By the end of third grade, about half of Oregon students have fallen behind in reading comprehension. Difficulty reading at this early stage often leads to lower achievement in school, as well as in adult life. 

A new program developed by ��ݮ��Ƶ’s College of Education aims to equip teachers with tools and strategies to ensure more kids stay on track. 

Education Professor Ronda Fritz founded the EOU Reading Clinic because her undergraduates needed opportunities to practice the structured literacy methods taught in her classes. She discovered that some in-service teachers hadn’t incorporated these researched-based practices into their classroom curriculum. 

“If we could train teachers, then our students would be able to practice in their classrooms. It’s a dual model so pre-service teachers and in-service teachers receive training at different times of the year,” Fritz said.

She partnered with the Oregon Trail Regional Education Network (REN) to incorporate the EOU Reading Clinic into teacher training schedules. The network, which covers Morrow, Union, Baker, Umatilla counties, also agreed to provide a $2,000 stipend to teachers who attend the clinic. Online instruction allows Fritz to reach rural Oregon’s far-flung teachers, many of whom cope with even lower levels of reading proficiency in their schools. 

“T���re’s this inequity in reading instruction that leaves chunks of students unable to read,” Fritz said. “In the U.S. 60% of kids are not at grade level by the end of third grade, and 50% in OR—but it jumps to 70 or 80% when you just look at children of color.”

Addressing this systemic problem earned Fritz and the EOU Reading Clinic an $80,000 grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust over the next two years. Fritz’s peers in higher education are also taking notice. 

EOU, originally a teachers’ college, has a long history of graduating top-notch teachers, and the College of Education is already working to incorporate Fritz’s findings into its wider curriculum for undergraduate and graduate students.

“It became a larger conversation about how we’re training teachers at EOU,” Fritz said. “We need to shift to include scientific evidence about how children learn to read and the best methods for teaching literacy.” 

Fritz explained that structured literacy intervention involves explicitly teaching children the code of language, rather than passively exposing students to literature and hoping they pick it up on their own.

“In the last couple of decades evidence has started to converge from neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychology all coming to the same conclusions,” she said. “Modern brain research is confirming what educators had found effective for a while. We’re finding that brain structure and transformation requires explicit teaching of that code, not leaving it to chance.”

Teacher prep programs had taught that reading was as natural as speaking, but Fritz said modern data doesn’t support that approach. She pointed to a growing pile of evidence that universities should adjust the methods pre-service teachers learn for teaching reading.

“It’s a call to action for higher education to acknowledge that, and EOU is answering the call and leading the way in the state of Oregon,” Fritz said.

Structured literacy intervention has already shown positive results in states like Mississippi, where literacy rates shot from the bottom to among the best in the country after just six years. 

“Other states have made incredible gains by ensuring teachers are trained in the science of reading,” Fritz said. “Science tells us that using the right instruction, 95% of students should be at grade level by the end of third grade.”

That increase has a lasting impact because third grade reading scores can predict high school dropout rates, college attendance and even incarceration. Fritz said those foundational years ensure students can access curriculum later on because they’ve mastered reading.

“Teachers are hungry for these methods to make a difference for kids that are struggling in their classrooms,” Fritz said. 

Four teachers in the Oregon Trail REN are enrolled in the 10-week Reading Clinic this term. Fritz said 11 more are already signed up for spring and eight for summer sessions. Six local teachers completed the course last summer and serve as mentors, receiving a stipend to coach their colleagues and implement new methods in their schools.

The program reaches beyond Eastern Oregon and into the heart of metropolitan school districts, where a new partnership with Portland Public Schools enables in-service teachers to earn college credit for completing a reading intervention course. The course, called Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS), is used nationwide to improve literacy teaching practices. Nearly 150 in-service teachers have enrolled, bringing additional revenue to EOU while empowering teachers to expand their skills. Schools and districts cover the cost, and teachers can apply the credits toward a reading endorsement from EOU. 

“It’s so exciting because the potential to exponentially impact kids in our region is very real,” Fritz said. “Portland Public Schools sought us out because other universities haven’t been willing to engage in the science of reading, but EOU’s small size allows us to be more nimble and adapt to needs as they arise.”

The EOU Reading Clinic accepts donations through the EOU Foundation to support its ongoing work. Include “EOU Reading Clinic” as a memo with your gift. 

Ryan Looney’s, ’98, skill at building teams has proven successful—and those successes culminated into an opportunity to be the head coach of an NCAA Division 1 basketball team. There were a lot of stops along the road to the Division 1 job, but that was never the plan.

“Each time we moved, there was an opportunity that presented itself,” he said.

The first opportunity was a graduate assistant coaching position at University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, where he earned a master’s degree in athletic administration. When he graduated, he was asked to follow his boss to Minnesota State, Morehead, to be the full-time assistant coach. It wasn’t long before he was back in La Grade as head coach at his alma mater.

At 27, Looney wasn’t far removed from being a player on EOU’s basketball team.

“Being a head coach and running my own program where I played was a dream come true,” Looney said.

He said he learned quickly that hard work and passion pay off. His first year with the team, 2004, the Mountaineers didn’t have a lot of wins, but the team’s breakout season of 2005-06, produced the best record since 1969. 

During the 2006-07 season the Mountaineers finished with an overall record of 23-8, advanced to the finals of the 2007 Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament, and were ranked as high as No. 17 in the NAIA national poll. 

In 2007-08 the Mountaineers finished with an overall record of 26-6, won the school’s first conference championship in 38 years, advanced to the NAIA National Tournament for the first time in school history, and were ranked as high as third in the NAIA national poll. That year, Looney was recognized as the Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year. 

During the 2008-09 season, the team finished with an overall record of 25-8, won the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championship, advanced to the Elite Eight of the NAIA National Basketball Tournament, and were ranked as high as No. 6 in the NAIA national poll.

He then spent seven years at Seattle Pacific, an NCAA Division II school. Looney led the Falcons to a 22-6 record in 2009-10 and became the school’s first coach to earn a conference championship spot in their inaugural season. The Falcons compiled a 20-10 record in 2010-11 en route to an NCAA Division II Tournament. In 2011-12 the team reached the Sweet 16 of the Division II Tournament. During the 2012-13 season the Falcons finished with the best overall record in program history at 27-4, won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament Championship, reached as high as second in the NABC national poll, and advanced to the NCAA II West Region Final. 

During the 2013-14 season the Falcons finished with an overall record of 26-6, won the Championship, won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament Championship, reached as high as second in the NABC national poll, and advanced to the NCAA II Tournament. Looney was recognized as the 2014 GNAC Coach of the Year and the 2014 NABC West Region Coach of the Year.

Looney and his family then headed south to Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego where the wins kept coming. Looney spent three seasons at Point Loma, leading the team to its first Division II National Championship game. The Sea Lions won their first regular season conference title in 2019. In three years, Looney finished with a 69-28 record.

His continued success caught the attention of Idaho State University, a Division I program and a job Looney said he couldn’t turn down. Unfortunately, his first few seasons have been constantly interrupted by the COVID-19 virus.

“My first season COVID hit,” Looney said. “It’s been an interesting time. Everything about coaching basketball is totally different.”

For 15 months he wasn’t allowed to leave campus to recruit or to bring students to Idaho State for a visit.

“It can be difficult to build a program until we start to resume some sort of normalcy,” Looney said.

The success has been up and down, Looney said. The 2020-21 was the best season the school had in 30 years, but this year they are struggling with injuries, COVID infections and quarantines.

Luckily, things are loosening up. Looney said this past fall his staff was allowed to start in-person visits with potential recruits, most he brings in from the Pacific Northwest, but he’s had experience with players from Spain, Denmark and countries in Africa.

“T��� foreign students add a different dynamic,” Looney said. “It’s fun for those guys to come to college in America and learn a different culture, as it is for the Americans to learn about where those guys come from as well.”

Coaching college ball requires early mornings, late nights and a lot of time on the road, but Looney said there are plenty of rewards and benefits—like when a former player yells his name from the stands at a game.

“It’s about the relationships built that go well beyond playing the game,” Looney said. “T��� most 

satisfying things are when a former player sends a wedding invitation or an email about a promotion, or a note that a baby is coming—those things bring a smile to my face.”

Room 214 in Inlow Hall is not a classroom, but it’s where two recent graduates learned critical skills, discovered mentors and applied theoretical knowledge. 

Briana Rosenkranz, ’20, and Samantha Wegermann, ’20 and ’21, earned degrees in business from EOU, while gaining real-world experience through on-campus jobs and internships with the university’s marketing team. 

After graduation, they both entered Boise’s rapidly growing start-up market and quickly climbed the ranks. Rosenkranz started as a junior content marketer at Verified First, a human resources technology company. When she was promoted, Wegermann happily filled the vacancy and later became a full-fledged content marketer.  

Rosenkranz, now a Partner Marketing Manager, said her year-long role as EOU’s Public Relations Intern filled her portfolio with published press releases and gave her a big-picture perspective on strategic marketing. 

“I had collaborated with multiple stakeholders and worked directly with administrators, plus mentorship to learn about analytical tools,” she said. “I was already familiar with using strategic language to align every topic with company goals and presenting progress reports.”

Wegermann, who also served as ASEOU President, was a leader in Residence Life and held a student job as a graphic designer for EOU. She credits all three extracurriculars with landing her the job. 

“I came into the interview with real projects I had done,” she said. “When I came into this position, they expected me to do graphic design, as well as copywriting. Even though I hadn’t done that directly, I had been observing marketing team members.”

Marketing courses provided a solid foundation and faculty ensured they had an understanding of the basics, but adapting to the demands of an actual workplace set both alumnae up for early success. 

“In a small community there are so many chances for hands-on experience,” Rosenkranz said. “We had those transferable skills and real-world projects coming into the workforce.” 

Wegermann discovered flexibility and opportunity from a rural education.

“EOU works really hard to ensure there’s a wide range of opportunities. I was hired straight out of my MBA and my supervisor has said I’m way ahead of where she’d expect a recent graduate to be,” Wegermann said.

Verified First helps organizations attract and hire high-quality employees more effectively. Rosenkranz hosts an industry podcast and works directly with HR professionals, connecting them with technology and colleagues to improve hiring, workplace environments and employee engagement, while Wegermann creates a range of materials and imagery to support them. 

From classrooms, to campus offices, to corporate success, Mountaineers are avid learners in every environment. 

Garrett Christensen 

Home means something different to everyone. Amelia Ettinger, a 2021 MFA graduate, expresses home, or rather how to find home, through poetry in her 2020 collection “Learning to Love a Western Sky.”  

“It really is looking for home in many ways,” she said. “I think that a lot of the collection is a narrator’s voice of looking how to find home when you have been displaced from your original place of birth. It’s about maturing in a foreign land and how nature becomes a place of solace and renewal for the speaker.” 

Ettinger has a master’s degree in biology and taught Spanish and science at La Grande High School for 26 years. She worked on the collection, 50 poems in total, through 2019, and it was quickly picked up by Arlie Press. 

“Learning to Love a Western Sky” tackles themes of belonging and identity in an unfamiliar land along with human relationship to nature. Ettinger explained that the book carries on themes from her first collection, “Speaking Out of Time,” with a more mature voice and view of the world. 

“I wanted to start with Puerto Rico and then from there move into the internal angst that the displacement makes and into the mature woman,” she said. “T���re are a lot of poems that have to do with life in Eastern Oregon, but throughout all the themes, one thread that you can find is nature. Nature is where the voice in the poems finds redemption from whatever, whether it’s stress, melancholia, whatever it might be. Nature is the bond that brings the beauty into the voice,” she said.

A notable piece from the collection is “Vulgarization,” a commentary on the general harshness and divisiveness of modern political discourse. The idea struck while she was mountain biking. 

“I really like what it says. Even though it’s talking about something so negative, the narrator has hope,” she said.

Arlie Press sent the collection to the 2021 Portland Book Festival, and Ettinger was invited to speak about her work.

“T���y treat you like a celebrity,” she said. 

She was interviewed by Erika Stevens alongside another author, Teresa K. Miller, in a block called “Homelands and Inheritance.” 

“[Erika] noticed some particular vocabulary where my science background shows through the poems. She asked me about the diaspora in Puerto Rico, so we discussed that and how does that feel to be gone from the island, particularly now that the island has been going through difficult times. So, that was the thread of home,” Ettinger said.  

The festival includes readings and books from other authors, including Louise Erdrich and Rita Dove and concluded with book signings at Powell’s Books, which was completely packed.

“It was just very heartwarming to do a book signing with that many people, because the Portland Book Festival brings a lot of readers, not only writers,” she said.

Even as a seasoned author, hearing the experiences and works of other professional writers left an impact on Ettinger.  

“You get so inspired by the amazing work that so many people are doing. You just don’t want it to end. You just want to sit there like, ‘Keep reading! Keep enlightening me,’” she said. 

The festival is not just for published authors, though. Ettinger believes that event could be both a learning experience and career opportunity for upcoming student authors. 

“Eastern Oregon students not only should participate in it hopefully one day, but they should start going and see what it is about and get to hear some amazing presentations,” she said. 

Currently, Ettinger has a new poetry collection, “Between the eyes of the lizard and the moon,” releasing in fall 2022 along with a new chapter book, “T���se Hollowed Bones,” though she is still searching for a publisher.

Q&A with Alexander Ortega

Second-year MFA student Alexander Ortega, who attends EOU while based in Salt Lake City, recently had his short story “A Real Man” published in the collection “Evergreen: Grim Tales & Verses from the Gloomy Northwest.” 

Q: What is your piece in the “Evergreen” anthology about?

A: The folkloric Coco Man (his anglicized New Mexican name; El Coco/El Cucuy in Mexico) has kidnapped the narrator, a 10-year-old boy. Yet this is the child abduction that has finally broken the Coco Man, and a boy makes him a deal to get back home. Shifting power dynamics complicate the matter more than either expect.

Q: What inspired you to write the piece?

A: I grew up with my gramita and great-uncles warning me, my brothers, mom, and aunts about the Coco Man. He’s a rhetorical tool to get children to behave or to play/prolong pranks on the entire family when you drive up in the middle of the night, in the tiny, rural town of El Rito! But once, according to my gramita, my great-grandparents got someone—maybe a neighbor or one of her uncles or something—to come to their house on or around Christmas, make her and her siblings say Catholic prayers, and insinuate that he’d take them away in a sack if they misbehaved. 

Q: How does it feel to submit your work for publication?

A: As far as the emotional end of the process, it’s really intimidating at first. You need a cover letter, often a bio, and to follow all the directions of submitting. But I promise, once you do your first one, it gets easier. There’s a lot of research involved, too. It behooves us to research the publication and the kind of work it publishes, its editorial staff, and the other aesthetic elements that may make work a good match for any given publication. Then, once you submit, you start again.

Q: What was significant about the first work you ever published?

A: The first work I published may best be described as a flash fiction triptych, called “Nubes,” that was published in “Moss,” a literary journal of the Pacific Northwest. For me, what’s significant about this triptych’s publication is the amalgamation of absurdist fabulism and my Chicano, Hispanic, and Mexican-American roots. Since my maternal grandparents are from Northern New Mexico and my paternal grandparents are from Northern Mexico, my cultural position as, functionally, a third-generation Chicano and third-generation Salt Laker infuses my harebrained premises, but allows me also to navigate what I hope is original imaginary territory.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m working on the short story/flash collection that will be my thesis! Herein, I’ll continue with my affinity for fabulism. One of the stories that will appear in this collection will be “Gramita’s House,” which “Quarterly West” published last year. You can read it at .

Following Oregon’s 2022 legislative session, EOU will see several important investments in student support services, scholarships and its iconic Grand Staircase. 

“We are happy to announce that ��ݮ��Ƶ had a very successful February session with several significant investments from the state,” EOU President Tom Insko said. “I greatly appreciate the hard work and advocacy of our regional legislators, trustees, students, and partners who pressed for support of our mission as Oregon’s Rural University.”

Restoration of the Grand Staircase

EOU will receive $4 million to restore the historic Grand Staircase on the north side of the La Grande campus as both a practical access point and distinctive architectural feature of the community and region.

“This investment in restoration of the Grand Staircase will enable us to take care of a historic community icon and leverage a significant connection between the university and community,” Vice President for University Advancement Tim Seydel said. “It means a great deal to many of our alumni, community members and friends of the university. Credit for keeping this project moving forward goes to our Staircase workgroup, which spent many years advocating for this historically significant stairway that has been a part of EOU since our founding.”

Visual and Performing Arts Endowment

Additional scholarships in music, theatre, art and similar programs will be available to EOU students, thanks to a $1 million investment in arts and culture. The university plans to begin awarding scholarships from the fund starting in 2023. 

“As an educational and cultural engine for rural places, these scholarships will help us capitalize on recent reconnovations to EOU’s performing arts venues: McKenzie Theatre and Schwarz Theatre in Loso Hall,” Seydel said. “T���se scholarships will add fuel to our already excellent visual and performing art programs and attract student artists to EOU.”

Strong Start student support programs

Student support services funded by pandemic relief initiatives have had a significant impact on retention and student success efforts at EOU and across the state. These services can be extended and expanded with this additional infusion of state support expected to be $900,000. 

The short session also saw students from all Oregon public universities meet with legislators for University Lobby Day in February. 

“T��� role of students in sharing their stories with legislators cannot be overlooked,” Seydel said. “Working together, we have an amazing impact.”

After 12 years of working in traditional Hopi homelands at the , Sarah Herve, ’03, got to introduce a group of young people from the Indigenous tribe to her own origins in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The trip was part of the summer internship program that Herve founded with fellow park ranger and alumnus Todd (Tatsuya) Hisaichi, ’92. They worked together in northern Arizona implementing education programs for kids and teens in the Petrified Forest National Park. Hisaichi had been wondering for a while about how to better include indigenous groups like the Hopi, Zuni and Dine (Navajo) in the park, and a grant opportunity arose that allowed them to do just that.

“I thought that we could have a better partnership with Native American tribes, since the park is surrounded by tribes and it’s an ancestral homeland for many tribes, but we didn’t have any targeted programs then,” he said.

With $15,000 from the National Park Foundation, he and Herve launched the first Native Conservation Corps (NCC) crew in 2011 with seven Dine teens. The high school students lived in the park, received a stipend, and shared aspects of their culture with visitors during ranger talks. They also pursued job skills in a variety of areas.

“Parks have a wide range of career options: law enforcement, IT, customer service, scientists, it goes on,” Hisaichi said. “T���y can represent their culture to the public in national parks, so people can have a better understanding of the place they’re visiting while students develop public speaking skills.”

Participants chose a range of cultural practices to share, from hair and clothing, to ceremonial structures, foods, and storytelling. They introduced themselves in their own languages and using traditional names.

“It may have been the first time those languages were heard in the park because for a long time it was forbidden,” Hisaichi said.

Herve explained that from the 1880s to the 1920s the U.S. mandated that Native American children attend boarding schools, where they were punished for speaking native languages.

“Hearing them introduce themselves in the traditional way, by talking about who their mothers and grandmothers are—I get chills thinking about it,” Herve said.

Their visit to Herve’s hometown was also laced with the reverberations of oppression. The group went to and land, a location that carries heavy history for Hopi people.

“Perceptive people noticed the significance of this endeavor,” Hisachi said. “When I went with the Hopi students to Alcatraz, people who were aware of the history were excited to see some justice done.”

He explained that Native American communities were sanctioned for refusing to send their children to boarding schools, and Alcatraz served as a military prison where Hopi elders were held for defying the government mandate.

“T��� history is so well-hidden that many Hopi are not even aware of this,” Hisaichi said. “It was a chance to explore this history with those students and contemplate the whole history, not a selective or sanitized version.”

“We’re not here to just talk about just the happy bits of history,” Herve added. “Interpretation is also provocation. We hope to help people connect to these places that have been set aside for future generations in ways that affect them in their hearts and in their gut. Sometimes that can be parts of history that are disgusting or difficult, but have to be shared.”

Visitors seem to agree with her. Upwards of 70 people attended the students’ ranger talks when the program hosted a crew at Muir Woods, while others interacted with the NCC at Glen Canyon.

“Visitors found it amazing and were very curious about the program and the kids,” Herve said. “T���re are people in our country who think that all Native Americans live in teepees, and that’s so incredibly wrong and missing out on so much diversity. Different tribes have their own languages, dances, creation stories, ceremonial costumes—it’s rich, and visitors get a lot out of that.”

Although Herve and Hisaichi never crossed paths at EOU, they’ve since discovered a myriad of commonalities. Herve earned her degree primarily through distance education courses while she worked at the John Day Fossil Beds. Hisaichi was an international student from Japan, and attended on-campus. He said Mountaineers share a set of values and a level of trust.

“EOU attracts certain people,” Hisaichi said. “It’s a special place, and that shows in the people who went there and graduated. EOU is a beacon for people who make a difference in the world.”

“Going through [distance education] has 100% made me the kind of self-motivated employee that I am for the park service,” Herve said. “I’m able to champion things, get things done.”

That attitude brought the NCC to life.

While the first summer program included all Dine students, the following years have integrated young people from different tribes. Hisaichi said he hopes this practice opens lines of communication and encourages friendships among students who wouldn’t otherwise meet.

Now, Herve and Hisaichi hope to see the program replicated at other parks. “Every park is the ancestral land of some tribe or tribes,” Hisaichi said. “Each tribe is unique, but they share the same challenges to thrive amid the dominant culture.”

Ten years of NCC crews have yielded impressive results. Herve said participants have gone on to study or work in conservation, criminal justice, biology, archeology and other subjects related to their internship experience.

“One young person at a time, it starts to have a broader impact,” she said. “T���y’re going into professions and bringing [their culture] with them.”

In the fall of 2022, the first cohort of Agriculture Entrepreneurship students will begin their studies at ��ݮ��Ƶ.

The one-of-a-kind undergraduate degree program will equip the next generation of food producers to find success across this essential industry. Modern farmers and ranchers need to be knowledgeable about environmental policy, water quality, price analysis, demand forecasts and production margins in order to be successful.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Agriculture Entrepreneurship Chad Mueller explained how the new program fills gaps left by more traditional academia, where agricultural science and agribusiness are typically separate degrees.

“T��� reality is that in ag you need to have both the business know-how and fundamental science background,” he said. “It’s unique that we’re balancing both science and business in this curriculum, and we anticipate developing much more balanced professionals.”

The program includes courses on marketing, finance and human resources, as well as biology, chemistry and intensive agriculture management. Leadership and experiential learning flow through both areas, Mueller said.

“T���y have to put everything they learned into play,” he said. “We expect active participation from these students as they build communication, planning and decision-making skills. They’ll be engaging with peers and industry professionals at the nexus of business, science and leadership.”

Field-based courses and projects will allow students to identify a problem, propose solutions, and work toward enacting them alongside peers and industry leaders. They’ll also engage with industry experts and get input from relevant organizations or government agencies.

Designed for flexibility, coursework can be completed on-campus or remotely. Particularly for students from agricultural areas or backgrounds, their location or existing responsibilities can be a barrier to obtaining their degree. The program’s hybrid model takes this into account, and allows students to continue academic progress regard less of their location.

It’s also an ideal complement to many community college agriculture programs, providing transfer students a clear pathway to a bachelor’s degree.

Agriculture is one of the largest employers in the country, and central to many of the rural communities EOU serves. Mueller said this degree provides graduates with the tools to reinvigorate and sustain the small towns they hold dear.

“This degree creates a way for the next generation to recognize how to build a livelihood as well as a lifestyle,” Mueller said. “A livelihood is what allows people to retire, allows the next generation to go to college, and it’s how agriculture becomes a social and economic driver for communities.”

But, wait! There’s more!

Additional degree programs launch this year at EOU.

Marketing

This online and on-campus program offers hands-on coursework that covers a wide range of specializations within the marketing industry. Faculty bring firsthand experience as experts, and the curriculum is designed to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in this fast-moving field.

Data Analytics

Students who want to tailor their computer science degree to the evolving field of data analytics can earn their degree online or on-campus. With a focus on practical application, this program promises to equip the next generation of tech leaders.

Special Education

Special education teachers are in high demand across the country, but particularly in rural places like Eastern Oregon. With that in mind, this program delivers a series of practicum experiences that qualify students to graduate with state licensure and immediately enter the classrooms where they are so needed.

EOU economics professor Jeff Dense’s research focuses on the political economy of vice.

After establishing himself as a nationally recognized expert on state lotteries, his current research focuses on the craft beer industry. He has served as a consultant for some of the world’s leading craft beer competitions and festivals, including the World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival. Dense conducts survey-based analysis of the events in order to ascertain the economic impact the events have on local economies.

“Craft beer is a real economic driver in communities” he said. Dense teaches a series of craft-beer-focused classes at EOU, including Beer and Politics, Beer and Tourism, and Globalization and Beer. The classes are offered in conjunction with the Oregon Brewers Festival and Bend Brew Festival.

Students in the classes conduct surveys of event attendees to better understand demographics and spending patterns. Visitors often stay in area hotels, eat at local restaurants, visit breweries and engage in retail shopping.

Community events that attract large numbers of out-of-state attendees have a significant economic impact on the local economy. Nearly half of Oregon Brewers Festival attendees are out-of-town
visitors.

Dense explained that economics and politics are permanently linked, and his work touches on both areas. For example, part of the reason Oregon’s brewing industry grew from less than 100 breweries in the 1970s to over 9,000 today is due to low taxes. Dense has served as a legislative advocate for the craft beer industry in Oregon, and his research has played a vital role in keeping excise taxes low and promoting a business-friendly environment for new breweries.

Oregon has a long history with the brewing industry. Hops and barley grown in the Willamette Valley and Wallowa County remain a critical source for breweries. Interdependence among farmers, millers and brewers instigated a web of interdependent relationships that strengthen agricultural economies.

Keeping craft beer on the up-and-up requires constant innovation, both in product and process. Dense highlighted two aspects of brewing that are adapting to changing times: gender inclusivity and environmental concerns.

“We’re in the midst of a real reckoning with gender,” he said. “Brewing culture for a long time hasn’t been female-friendly.”

Dense’s research has shown that almost half of the attendees at beer festivals are women, and newly popular products like hard seltzers and sour beers are developed for this growing market.

While growth is good, more and more breweries are finding ways to expand more sustainably. Repurposing spent grain as cattle feed, minimizing water waste and sourcing equipment and malt locally all cut down on the environmental impact of brewing.

The COVID-19 pandemic has offered a stern challenge to the Oregon craft beer industry, as a number of breweries have had to curtail operations. Despite this, Dense argues breweries play an essential cultural role, especially in rural communities.

“All beer places create a third place, a community gathering spacewhere people from different backgrounds can meet,” he said. “Every small town should have a brewery to serve that purpose and provide culture.”

The Grande Ronde Valley is Cayuse country, frequented by Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes. EOU Trustee Bobbie Conner called it, “an abundant and much beloved landscape.”

The Cayuse have burial and gathering sites throughout the valley where EOU has had its main campus for just 91 years. Groups travelling west from the Wallowas came through this trading hub, so the Cayuse gathered here seasonally with their relatives the Walla Walla, Umatilla and the Nez Perce. Conner said these traditions and the connection to the land remain central in these cultures. 

“People still hunt, fish and gather,” she said. “We still visit many of the places that were beloved by previous generations.”

Her grandmother’s favorite place was near Catherine Creek, and the Blackhawk Trail along the base of the foothills was important to her family and people. But the treaty signed in 1855 excluded the Grande Ronde Valley from the . 

“It was one of the areas discussed at the treaty in Walla Walla,” Conner said. “T��� Grande Ronde Valley was very much sought. The reservation that was identified went as far as Five Points Creek. Had the reservation been what we agreed to at the council, that was set aside in June 1855, it would have come very close to what we now call La Grande.”

EOU has its share of connections to local tribes. Alikut Hall is named for one of Conner’s ancestors, a younger brother of . Dorion Hall commemorated , who travelled from Iowa as the only Indigenous woman in her fur trade expedition as a translator.

Conner pointed out that the resources of northeast Oregon supported communities here long before the arrival of white Americans. 

“Timber, fisheries, fire, travel corridors, interpretive stories, water rights, any of those topics begins with our indigenous history,” she said. “Anyone who loves the Grande Ronde Valley must acknowledge that it’s been loved a very long time. It was cared for and stewarded long before the Euro-American trek from the east.” 

Today, education plays a significant role in framing the history Conner’s people lived through. Her mother is an EOU alumna, who went on to become the only American Indian educator in every school district she worked in. 

“When EOU is educating our people and our neighbors, we want them to know that we still love that land and we want people to take good care of it,” she said. “If EOU is growing the leadership of tomorrow, regardless of their place of origin, we want them to understand what’s important to us.”

Conner highlighted the connectedness of rural Oregon, and said better understanding promises mutual benefit for EOU, reservations and local communities. She said that ignorance and fear of the unknown often keep people apart. 

“People tend to think that racism, bias and prejudice are what divide us. That is not true,” she said. “It’s rare that anyone thinks less of our culture and thinks less of us the more they know. Typically, the more they know about us, the better friends we become and the more we can achieve together.”

In the 19th Century, white settlers perceived Cayuse people as murderers and terrorists. The growing throng of immigrants had brought a measles epidemic that wiped out entire villages, and a few members of the tribe sought to stop the wagon train bringing more people through the mountains. 

“We have suffered much inequity and oppression since the arrival of Euro-Americans,” Conner said. “It doesn’t have to be that way, but that’s part of our history. We have been subject under local jurisdiction before we had tribal police, and we understand what bias can do in the execution of job duties. I’ve seen it with my own eyes as a child in my hometown.”

As a member of EOU’s governing board and Director of the , Conner continues to build relationships as she shares the stories of her people and their land. 

“Historically, our people lived our lives in abundance,” she said. “This homeland has food at every elevation if you know how to take care of it. We come from a position of wellbeing that we hope to see again. When we are not in poverty, fighting for survival or under irrational threat, much, much good is possible.”

Named for Native Americans

Alikut Hall

Alikut, also spelled Ollokot, was a younger brother of Young Chief Joseph, the son of Old Chief Joseph and grandson of Wallowa Man (Wilenotkin). He was a Cayuse-Nez Perce man with a Cayuse wife, who was Bobby Conner’s maternal grandfather’s mother. Ollokot and Joseph were considered Joseph band Nez Perce, but Conner said the band is actually the Wallowa band. 

Dorion Hall

In 1939, the third building established on campus was named after Marie Aioe Dorion, an indigenous woman who traveled to Oregon from Iowa as a translator. Originally a women’s dorm, it was renamed Hunt Hall after female students moved out. The hall was demolished in 2017 for safety reasons, but Dorion, the only Indigenous woman in her fur trade expedition, remains a significant part of regional history. 

Further reading: 

is an ethnogeographic place names atlas for the Grande Ronde Valley that includes the original American Indian names of rivers and geographical features. Copies are available in the EOU library.

EOU established the Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion (SDI) in 2018, expanding the role of the MOSAIC Center. Bennie Moses-Mesubed, ’99 and ’13, has built up the department’s educational and support services.

She explained that advocating and providing resources for students who are marginalized because of their gender identity, sexual orientation or ethnicity is only half of her job. The department also organizes events and discussions that equip white students with a more complete understanding of inclusion, equity and diversity. Moses-Mesubed said she hopes all EOU students gain a truly global perspective at EOU, and then apply it in academics and as active community members.

“We are just as accountable for providing education about privilege and white fragility for our white students, as we are for providing validation and support for students of color who experience microaggressions,” she said. 

Moses-Mesubed and her staff talk to white students about race as a construct, but add that white people have been excluded in conversations about racism. 

“Our culture has conditioned them to think that race and racism is not about them,” she said, pointing out how difficult it is for students to name a white person who walked with MLK. “, and others have historically been excluded in white conversations about the racial justice movement. This results in young white people not having role models or seeing how diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) impact them.” 

EOU’s student population is 70% white, nearly half of last year’s freshman class came from low-income homes, and about a third were first-generation college students. Part of EOU’s rural mission means walking alongside students who are just beginning to understand concepts like diversity, equity and inclusion.

“Wherever students are in understanding DEI, we want to be there for them as a resource,” she said. “It’s OK to make mistakes, it’s OK to fumble, and we will pick each other up and figure out where to go from there. The key is to not be discouraged.”

The benefits of difference

“Being different is not bad,” EOU business professor Michael Fields said. “When we understand each other better, we work together better, learn together better and create a better society for people to work and succeed in.” 

Fields’ research explores intercultural competence: a set of skills, knowledge and abilities to communicate and interact with people who are different from one another in a positive and productive manner. He found that the value of intercultural competence and its impact aren’t widely known. 

Fields chairs EOU’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. He said part of the committee’s work involves compliance with , which requires that all public universities work to improve intercultural competence.

He furthered his research by inviting five international graduate students to attend his undergraduate classes for weekly mentoring sessions. The experience marginally improved students’ competency, and the graduate students showed even more improvement. Fields found that high-contact, positive experiences with people who are different from one another influence intercultural competence. 

As a business faculty member, Fields said intercultural competency is key for future managers, leaders, employees, neighbors and participants in the global economy. 

“One of the aspects of intercultural competence is communication, which is something we do daily as humans, as faculty members, as parents, as community members, as coaches and more,” he said. “We are often speaking to people who have different views than us, and intercultural competence prepares people for that.”

View Fields’ Colloquium talk here: .

By the end of June, ��ݮ��Ƶ had awarded $307,745 from the federal CARES Act to support 282 on-campus students as they adapted to remote learning for spring term. 

Students who didn’t meet the criteria for federal CARES Act funding received support through the EOU Foundation’s Student Crisis Fund. When the pandemic hit this spring, EOU alumni and donors raised over $16,000 in a matter of weeks to help students stay in school. 

Australian student Samantha Blake lives in Baker City, and didn’t qualify for CARES Act support because she attends classes online. When her husband lost his job because of the pandemic and unemployment payments were stalled, she turned to EOU to cover phone and internet costs. Private funds through the kept her on track to graduate in June 2021.

“T��� told me about the help available,” she said. “We were so far behind on bills it was scary. For someone who didn’t qualify for assistance through other channels, I was so lucky [EOU Foundation donors] were willing to be generous. I’m so grateful for EOU and the donors that give us all support.”

More than $6,000 was distributed in spring term, and the EOU Foundation continues to assist students in need. Misha Feeley, ’19, was one of them. 

A staff member in the Financial Aid Office directed her to the Foundation when other options came up short. 

“I applied for the award, hopeful that it would financially assist me in paying for surgery-related expenses to get me through my last term in my undergraduate studies,” she said. 

Originally from Guam, Feeley was able to finish her English/Writing degree on time thanks to a $500 award. 

“I cannot express how grateful I am to the donors and those who have not only assisted me with a much-needed surgery, but also in supporting me to complete my last term successfully and ultimately receive my undergraduate degree,” she said. “This award has benefited me in retaining my employment, as well as carved a path toward furthering my education to obtain a master’s degree. Being the recipient of this award has transformed my outlook of ��ݮ��Ƶ and the community at large, knowing that they care about students’ education, well-being, and success.”

In addition to the Student Crisis Fund, the Foundation provides hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships every year. Eligibility requirements vary, but students can apply for over 100 scholarships by submitting one application, which opened Oct. 1. 

Browse the list of EOU Foundation scholarships, or learn how to donate to the Student Crisis Fund at eou.edu/foundation. 

In March 2020, EOU transitioned all spring term courses to remote-access in response to the quickly spreading coronavirus pandemic. Students, employees, alumni and stakeholders created new ways of teaching, learning, leading and interacting as the world went into lockdown. 

As people emerged, they did so with a new set of habits. Face coverings, physical distance and take-out became ubiquitous with everyday life. The Mountaineer spirit of resilience and innovation has never shone out so clearly. 

Hear from more members of the EOU community and add your story at eou.edu/coronavirus/eou-story-map.

“Quarantine and the cancellation of in-person classes led to my moving back home to Willowcreek to be with my family. This sudden and unexpected change was tough on me as I was enjoying my independence and freedom in La Grande. However, spending time with my family has been wonderful, as my brother and cousins are all out of school. Being able to work on my family’s farm and ranch every day has been quite relaxing. This pandemic has changed the way EOU, America and the world operates, in this time of uncertainty it is critical to hold onto family, community and friends.”

Emma Kindschy (Student)
Vale, Oregon

“One of my students, Gloria Wagner, completed her degree during winter term.  Gloria is an exceptional student. She finished her degree with a 4.0 EOU GPA and an overall GPA of 3.770. While that in itself is an accomplishment, her most outstanding attribute is that Gloria is 81 years old!”

Kerrie Wylam (Staff)
Roseburg, Oregon

“I attempted to offer the best remote learning for my students, and provide them with support as needed. I am following the guidelines set forth by the government agencies for social distancing. I volunteered with the high school graduation planning and assisted with the construction of infrastructure for the virtual graduation. I have been supporting my family and their needs as well.”

David Ford (Student)
Central Point, Oregon

“I have been volunteering at a local food bank. It has been great to see all of the extra donations during this time!”

Jessica Coughlin (Faculty)
Bend, Oregon

“Now that I have become an RA, COVID-19 has heavily impacted the way that programs and physical interactions take place. For instance, residents will not be able to go inside other halls or into other individuals rooms/suites. A positive take away is being able to be creative. In other words, finding alternatives for programming to make sure we are abiding by mask/social distancing guidelines. Additionally, finding other ways to create that community within your own hall and floor. This experience has and will continue to challenge me throughout the year and I’m excited to have this leadership opportunity during a global pandemic.”

Joseph O’Brien (Student)
Boardman, Oregon

“Dan and I have been taking walks together. I’ve been restoring Orff instruments for teachers as Dan learns Spanish. Each night my friend calls and we pray for first responders, safety, support for all and wisdom for a cure.” 

Dan and Ann Hutchinson (Alumni)
Boise, Idaho

“I had recently accepted a position as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer to serve in Peru another year as an At-Risk Youth Social Reintegration Specialist, but with COVID there was no post to go back to…. I now work as a Mentor in Outdoor Recreation Therapy for a residential young adult transition program! I am planning on staying with this company to grow as an individual in this industry, learn about somatic outdoor therapy and finish school. I plan to focus on mental health, while advocating to increase access to outdoor recreational activities for all.” 

Alondra Esquival (Alumna)

“Ceramic artists have a love-hate relationship with the material because the limitations and the resistance of the material is the thing that actually allows you to do more while pushing against the boundaries. Bouncing off the walls of our limitations sets up the failures that lead to our next big idea. These new boundaries limit us, but how can we use those parameters in a way that’s exciting? This is going to force some really interesting changes society-wide.” 

Nate Prouty (Faculty)
La Grande, Oregon

“I never expected my first year as a nurse to include a pandemic – one where I began to care for only one type of patient that can present, decline, and improve in a multitude of ways,” said Christensen. “I never expected to gain some of the experiences I have so fresh in my career and yet being thrown into the fire has allowed me to learn and be witness to some of the most interesting medical interventions.”

Sierra Christensen (Alumna)
Tri-Cities, Washington

“Virtual Preview Day was the most rewarding admissions event I’ve ever been a part of. It went really well and the student engagement was incredible. Students and families from Saipan, Colombia, New Jersey and Georgia joined us! Most times, families from distant locations can’t attend an on-campus event, but taking it online eliminated the barriers to visiting EOU.”

Genesis Meaderds (Staff)
La Grande, Oregon

From an orphanage in Haiti, to a one-room schoolhouse in Keating, to the stage—at 21 years old, Sophia Yervasi has already experienced more than most. This fall she plans to transfer to EOU and work toward completing her bachelor’s degree in business. 

Adopted by a Baker City family when she was a toddler, Yervasi faced bullying in elementary school, which led her parents to enroll her in one of Oregon’s last functioning one-room schoolhouses. With first through sixth grade students all together, Yervasi said the class never totaled more than 25 students. After the torment she’d experienced, Yervasi found comfort and friendship in the tight-knit group. 

“I was there from third to sixth grade, and it taught me to act more mature because you’re a role model for the younger kids. I had to live by example,” she said. “It was a great experience and I’m really grateful that I got to go to school there.” 

But things took another downturn a few years later when Yervasi’s mother got seriously ill in 2009, and then she lost two grandparents and her pet dog over one summer in 2012. 

“It made me feel like everyone around me was going to die,” Yervasi said. “It felt like a constant pain in my chest, like someone squeezing my heart, like darkness. That was really confusing because I had never felt pain like that before.”

With support from friends, family and her church, Yervasi said she developed an inner strength and the pain faded away. 

“Most people outside my close friends and family didn’t even know I was depressed,” she said. “A couple times I attempted suicide.” 

Before one attempt, Yervasi was planning on saying goodbye to her best friend Kara Bennett, but when they locked eyes Yervasi changed her mind. 

“T��� second I saw her I just started bawling … I’m pretty sure that saved me that day,” Yervasi said. 

Almost a decade later, Bennett and Yervasi are still close. This year, they’ve channeled their friendship into a new endeavor: competing in Miss Oregon USA. They made a spontaneous decision to sign up together after watching Miss Universe, and now they will represent Union and Baker Counties in the . 

“I hope to learn about marketing and how to deal with stress better, and it’s good motivation to keep getting fit,” Yervasi said. “I’m in a time of self-discovery. Whether I win or lose, I’m going to gain so much out of this.” 

Each contestant selects a or a cause they’ll promote if they win the pageant. Yervasi hopes to spread awareness about depression and anxiety. 

“If we talk about it more, people can figure out how to get through it,” she said. “It’s really sad to think that maybe I wouldn’t be here right now … and if my story can help anybody else, then it’s worth sharing.”

In the first six months of 2020, Yervasi lost about 85 pounds. Entering Miss Oregon USA became an additional motivator for pursuing her fitness goals.  

“I struggled at first seeing the other people and how they all look like models, but then I realized I’m doing this for myself and I’m going to put my best self forward,” she said. “I’m nervous for the swimsuit portion, but I’m excited for how empowered I’ll feel afterward.”

And Bennett, a junior at EOU, will be by her side through it all. 

“Especially when you start comparing yourself to others, it’s helpful to have somebody there with you,” Yervasi said. “We’re going to share a room in the hotel for the weekend, we get to shop for our dresses together, and we can motivate each other.”

Regardless of the final scores, Yervasi hopes to spread awareness about the pervasiveness of depression and anxiety among teens. And her positive, spontaneous attitude is bound to come out unscathed. 

“Whether I get top 10 or not, it’s going to be a great experience,” she said. “I’m doing it to push myself and to build even more confidence—also, I think it’s going to be fun!”

If you or someone you know is experiencing severe depression or having suicidal thoughts, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

By Katy Nesbitt

Luke Dynes, ’02, is the poster child for the self-made business executive — but his work goes beyond his success in agriculture.

Dynes moved to Eastern Oregon as a teenager from Danville, Illinois. He attended Hermiston High School and spent summers in Elgin. Motivated to get an education and gifted with a strong work ethic, Dynes attended and graduated with an Agriculture Resource Economics degree. He was in business for himself shortly after graduation, harvesting crop byproducts in the Columbia River Basin under the name Pacific Ag.

“We would go in and buy, bale and market byproducts off the farm,” Dynes said.

Grass seed is a big commodity in northeastern Oregon, but after it’s cut, straw remains. Pacific Ag harvested and marketed straw, as well as residual stalks from peas or beans, and baled them for dairy herd feed.

After almost 10 years Dynes sold Pacific Ag and started , a company that repurposes byproducts from processing plants such as sweet corn silage, off-grade peas, onions, carrots, potatoes and blueberries and the residual plant matter from wine grape production.

After his mother passed away, Dynes took on the added challenge of helping raise five of his 13 siblings. Those siblings he didn’t help raise have since become felons, which he said created the soft place in his heart for the inmates on work release he hires.

“We do hire a lot of people out of work release,” Dynes said. “T���y are not necessarily bad people at heart. Sometimes they just need direction and guidance to become very productive contributors to society.”

Sometimes staying on the straight and narrow doesn’t work out, Dynes admitted, but in 20 years he said he has witnessed three success stories of employees who completely turned their lives around.

“That’s my way of giving back for the help I got when I was in need,” Dynes said.

Most of what Wyatt Enterprises collects from the processors is made into feed ingredients for dairy and beef cattle, chickens and dogs.

Dynes said, “Some of the byproduct we deliver directly to customers, the rest we take to our dehydrating facilities and manage it in a dry form.”

Before Pacific Ag and Wyatt Enterprises, crop waste went straight to a feedlot, compost yard or the dump when handling when it became a problem for a farmer. Dynes said there was a real need to start a business in managing the material.

“Piece by piece we structured our business model and it created an industry,” Dynes said.

As food processing increased in the Columbia Basin, it pushed all of the agriculture services like his to step up and become better.

Dynes said, “We are just one piece of the puzzle.”

His goal in building up these companies was to reduce the number of tons of fruits and vegetables taken to the landfill — without any cost to the suppliers.

“I think recycling in all aspects is more successful if it doesn’t cost the person producing the material to recycle,” Dynes said. “I believe that we can develop beneficial secondary uses for all of these agricultural products one way or another.”

Dynes said he believes all private business benefit from recycling and reducing waste, which is easily demonstrated in agriculture. He said cows, for instance, recycle large volumes of crop byproduct, leaving behind manure that can fertilize crops, all while producing food for humans and pets.

“I personally believe the most viable businesses that help reduce the footprint are the dairies and feeders that are using by-products instead of contemporary purpose-grown crops,” Dynes said.

He’s been involved in agriculture from a very young age, and attended his first year at on an FFA scholarship. After his freshman year he attended both Blue Mountain and ��ݮ��Ƶ on full-ride academic scholarships, graduating with a 3.9 grade point average while continuing to work full-time at a number of agriculture-related jobs.

His success in school and business is striking in contrast to the life of poverty, neglect and abuse he was raised in until almost 15. When he had no support from his own parents, a friend’s family took him into their home.

“T���y taught me how to work, be responsible, and no matter what, they taught me that you can make a difference — and it’s the littlest things that make the biggest difference,” Dynes said.

Last year alone, 27 students benefited from EOU Foundation Crisis Awards. The funds support online and on-campus students who find themselves in difficult situations, where medical expenses, car trouble or childcare costs could threaten their progress toward earning a degree. These private funds close the gap to keep students on track, and, alongside other student services, support them on the way to timely graduation.

Higher education was never part of Megan Brown’s plan for her life. Her parents hadn’t gone to college, and she’d followed them into the working world right after high school. But after seven years of working double-shifts as a waitress to support her young son, Brown decided to make a change.

“I got fed up and quit one day,” she said.

Brown did odd jobs and worked harvest for a year, but after being turned down for more professional positions because she didn’t have a degree, she enrolled at ��ݮ��Ƶ.

Now in her senior year, Brown is determined to complete her business degree a year early and graduate in June 2020. She hopes a minor in communication and concentrations in marketing and management will equip her to promote athletics teams or work in a sports information office.

A little over a year ago, Brown’s dream was almost derailed. She was three terms into her education as a first-generation student, working two jobs and attending classes full-time.

“Things got really tight,” she said. “My son has health issues, including asthma and allergies, and I’d been trying to make every penny stretch. I have a lot of pride. I’ve worked since I was 15, I moved out on my own at 17. It’s really hard for me to ask for help.”

Brown talked to Scholarship Coordinator Danny Bailey, who told her about Crisis Awards from the EOU Foundation.

“I wrote my letter, and I didn’t expect anything,” she said, but hardship funds opened her eyes to the generosity of the EOU community. “It showed me that people are out there to help, and they recognize that things happen. It’s really nice to know that there are people who want to help. I would love to thank that donor, to say how much it helped my family.”

At 33, Brown is a non-traditional on-campus student, and she hopes to bridge the gap for single parents and older students who need some inspiration. She’s getting her career jump-started as sports information director’s intern this year at EOU.

“I never saw myself going to college, especially in my 30s,” she said. “Getting the Crisis Award has kept me on track, and I hope that one day I can be in a financial situation where I could help someone like me.”

More than 2,000 miles separated Tanisha Willis from her family in Fort Benning, Georgia when she moved to La Grande in 2017.

She’d spent about two years in Texas, working and taking classes full-time. Eventually the strain of 80-hour weeks became too much and her mental health suffered. After a brief return home, Willis followed her partner to ��ݮ��Ƶ and enrolled as a junior, bringing credits from four prior institutions.

After stints in the medical field and other careers, Willis found inspiration in EOU’s art facilities and embraced her passion for creating.

“I’ve always loved art, but my family didn’t want me to become a ‘starving artist,’” she said. “Art 101 was a turning point for me. It got me thinking about art in a different way and really opened my eyes to contemporary art.”

For a class project, she made a cardboard box with an infinity mirror in it to communicate big ideas about modern issues.

“It was the most ambitious thing I’d attempted and I was really impressed with what I was able to create,” Willis said.

Meanwhile, though, her relationship and mental health were deteriorating. Willis reached out to Mike Williams in the TRIO Student Support Services office, and he connected her with emergency housing in the residence halls, as well as counseling services.

Williams also referred her to Financial Aid staff to learn more about her eligibility for a Crisis Award. When the relationship broke down and Willis lost her housing, she also lost some of her belongings.

“I had one blanket and a pillow when I moved to the residence hall,” she said. “I used the Crisis Award for a comforter, groceries, towels and soap. It made me feel good that there was someone I could go to for help getting those items that make you feel human.”

As president of the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center and Vice President of Art Club, Willis said she tries to do her part to create inclusive, welcoming communities on campus.

“As a student of color, it’s hard to accept that if you want to affect change you have to be brave enough to participate, to put your foot in and go to those places you feel out of place,” she said. “But nothing would’ve changed if I had just stayed home all the time.”

She’s set her focus on print media and plans to graduate in March 2020. Coming from metropolitan areas in the opposite corner of the country, Willis said she’s become more open to rural communities during her time at EOU.

“T��� world we live in is a harsh one, I don’t think we should make it worse,” she said. “It’s important to be kind and help one another.”

Learn more about how you can support students at eou.edu/foundation today!

Adjunct vocal instructor Jamie Jacobson walked 500 miles over 40 days this summer, following the ancient through northern Spain. She said the physical, mental and spiritual challenges and triumphs of the camino equipped her to better guide aspiring musicians. Learn more about her experience on Facebook.

5 things I’m bringing with me

1. Fear: of the unknown and unplanned (like not having a bed, unsavory characters, and injury). I don’t want fear to keep me tied up in my life, but I cannot deny its existence. So I will lean in to what’s uncomfortable while relying on my common sense to keep me safe.
2. Gear: limited and cultivated gear that weighs 14 pounds in a bright red pack that feels like it was made for me! I have two sets of clothing, three pairs of socks, foot care, shower products, guidebook, journal, water bottles, hiking poles, sandals, a sleeping bag liner, travel pillow and a stone from home to leave along the path at the .
3. My village: my family and friends who support this endeavor are coming with me both in my heart and as represented by a scallop shell I will carry on my pack. I couldn’t do this without the support of my village, especially my husband Sam and my son Ethan.
4. An open heart: I’m ready for whatever lessons the camino has to offer while I’m on this journey. I am ready to meet new people from all walks and areas of life, endure physical pain and emotional and mental struggles as I push my body and mind to new heights.
5. My trusty adventure hat and tons of sunscreen: it’s the middle of summer in Spain and there’s a heatwave all over Europe. I’ll need my wide brim hat to help keep me cool and protected from the sun. I’m going to use a sunscreen stick to avoid coming home with just one half of my body kissed by the sun from only walking westward.

5 things I’m bringing home

1. Understanding of the importance of human connection, and the knowledge that every interaction is impactful no matter how brief. Sometimes goodbye means see you later and sometimes see you later means goodbye.
2. The idea that we cannot teach or be taught. We can only put ourselves (and our students) in situations to allow for learning. I was taught to count to at least 10 in every language I encountered.
3. An ingrained knowledge of what 31*C and 28k feel like without needing to convert them.
4. Grounded confidence in myself and a new understanding of fear.
5. The ability to wash my clothes, hair and body with only one bar of soap in a cold shower that is just big enough to turn around in.

The world met in April 2017, when one of Sesame Street’s newest muppets joined the cast as a 4-year-old with short red hair, green eyes and autism.

As her puppet peers learned to interact with Julia through art, so did young viewers and their parents. EOU alumnus George Thompson, ’02, had met her prior to the on-air debut. He collaborated with the to share the impact of music and drumming with special needs populations.

By that time, Thompson had spent nearly a decade teaching children and adults with developmental disabilities. Thompson earned degrees in anthropology and sociology at EOU, but music was always his passion. After producing two albums in New York City, he sought out a higher purpose. A trained social worker, Thompson taught in Ecuador, Thailand, Bulgaria and Korea before returning to the U.S. for a job at in California.

Thompson joined the nonprofit as its Music and Performance Arts Director. , serves individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities.

As he began teaching music in special education classrooms, Thompson realized traditional music instruction and instruments weren’t reaching all of his students.

“I was making an impact, but I was extremely discouraged,” he said.

One of his students was a young man with autism named Chris, who was severely limited in speech and interpersonal communication.

“When I first met Chris he could only verbalize yes and no,” Thompson said. “He was reluctant to participate in group music classes, often plugging his ears, jumping and flapping his hands during lessons.”

One morning Chris got to school early and Thompson sat down at the piano to teach him a few chords, but within seconds Chris began jumping, flapping and running around the room. A few days later, Chris arrived early again.

“He sat down at the piano with me and played the three chords I had only showed him once,” Thompson said. “It opened my eyes to how the human mind works, and that through music you can reach people who seem unreachable.”

Chris later learned to read and write through music, performed Mozart, and played with Grammy-winning artists on stage.

“He was a catalyst for me,” Thompson said. “I had to step completely out of the box and create individualized and unique approaches for every student to revolutionize music-making for fun, health and wellness.”

Thompson began developing lesson plans to improve social skills, behavior and self-confidence through music. He cultivated partnerships with manufacturers and suggested modifications to guitars, drums, pianos and other musical instruments to make them more accessible.

Soon Thompson was a highly sought-after speaker worldwide. Collaborations with Taylor guitars, , and followed his success.

Finding the rhythm

During his nine years at TERI, he worked with 30 manufacturers on specialized musical instruments, but his relationship with and drums led to a newfound passion for percussion. Although his primary instrument is guitar, Thompson used drums frequently in classrooms.

“Drums are the easiest access point for people,” he said. “We function in rhythm naturally through breathing, talking, heartbeats, you name it.”

But the drums he’d found were disappointing. They required constant tuning, the membrane of the drumheads was difficult to clean, and the tones were often bothersome to sensory-sensitive students. He shared his concerns and ideas at Remo’s booth during a trade show, and got an invitation to meet the company’s owner, Remo Belli.

He soon learned that Remo had already begun to develop specialized technology to address these and other issues. Thompson worked with Remo staff for two years to test and refine the new drums.

In 2015, Remo Inc. released Comfort Sound Technology, a drumhead designed to deliver a unique quality of sound by suppressing high-frequency overtones. The focused low frequencies provide a comfortable sound that is ideal for sound-restrictive environments such as hospitals

or classrooms, and for working with individuals who find regular drums over-stimulating and too loud.

At just 31 Hertz, the vibrational, tactile tones of the massive 40-inch table drum allow profoundly deaf students to feel the beat. The large drum table set-up also promotes socialization for students who have a hard time making eye contact.

Taking it to the street

Remo signed Thompson as a health and wellness educational artist, and sent him on the road to promote the line of adaptive drums and accompanying videos and lesson plans. Through this new role, he connected with Sesame Street as they were preparing to debut Julia. He worked with Sesame Street to share the new curriculum and grant drums to schools and organizations across the U.S.

“It was so exciting to have Sesame Street involved because of their umbrella to reach so many schools and families,” Thompson said. “So much of the problem is that services and resources for people with autism are segmented across a number of disconnected organizations.”

Sesame Street’s broad appeal has helped relieve the stigma around autism over the past several years. Although

Thompson also worked with his students at TERI to promote the Sesame Street and Autism initiative. The TERI Band learned and incorporated it into their educational outreach. The band performed the song and provided the books to grade schools throughout San Diego County. Sesame Street even featured the group’s performances on its website and social media platforms.

Bringing it home

In April 2016, Remo Belli passed away, but Thompson said the impact of his partnership endures.

“T���se interactions [with Sesame Street and Autism] strengthen and honor Remo’s vision, legacy and mission of using music and playing drums for the betterment of humankind,” Thompson said.

After nearly 20 years away from home, Thompson returned to the Grande Ronde Valley with his wife to buy a house in Cove near his mom. He said he felt a call to use his expertise to serve people in need in his hometown. His new role as a member of the administrative council at the has afforded Thompson the opportunity to do just that.

“I hope to address stigmas around mental health and developmental disabilities that still persist in my home community,” Thompson said. “I want to improve accessibility and promote services that are available here.”

“I’ve always been interested in how art, science and technology crossover to create interactive experiences,” she said.

Neon District’s innovative approach integrates grassroots puzzle-solving with a new kind of utilitarian artistry. DeCourcelle, an art alumna turned creative technologist, stepped onto the Bitcoin scene in 2013 and realized that art could play a role in the emerging marketplace. Bitcoin mining involves a network of computers using algorithms to solve a puzzle. Why couldn’t people do something similar? So she created the first in 2014, a painting called .

“T���re’s a that lays out the whole trail, but the image is basically a portal to multiple platforms across the internet. It’s a rabbit hole that keeps leading you back to the painting for the next clue,” deCourcelle said. “I wanted to mimic the concept of Bitcoin mining by creating an image that holds secrets.”

The painting garnered huge attention and spawned a new outlet for the growing Bitcoin community. DeCourcelle is more interested in bringing people together around a digital puzzle than making money, she said. But her puzzles continue to serve tech companies and organizations by engaging users.

“T��� most incredible art pieces become special because of their lore,” she said. “T��� stories and secrets you can unravel take art beyond something nice to look at, into something you can interact with.”

A puzzle created specially for the EOU community. The answer is an Ethereum private key that gives access to about $200 worth of $ETH. This puzzle uses a cipher.

After graduating from EOU, deCourcelle focused on traditional fine art for about four years before moving to the very cutting edge of what curators consider artwork. DeCourcelle said the crypto-puzzles demonstrated, “you can pull value out of art.” But she’s not talking about the price of paintings hung in a gallery. DeCourcelle trades in art with utility.

If an artist creates a texture for a jacket that video game characters wear, every time players trade or re-sell the jacket, a fee goes to the artist. DeCourcelle said consumers, sellers and artists all win with this decentralized arrangement, in which digital assets maintain their bond with the original artist. Likewise, players in this system own the game assets they invest in, and can carry them into other games. The idea has been around for decades, but recent advances in blockchain technology make it possible to monetize the exchanges.

DeCourcelle, a fine art major who now uses her skills in digital media, founded Blockade Games in early 2018. Today it employs over a dozen people across the globe and produces several blockchain-based games and interactive experiences.

“Blockchain is to Bitcoin, what the internet is to email,” Technology Reporter Sally Davies said. “A big electronic system, on top of which you can build applications. Currency is just one.”

Blade Runner meets Terminator in Neon District, the company’s largest undertaking yet. The party-based role-playing game sends a group of characters, equipment and other assets through a series of challenges against robot enemies. Unlike other video games, weapons, clothing and armor in Neon District evolve with each triumph or defeat, and become more valuable as gameplay progresses.

The allows players to buy, sell and trade the crypto-collectibles among peers and across platforms. Industries from stock trading, to business contracts, voting polls, file storage, identity protection, and land title registration could soon benefit from the transparency and security of blockchains.

Blockade Games employs a number of independent artists, fulfilling deCourcelle’s aim of freeing her peers from the paradox set up by the conventional art world. She said creative technologists have often been excluded from opportunities to make a living from their most innovative work. Her company opens the door for artists and developers to invest in passion projects without sacrificing their own financial stability.

“Video games aren’t considered fine art, but 50 percent

of game development is really intense art production,” she said.

DeCourcelle oversees game development for all of the company’s products, including its free mini-games like Plasma Bears and the Pineapple Arcade. She also heads its strategic marketing and fundraising efforts. , which launches a private beta version on May 1, is already valued at more than $13 million.

“Making a video game, especially a fun one, is very difficult,” deCourcelle said.

As the company has grown, deCourcelle has learned to navigate the rocky terrain of managing finances, employees and production simultaneously. She said early mistakes taught her to identify the organization’s priorities and adapt quickly to change.

“That’s the thing about being an entrepreneur,” she said. “You have to take hard hits, then get back up and try to do better. That’s the differentiator between being successful or not.”

Blockade’s staff is fully distributed: they all work online, meet through video calls, and maintain ongoing chat threads that keep team members in touch. The company’s business model mirrors the blockchain itself, decentralizing an entire office. The TechStars incubator connects start-ups with “a network of people who will be successful alongside” one another. This spring, deCourcelle’s team is one of just 10 young companies participating in the New York City accelerator’s blockchain-focused program.

“We’re in a good position to show vision for the industry and it’s exciting to be there as a pioneer,” deCourcelle said. “We want to help steer the course of where these blockchain applications can go in a crossover with game development.”

Four college friends left Eastern Oregon College and scattered across the U.S.: Satwant lives in California now, Sami is outside Washington D.C., Riad’s out in Ohio, and Sally lives near her mother in La Grande. But when they get together, it’s like no time has passed at all.

This year their reunion was inspired by Riad’s “dear, departed brother,” Fouad Ajami, ’68,who received the EOU Alumni Association’s 2018 Distinguished Alumnus Award for his work as a scholar and political advisor on the world stage.

The group gathered to receive the award at Homecoming and celebrate his memory. In 50 years of changing locations, occupations and relationships, they’ve all held onto a special fondness for Eastern Oregon.

Two of the bunch, Sally (Brownton) Wiens, ’66, and her sister Carol, ’64, grew up in La Grande, where their father was a well-known judge. Sally remembers bringing her friends from the International Student Club to her parents’ neighborhood get-togethers, and said those bonds were an integral part of their experience.

“We’ve been a college town for so long,” she said. “We know that we benefit from learning new things, and from the diversity people bring.”

Sally enrolled at Eastern Oregon College in 1962, and Riad Ajami arrived in January 1963.

“I was the first person from the Middle East, from Lebanon, to attend Eastern,” he said. “People were kind, and I felt very welcomed.”

He had first seen information about Oregon at the John F. Kennedy Center in Lebanon, and sent a letter to the registrar at EOC. His father was on-board to let Riad study abroad, but he was thinking France or England would do.

“I wanted the farthest place from home — Washington, Oregon or California,” Riad said.

He and his younger brother, Fouad, had heard that the U.S. was a place of freedom and opportunity. Plus, maybe they could meet Elvis.

Riad Ajami in EOU’s 1965 yearbook.

Riad and his new roommate, Satwant Singh Thind, didn’t have much in common at first. Satwant, an international student from India and a member of the Sikh religion, wore turbans and a long beard, while Riad blended in more with his American peers.

Riad remembers Satwant asking: “You always have dates on the weekends, what about me?” Riad responded: “Satwant, I cannot date you.”

His first attempt to set Satwant up with a friend was thwarted by Satwant’s heavily scented beard wax, as well as his pungent breath.

“Between girls and garlic, he’d pick garlic,” Riad said.

Satwant eventually found a date who didn’t mind his beard or his breath: Carol (Brownton) Lindsay. The two went together when Carol returned to EOC to finish her degree.

On a trip to Walla Walla, Riad suggested that Satwant cut his beard and hair. But Satwant’s parents would stop his allowance if the annual photo he sent revealed that he’d shaved.

Satwant Thind in the 1963 yearbook.

“So I brought six shirts and six turbans to a photographer, and we did photos with each different outfit,” Riad said. “I told him, ‘Now your education is assured.’”

Satwant and Riad soon met the rest of the Browntons, and when the girls’ parents embarked on a world tour in 1964, Riad’s parents were ready and waiting to greet their son’s American friends.

“My dad attended a World Peace Through Law conference in Greece for a week,” Sally said. “And they made it a seven-week ’round-the-world trip, including a stop in Lebanon.”

Riad’s uncle, a member of the Lebanese parliament, greeted the Brownton’s alongside the police chief, whose son Sami Asfahani was Riad’s childhood friend. During that meal, Riad’s parents found out their son wasn’t studying medicine like he’d promised, but was preparing for a career in engineering.

Sally (Brownton) Wiens in the 1969 yearbook.

“My dad stopped sending me money,” Riad said. “He read me the riot act, but it all worked out in the end.”

Riad went on to graduate from Western Michigan University, and then earned his master’s and doctorate degrees. He started as an assistant professor at Ohio State University, and has since held positions at prestigious institutions such as Harvard University. He is an expert on the petroleum economy, teaching at Wright State University while conducting research, publishing books, and hosting clinics around the world.

But the Browntons’ trip had other effects. Sami and Fouad decided to study in La Grande, too, and arrived in 1965.

“Suddenly La Grande became a hub for Lebanese and Middle Eastern students,” Riad said.

He had taken a Greyhound bus from Portland to La Grande, and he suggested Sami do the same. But Sami and two other students had a different idea. They hired a taxi to drive them 260 miles from the Portland airport all the way to campus.

“I was in Hoke Hall trying to find coffee or Coke or a date or something, and this car pulls up that says Portland and Sami got out,” Riad said. “T��� story started circulating in town about these rich foreign students who paid a taxi to drive them from Portland to La Grande.”

Fouad Ajami was a more serious student than his big brother, and graduated from EOC in just three years.

“Fouad was smarter than I’ll ever be,” Riad said.

Riad’s work earned him features in People magazine and on ABC News, but he said his brother’s famous connections far outstripped his own. After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Washington and taught Middle Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University and Stanford University.

He advised three sitting presidents and received the National Humanities Medal from George W. Bush in 2006. He was also a MacArthur Prize fellow and an advisor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“Anderson Cooper interviewed Fouad extensively on CNN,” Riad said. “He knew more important people than most. He was my brother and my friend.”

Riad has established a scholarship through the EOU Foundation to honor his brother’s memory and his lasting connection to the region.

“La Grande was a wonderful place for us,” Riad said. “I love Eastern Oregon. It was an excellent experience for me, and a great beginning.”

Jace Billingsley is 5’9” and 189 pounds — among the shortest and lightest players on the Detroit Lions’ active roster — but he’s used to exceeding expectations.

Billingsley grew up in Winnemucca, Nev., a town of less than 8,000 that lies about six hours south of La Grande.

He was an all-state quarterback for the Lowry Buckaroos when he me Tim Camp, ��ݮ��Ƶ’s head football coach. Camp recognized Billingsley’s potential instantly at a summer football clinic.

“He was one of the hardest workers,” Camp said. “That stuck out most. He was going into his senior year, and he had this ability to work really hard and passionately.”

Billingsley joined the Mountaineers as a wide receiver in 2012. He broke a school record with 69 receptions the following year and continued to improve.

Billingsley found that many EOU professors and coaches invest in students the way Camp had first demonstrated.

“You could tell he cared a lot about the program and players — about everybody there,” Billingsley said.

At EOU, the community, small classes and genuine relationships kept Billingsley engaged on and off the field. He majored in history and found a role model in professor Ryan Dearinger.

“He is a great teacher and advisor… someone I could always talk to,” Billingsley said of Dearinger. “At EOU, coaches are looking after you on the field and helping you develop as a person, too.”

In his final season at EOU in 2015, Billingsley racked up 13 touchdowns for a team-high 78 points and made up his mind to take a shot at his childhood dream of playing professionally.

“As far back as I can remember, I always believed that [playing professionally] could happen,” he said. “Coming from a small high school and then a small college, I never knew it would happen — but I always knew I wanted to give it a shot.”

He started training for a Pro Day in Seattle, where NFL scouts could see him perform. In March 2016, he made an impressive showing with a 4.39-second 40-meter dash and 25 reps of a 225-pound bench press. A month later, on NFL Draft Day, Billingsley received a call from the Detroit Lions.

“It’s definitely a dream come true,” Billingsley said. “I was starting to get a little worried because [the call] was later in the day, but it’s such a big accomplishment to even have the opportunity to play for an NFL team.”

Reflecting on his time as a Mountaineer, Camp called Billingsley “a real Mountie,” and said he remains an inspiration to current and future student-athletes.

“You have to at least try and not be afraid of failure,” Billingsley said. “I hope my success motivates other EOU students to see that anything is within their reach.”

Since 2016, Billingsley has adapted to the more business-like atmosphere of the NFL. After 20 years of playing on small stages with big heart, he said it’s been an adjustment.

“It’s a competitive business,” he said. “And that’s what makes it tough, but that’s also what makes it great.”

After a show-stopping entry to the league in the 2016 preseason, Billingsley spent the better part of the regular season on the practice team. He topped the team’s preseason stats chart with 12 receptions for 146 yards in 2016, and returned to the active roster for six games in 2017.

He’s on the off-season active roster and maintaining the positive attitude he developed as a Mountie.

Billingsley still visits campus on a regular basis, and said EOU keeps getting better while maintaining the friendly environment that made it feel like home when we he was attending.

“What I love most about EOU is that everyone has respect for one another — in the classroom, on a team — everyone enjoys being with each other,” he said. “That’s something I always try to keep doing.”

One of the leading reasons Billingsley chose EOU was for the short distance from his hometown. However, his time in the blue and gold launched him to achieve his dream in stadiums across the country.

“A small school doesn’t mean small opportunities,” he said. “EOU is a great place to see yourself grow as student, a person and an athlete… and it goes really fast.”