 2011-12 Donor Honor Roll & Annual Report Future’s So Bright... That WSU students have gotta’ wear shades. Kassi Kamps ’13 and Megan Elliott ’14, decked out here for the 2012 WSU Homecoming parade, can find a few career tips from the successful young alumni inside this issue of Currents magazine. Chops Hancock Just Getting Started Each September, résumés outnumber basketballs in McCown Gymnasium when the annual Career Fair takes over. This year’s job seekers can find a few tips from the suc- cessful young alumni inside this issue of Currents magazine. Contents: Winter 2012 The Young Alumni Issue Page 7 Gillian Key ’07 Risk and Reward Echo Huang’s brilliant career in financial services makes her a truly distinguished young alumna. Page 10 Up All Night Page 28 The hours are tough, but Gillian Key has found her niche as a producer of a Let’s Go Outside major market morning news show. Page 18 Opportunity Knocks Director of Outdoor Education and Recreation Tim Coleman opens Eric Barnard has a few ideas about what to do in the door to a satisfying Winona next weekend. teaching career in his hometown. News & Highlights .................................2 Athletic News ........................................4 Philanthropy News .................................6 NASA’s Brian From...............................12 Class Notes ......................................... 21 Winona Currents is published by Winona State University’s Division of POSTMASTER: If undeliverable as addressed, University Advancement and is distributed to more than 46,000 alumni please send Form 3579 to Alumni Relations, and friends of Winona State University. PO Box 5838, Winona MN 55987-5838. The Winona State University Magazine Currents is copyrighted material. Articles may be reprinted with Winona State University is an equal opportunity educator and employer. permission. Comments on this publication should be directed by mail to: www.winona.edu/currents WSU-University Advancement, PO Box 5838, Winona MN 55987-5838; This document can be made available in an alternative format to by email: [email protected]; online: www.alumni.winona.edu. individuals with disabilities by contacting the magazine staff at the address above. Address changes and Class Notes should be directed by mail to the Alumni Relations Office, WSU on the web: PO Box 5838, Winona MN 55987-5838; by email: [email protected]. www.winona.edu News & Highlights Editor’s Note The day before I wrote this note, the second presidential debate had just taken place. It opened with a question from a college student. Concerned about finding his first job, he asked the candidates about his prospects. By now the election is over, but that same question remains for many Winona State students and their families. It’s particularly important to students approaching graduation. While they’ll soon be armed with their degrees, they’re also aware that the average WSU student borrows about Aloha to $31,000. Job or no job, the repay- Newly Named Kirkland Hall ment reminders will arrive with the next day’s mail (although the loan Winona State’s newest residence hall got a name change in early September. Kirkland default rate for WSU students is the Hall, a 200-bed residence hall along Mark Street, was dedicated with a Hawaiian- lowest in the state). themed event. The residence hall was named for Melvin and Lois Kirkland, lifelong educators whose $1.25 million scholarship gift is among the most generous in WSU That was on our minds as we planned Foundation history. The Kirklands taught in the Seattle public schools before retiring the Winter 2012 issue. It features to Hawaii in 1979. young alumni at varying stages of their work and lives. They’re the teachers, account managers, nurses, Best Bets even a NASA physicist, who make Another year. Another set of top rankings The Princeton Review, a up the backbone of our communi- for Winona State. U.S. News & World nationally known education ties. Some have taken a conventional Report’s 2013 edition of “Best Colleges” services company, has also path; others have been creative in named ranked WSU second among public ranked Winona State as “Best in the finding and sustaining their careers. universities in Minnesota in the Midwest Midwest.” It’s the ninth straight year that All of their stories are compelling and category of “Best Regional Universities.” WSU has received the designation. Rank- inspirational. ings are based on student opinion data The university is ranked seventh overall in on several issues, from accessibility of Share your own stories about work Minnesota, fifteenth among publics in the professors to the quality of campus food. and life with your fellow alumni. Midwest, and as the 58th regional univer- Submit your class notes, career sity in the Midwest, up from 62nd in 2012. The U.S. News rankings are available milestones, and family news online at U.S. News & World Report ranks more online at: www.usnews.com/colleges winona.edu/currents. than 1,600 schools nationwide, based on a set of up to sixteen widely accepted For The Princeton Review rankings: Brett Ayers, Editor indicators of excellence. www.princetonreview.com/best- regional-colleges.aspx 2 WSU Currents • Winter 2012 Still Writing Two emeritus professors of English have been active after their retirements from Winona State. Emilio DeGrazia was named the 2012 poet laureate of the City of DNP Program Stands Alone Winona. The poet laureate promotes poetry in Winona by holding public Winona State’s stand-alone Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) will admit its first class in Fall 2013. readings, poetry workshops, and other literary events. The university has offered the DNP program since 2007 as part A new title for professor emeritus of a consortium of four schools but was recently approved by DeGrazia taught at WSU for 33 years, Emilio DeGrazia the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and Minnesota State retiring in 2002. During his career, he Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) System to offer the DNP as won numerous awards and fellowships, including a a stand-alone program. Minnesota Book Award. He also works with many arts and literary organizations. Baccalaureate or master’s level nurses can gain advanced clinical and leadership competencies and enroll in one of sev- Kent Cowgill has released a new eral program areas for nurse practitioners, clinical nurse special- collection of short stories titled ists, or nursing and organizational leaders. Ideal candidates for Sunlit Riffles and Shadowed Runs the post-master’s DNP are nurses in leadership or management (University of Wisconsin Press). roles, clinical nurse specialists, or nurse practitioners. His sixteen stories offer richly WSU will accept applications for its DNP program developed and engaging por- in December 2012 for classes starting in Fall 2013. traits of characters from all walks For more information go to the website at: of life, all absorbed by fly-fishing. www.winona.edu/DNP/index.asp. Cowgill, an avid outdoorsman, has authored three other books and has written for numerous A new book for former professor Kent Cowgill publications. In 2010 he won Cracking the Code Fly Rod & Reel’s Traver Award Mingrui Zhang, professor of computer for distinguished fiction. science, received the Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award from the National Center for Women & Informa- tion Technology for his creation of high- quality research opportunities, recruit- ment of women and minority students, and encouraging undergrad students in computing-related fields. Known for his advocacy for women entering research programs, his students have received several awards for their research. Want more Winona State news? Follow the WSU News Blog. www.winona.edu/news WSU Currents • Winter 2012 3 Athletic News Family Connections Chops Hancock Football player Austin Opfer continues his parents’ Warrior tradition By Erin Cochran ’13 inona State University is known for its Scott was a linebacker and one of the leaders of a Wtightly knit family atmosphere. That’s partly because football team that won the Warriors’ first conference multiple generations have attended and earned championship in more than 20 years and a league their degrees here. With a line of great athletes, it’s championship in 1983. He earned NAIA All-District inevitable that the family traditions would continue honors as well as All-Northern Intercollegiate Con- into the Warriors’ athletics program. Austin Opfer, ference honors. a redshirt freshman linebacker from Springfield, Missouri, is continuing his family’s legacy of Winona During her years on the Warriors gymnastics team, State athletic greatness. Tracy was a member of the 1984-85 NAIA national championship team and the first WSU gymnast to Son of former football standout Scott Opfer ’84, a earn NCAA All-American honors. She claimed All- 2003 Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, and Tracy America honors for three consecutive seasons from Opfer ’85, Winona State gymnast and 1995 Hall of 1982 to 1985 and earned a total of six individual Fame inductee, Austin initially chose Winona State All-America mentions. for many reasons beyond his family’s athletic past. “Tracy and I met at WSU, but in between school “When I actually came here and saw how beautiful and sports there wasn’t much time for hanging out,” the campus was and the general hospitality said Steve.