
Alumni Profile: Superhero, secret agent, zookeeper?
Not everyone gets a chance to live out the careers they dreamt about as children, but Suzanne Akerman ’03 found a way to make hers a reality at Point Defiance Zoo. “I had wanted to be a zookeeper as a kid but it was like…

Alumni Profile: What makes an American an American?
This is a question Thomas Kim ‘15 thinks about often. As a newly married third-year law student with employment lined up after graduation, an activist philanthropist and an upstanding community member, Kim checks all the “American” boxes. Except for one: actually being a legal citizen.…

Office Hours: Your professors are here to help
Struggling to understand a concept from last week’s class? Stressing about that end-of-the-year project? All hope is not lost: Try stopping by your professor’s office hours and talking it out with them. While the idea of approaching a faculty member for some one-on-one time can…

Study away as a first-year
Plenty of experiences come to mind when thinking about first-year students settling into college life: making new friends, living on campus, exploring newfound independence. However, Pacific Lutheran University also wants to introduce students to a more outside-the-box opportunity in their first year on campus: studying…

Beyoncé and Black Feminist Theory
Pacific Lutheran University students are people of many interests. Last fall semester, several courses illustrated how the university’s curriculum caters to those eclectic interests. One of these classes was Beyoncé and Black Feminist Theory. “Who Beyoncé is for?” is not usually a question that you…

The Glee Effect: PLU Adds Musical Theatre & Dance
An appealing new concentration awaits incoming PLU students this fall after a restructuring of departments opened the door for change. Effective September 1, the theater and dance programs will combine forces and become the Department of Theatre and Dance. One immediate benefit? The introduction of…

How First Gens thrive
I am proud to be a first-generation college graduate, or what Pacific Lutheran University calls “first in the family” — someone whose parents didn’t graduate from four-year, degree-granting institutions in the U.S. Navigating college can be difficult for any student, but it’s particularly challenging when…

Sen. Maria Cantwell visits PLU classroom, talks with students
Before debating challenger Susan Hutchison in the Karen Hille Phillips Center for Performing Arts on Oct. 8, Sen. Maria Cantwell took time to stop by a classroom and field questions from some inquisitive PLU students. My dream job is Sen. Cantwell’s job,” said Gracie Anderson…

Lute journeys with fellow Samish tribal members in canoe Power Paddle to Puyallup
Before Kelly Hall ’16 and the rest of her Samish canoe family paddled their final strokes through the Hylebos Waterway, Hall did something no one in her tribe had done for many years. “I’m the first tribal member in decades to speak the language while…

Partnering with Parkland
Mention Parkland, and Washingtonians tend to conjure up a slew of stereotypes and misconceptions. But to Antonio Sablan ’18 and other Pacific Lutheran University students who grew up in and around Pierce County, the area represents something much greater: home. “Parkland is resourceful. Parkland’s gritty,…
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