WSU Spring Commencement 2005/Highlight Students

Pip Cawley of Auburn will receive two bachelor of arts degrees, one in philosophy and the other in political science. After her WSU undergraduate studies, Cawley plans to earn a philosophy master’s degree and perhaps a doctoral in the same academic field. Then, she hopes to move to Northern Ireland to work in human rights, an interest sparked during the time she spent in Ireland in a WSU program in which she studied at the University College of Cork. A 2001 graduate of Auburn High School, she is the daughter of Avis and Bernard Cawley of Auburn.  Her activities as a WSU student included being selected for two University Achievement Awards and a Phi Beta Kappa scholarship. Studying in the WSU renowned Honors College, Cawley was named to the President’s Honor Roll all semesters and was a Mortar Board awardee. She represented WSU in the 2005 Ethics Bowl. She is a National Society of Collegiate Scholars member and twice was named the WSU Potter Scholar, the highest student award given in philosophy. She is a member of the National Dean’s List and an International Programs Scholarship recipient. Cawley has performed with and choreographed the WSU elite dance program, been a Mock Trial Club participant and is a Philosophy Club member. She is a member of the WSU STAGE student theatre group and served as its production performance director in 2004-2005. She is a Visual and Performing, Literary Arts Committee member.  Cawley has modeled for the Fine Arts program both in figure drawing classes and for individual graduate student projects. She has devoted more than 1,000 hours of volunteer time in WSU Theatre, been a Palouse Regional Crisis Hotline volunteer and an airport rescue firefighter for Pullman Moscow Regional Airport.
Contact:
Pip Cawley, 253.569.9323
Arlene Parkay, College of Liberal Arts academic coordinator, 509.335.6708, parkaya@wsu.edu

11:30 a.m. ceremony, College of Liberal Arts
Susanne K Freitag

Susi Freitag of Pullman will graduate with a bachelor of fine arts degree. According to Carol Ivory, WSU Fine Arts Department chair, Freitag is an “exceptional student on all levels,” with a 3.71 overall grade point average and a 3.92 grade point average in her major.  Her academic success includes being on the WSU President’s Honor Roll. A talented, dedicated, hard-working and original artist, she has a “very sophisticated and searching mind as evidenced by her very serious explorations into different philosophies, psychology, anthropology and diverse cultures, all of which inform her art and her life,” Ivory said. Freitag is a “big sister to the younger undergraduates.  Her maturity, both personal and intellectual, makes her a significant role model for them.”  A native of Germany, Freitag has three daughters. Ruby and Rebecca graduated from WSU in agricultural science and German, respectively, and Shawna will graduate from Pullman High School in June. In addition, Freitag has a 6-month-old grandchild. After graduation from WSU, Freitag will go to Germany to work on art projects. In 2006, she plans to attend a university and earn a master of fine arts degree. After that, her career aspiration is be an “expressionistic” artist.
Contact:
Susanne Freitag, 509.338.0743, svoss@wsu.edu
Carol Ivory, WSU Fine Arts chair, 509.335.7043, ivorycs@wsu.edu
Arlene Parkay, College of Liberal Arts academic coordinator, 509.335.6708, parkaya@wsu.edu

11:30 a.m. ceremony, College of Liberal Arts
Ericka D. Morales

After graduating from Mar Vista High School in Imperial Beach, Calif., Ericka Morales of Port Angeles studied at Peninsula College in Port Angeles before transferring to Washington State University. She will graduate from WSU with two bachelor of arts degrees, one in anthropology and the other in sociology. In addition, she will receive a minor in Spanish. She plans to attend graduate school to earn an advanced degree in cultural anthropology. Helping others is Morales’ guiding principle. As a WSU Student Advising and Learning Center tutor and a WSU Transfer Center mentor, she has been eager to help students assigned to her do well academically.  Her energy and joy for life motivates not only WSU students, but also high school students with whom she worked as a peer counselor during the 2003 Washington Achievers Summer Camp held on the WSU campus. The WSU student activities of Morales include membership in Mujeres Unidas and helping with the ELLA Conference. A member of numerous honor societies, she has also been a member and held offices in both the student anthropology and sociolo
gy clubs. She has been active with her church in Port Angeles and Pullman. Her community activities in both cities have ranged from involvement in food and clothing drives to fund-raising and providing rides to medical appointments. Her WSU honors include Student of the Month, Big Ten Senior for Involvement and a President’s Award. She is part of the McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program. When not studying at WSU, she has been a volunteer at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles. At the center, her duties have included translating information for non-English speaking patients. She is the daughter of Charles and Alma Becker of Port Angeles.
Contact:
Ericka Morales, 509.334.5841, emorales@wsu.edu
Christine Oakley, Department of Sociology faculty, 509.335.4595, coakley@wsu.edu
Katherine Lovrich, Student Advising and Learning Center coordinator, 509.335.6000, lovrichk@wsu.edu
Arlene Parkay, College of Liberal Arts academic coordinator, 509.335.6708, parkaya@wsu.edu

11:30 a.m. ceremony, College of Liberal Arts
Robin Whitson-O’Flinn

Robin Whitson-O’Flinn of Yakima is president of the Associated Students of Washington State University-Distance Degree Programs. She will receive a bachelor of arts degree in social sciences with a minor in psychology. She will also receive a certificate in professional writing. Now 36-years-old, she lost her vision 11 years ago as the result of a closed-head trauma.  At the time of her injury, she was a real estate agent in California, where she and her husband, Sean O’Flinn, were raising their children, ages 3 and 4. In 1997, the family gained two members when she gave birth to twins.  (The children and their ages today: Donna, 15; Sean Patrick, 14; and Mason and Monika, both 8.) Following her vision loss, she faced a difficult adjustment that was compounded by the death of her father, Ray Whitson.  She credits her husband and father for their support during her transition from the sighted to blind world.  After the twins were born, the Whitson-O’Flinn family moved to Yakima. She earned an associate of arts degree from Yakima Valley Community College in 2000. Then, she entered WSU, studying in its Web-based Distance Degree Programs.  DDP, she said, “made it possible for me to participate in a learning environment where my disability is a non-issue.”   She uses Jaws software to read text on her computer screen.  The daughter of Donna Meade of Rifle, Colo., Whitson-O’Flinn uses human readers for images (such as charts and graphs) Jaws is unable to read. In addition, she also reads Braille.  Carissa Morgan, ASWSU-DDP adviser and DDP recruiter said Whitson-O’Flinn is “a great example of what you can accomplish when you put your mind to something.”
Contact:
Robin Whitson-O’Flinn, 509.577.8405, rwhitsonoflinn@wsucougars.com
Carissa Morgan, ASWSU-DDP advisor, 509.335.3557, 1.800.222.4978, 509.335.3557
Arlene Parkay, College of Liberal Arts academic adviser, 509.335.6708, parkaya@wsu.edu

3 p.m. ceremony, College of Nursing
Florence Fadele

Florence Fadele of Aberdeen will receive a bachelor of science in nursing degree.  Since graduating from a Nigerian high school in 1981, Fadele wanted to become a nurse.  She has already achieved that goal. But, she keeps setting new goals in nursing and achieving them. The daughter of a college teacher father and a counselor mother, she grew up in Ibadan, one of Nigeria’s largest cities. After marrying in 1991, she had to wait until 1994 for permission to join her husband, John Olusesan Fadele, in Aberdeen.  While waiting to move to the United States, she set aside her nursing dream and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education at Nigerian universities.  After settling in Aberdeen, she worked briefly at Kmart. Then she began attending Grays Harbor College in Aberdeen. At the college, she earned an associate degree in nursing, became a licensed practical nurse and, later, a registered nurse. In 1999, she began and continues to work as a nurse at Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen. Nursing fulfills her desire to “express kindness to everyone I come in contact with and treat people with respect,” Fadele said. After earning her LPN, she set a goal to become an RN. But, at the time she did not think she could study for an RN degree, work and help raise the Fadeles two children, Grace and Gideon.  However, she learned of Washington State University’s Distance Degree Programs’ Web-based program. It is part of the Spokane-based WSU College of Nursing/Intercollegiate College of Nursing. Through the program, registered nurses can earn a bachelor of science in nursing degree. Now, with her next goal almost met, Fadele has a new goal: She wants to become a pediatric advanced registered nurse practitioner. No one doubts she will meet that goal, too. Looking back at her time as a WSU student  — her academic success put her on the WSU President’s Honor Roll — Fadele praises her academic adviser Mary Stucky and instructors. “When you have instructors who are not just teaching you, but … are also paying attention to your needs (to allow you to) succeed, then count yourself lucky.”
Contact:
Florence Fadele, 360.532.2725, ffadele@hotmail.com
Anne Hirsch, WSU College of Nursing/ICN associate dean, 509.324.7335, Hirsch@wsu.edu

3 p.m. ceremony, College of Business and Economics
Priscilla Haryadi

During this ceremony, after a lifetime of obstacles, Priscilla Haryadi of Pullman will receive a master of business administration degree from WSU. Orphaned at age 14 in Jakarta, Indonesia, she made and sold greeting cards and worked as a dancer to finance living expenses.  Though inheriting money to fund some of her education, she knew dancing could be short lived.  She decided on a career in hospitality business administration. That led her to Switzerland, to work in the hospitality business industry and study in WSU’s Hotel and Restaurant Program at the University Center “César Ritz” (UCCR) in Brig, Switzerland. The fact she is fluent in Indonesian, Malaysian and English (and today knows some Italian, too) was helpful in her work. While in Switzerland, she learned that relatives in Indonesia cleared her bank account during Indonesia’s economic and social crisis. As a result, she temporarily stopped her studies, but continued working to save for her education. In 2002, she graduated cum laude with a WSU hotel and restaurant administration bachelor of arts degree. It was during her studies at UCCR that Terry Umbreit, head of the WSU School of Hospitality Business Management, encouraged her to earn an MBA through the WSU College of Business and Economics.  As an MBA student, she has been active in the MBA Association and served two terms as its executive vice president of career services.  Stipends for her work as graduate and teaching assistants and merit based scholarships has helped pay for her education. Haryadi is winner of a WSU Association of Faculty Women Founders Award. Earlier this year, she, Lisa S. Benson, University of Idaho doctoral student, and Dogan Gursoy, WSU School of Hospitality Management faculty member, won the best conference paper award from Haworth Hospitality Press and the Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing during the 10^th annual Graduate Student Education and Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Rest of the story: Another obstacle Haryadi overcame happened this past summer. While working at WSU’s UCCR program in Switzerland, faulty wiring caused a fire in her Pullman apartment. She lost personal items due to the fire. Others may have decided not to proceed in or may have delayed their start in the MBA program. She did not and did not earn a grade lower than A-minus in her MBA studies.
Contact:
Priscilla Haryadi, 509.336.9819, pharyadi@wsu.edu
Terry Umbreit, WSU School of Hospitality Business Management director, 509.335.5766, umby@wsu.edu
Cheryl Oliver, WSU Graduate Programs in Business academic coordinator, 509.335.7617,  cabaker@wsu.edu

3 p.m. ceremony, College of Education

Joel T. Martinez

Joel T. Martinez was a migrant agricultural worker in central Washington until he joined the High School Equivalency Program (HEP) at Washington State University’s College of Education and earned his GED high school certificate in 2000. Martinez continued his education and, on May 7, will graduate from WSU with bachelor’s degrees in both psychology and sociology.  He has already been accepted into the doctoral program in clinical psychology at WSU, to begin in fall 2005. “HEP was the first step to making this all happen,” Martinez said.  “Without HEP, there would be no GED, and without my GED, nothing.” The program provides migrant workers with instruction and counseling to prepare them to pass the GED test. HEP began at the Pullman campus in 1967 with the first wave of “Great Society” programs in migrant education and is the oldest equivalency program in the nation. In addition to meeting the educational needs of students who are primarily Hispanic or Native American, HEP provides College of Education students and others from across campus with the opportunity to tutor and mentor this diverse population, said College of Education Associate Dean Dennis Warner. “Those who enroll in HEP benefit from our outreach to migrant farm workers and their children,” he said. “And our students also gain from their exposure to, and experience with, this diverse group.  We are very proud to continue to host this program.”

Contact:

Bill London, WSU News, 509/335-4853, london@wsu.edu

Dennis Warner, WSU HEP, 509/335-1738, dawarner@wsu.edu

Joel T. Martinez, WSU student, 509/932-4257, jtmartinez@wsu.edu

3 p.m. ceremony, College of Education
David Ruiz

David Ruiz of Pullman will earn a bachelor of arts degree in education and will begin a career as an elementary school teacher.  A 1997 graduate of Brewster High School, Ruiz has demonstrated commitment and perseverance throughout his life and during his career at WSU.  A native Spanish speaker, he spent much of his childhood working in agricultural fields with his father and brothers.  The transitory nature of his family’s experiences as migrant workers made him keenly aware of the importance education and teachers can play in the lives of children.  The first in his family to graduate from college, Ruiz supported his education through student loans and by working several jobs simultaneously. Recently, Ruiz completed his student teaching experience in a bilingual, third-grade classroom at Blue Ridge Elementary School in the Walla Walla School District, under the mentorship of master teacher Brad Hobbs.  Cynthia Thomas, one of his WSU College of Education professors, said of David’s goal to teach bilingual children, “His commitment and determination should be honored and celebrated.”  
Contact:
David Ruiz, 509.527.3066, druiz21@hotmail.com
Cynthia Thomas, WSU College of Education faculty, 509.335.8850, csthomas@wsu.edu