EduCoug

When people ask one of the best-known students at Washington State University what he’s studying, they often expect to hear “political science.”

“People are so surprised when I tell them I’m an elementary education major and I want to teach middle school,” said Riley Myklebust. “They ask, ‘Well, why are you student body president?’ We usually laugh and I say, ‘I can tell you, I’m not going into politics, that’s for sure!’ ”

That’s his way of saying that being president of the Associated Students of WSU involves some stress.

“We’re required to work 20 hours a week, but it’s definitely more than 20 hours,” he said. Sometimes he’s up until 2 a.m. working; often he’s “kind of doing homework, kind of checking email.”

Myklebust, a senior from Spokane, was an ASWSU senator during his first two years on campus and, during his junior year, directed the Student Entertainment Board. He ran for ASWSU president at the encouragement of a fraternity brother who had the job in 2010-11.

Myklebust also credits fraternity brothers with nudging him onto a different career path. He had been majoring in finance with an emphasis in real estate, then started to have second thoughts. He remembered how much he liked working with kids.

“I had three fraternity brothers who were in elementary education and they’re like, ‘You know you want to do this, just give it a try for a semester.’ I did, and I was hooked,” he said.

In family footsteps

He’s following in the footsteps of many family members. “My uncle was a superintendent in Coeur d’Alene and Montana and Idaho … My cousin teaches on an Army base in Louisiana … Another cousin coaches college baseball and is a high school teacher in Kansas. Oh, and my aunt was a teacher forever in Central Valley District.”

Along with his bachelor’s, Myklebust is working on a middle school math endorsement from the WSU College of Education. His specialization is partly pragmatic—math teachers are in demand even in a tough job market—and partly where his heart is leading him.

“When I had a math teacher who was passionate about students in a class, it just made a huge difference, said Myklebust, a graduate of Lewis and Clark High.

“I had great math teachers. Mrs. Marker in seventh grade was one of those,” he said of Kellie Marker at Sacajawea Middle School.

Myklebust came to WSU in part because his mom and stepdad, Barbie Riva and Grant Riva, are Cougar alumni. In fact, his room at Sigma Phi Epsilon is next to the one that Grant Riva occupied.

He plans to graduate in December 2012. Between now and May, his ASWSU work will help fill any hours not occupied with studying. The position pays 100 percent of his cost of attending the university.

‘That’s tough’

He spends a lot of time fielding questions from students. The top issue on students’ minds is rising tuition due to state budget cuts. That’s a problem that Myklebust, to his frustration, is powerless to do anything about. “When they say ‘Hey, I’m not going to be able to go here next semester’ … that’s tough.”

Since WSU’s largest-ever freshman class enrolled this fall, he’s also heard a lot about limited space in campus facilities such as the Compton Union Building and University Recreation Center.

Another issue this fall has been a reduced budget for the distribution of free newspapers around campus. ASWSU sought feedback on which papers the students most wanted to keep, Myklebust said, ultimately deciding to buy fewer copies of The Spokesman-Review and USA Today and leave The New York Times numbers alone.

Whatever decision student government makes, Myklebust said, someone is bound to be unhappy.

“You’ve got to keep a positive attitude in student government,” he said. “You’re never going to make everybody happy. You want to, but making the best educated decision is what’s most important.”

Myklebust thinks the experience will help him in future jobs, even if those don’t involve elected office.

“At ASWSU, we have a staff of eight and over 30 students who volunteer each week. We get together and talk about issues. There’s probably not a single student who sees thing exactly as I do,” he said. “Working with people who aren’t like me definitely has given me some skills.”

College students who aspire to teach mathematics are a pretty small subset. Among secondary education majors at Washington State University, Nicole Fukuhara might even be an “N” of one. She wants to be a tutor, not a classroom teacher.

Not that Nicole wouldn’t do a great job instructing a classroom full of students. She absolutely shone in her secondary teaching methods course, says instructor Francene Watson. Francene, a veteran teacher, recently wrote a letter of support as part of Nicole’s application for a General John A. Wickham Scholarship. In it, she recounted the first lesson that Nicole gave in the methods course.

“She was incredibly professional, poised, attentive and interested in how her ‘students’ (peers) were learning. She possessed a kind of ‘with-it’ teacher presence,” Francene wrote.

Francene is nudging Nicole to consider a classroom career. She’s considering that, but remains attracted to tutoring.

“In the one-on-one setting, I can really tell if someone understands the lesson,” she said. “I really like those ‘light bulb’ moments.”

Nicole, a Silverdale resident, is a graduate of Central Kitsap High School. She got her first tutoring experience with a much younger student.

“One of my mom’s friends asked if I would tutor her daughter, and I did that off and on for three or four years,” she said. “After graduation, I got a job helping out in summer school as a teacher’s aide. I’d walk around and help students with their work.”

These days, she tutors college students in math at WSU’s Academic Enrichment Center.

After arriving in Pullman to study math, she contacted a tutoring company to ask what kind of credentials she’d need to work for them. That’s when she decided to pursue the degree in secondary education.

Wherever career path she takes, Francene is sure Nicole will be succeed—just as she succeeded in landing that $2,000 Wickham scholarship.

Gay Selby knows a few things … OK, a few thousand things … about educational leadership.

So it’s only fitting that she is leading the search for the next chancellor of Washington State University Vancouver. She chairs the  committee that will make final recommendations for a successor to the founding chancellor, Hal Dengerink. Its 17 members also include WSU College of Education Dean A.G. Rud.

Gay is a clinical assistant professor for the College of Education in Vancouver, where education programs are a vital part of the growing campus. She  teaches in the educational certification programs for principals, program administrators and superintendents. She served 12 years on Washington’s Higher Education Coordinating Board. She worked in the Kennewick, Pullman, Spokane, and Kelso school districts in roles ranging from assistant principal to superintendent. She was awarded the 1992 Washington Award for Excellence in Education (Superintendent of the Year) by the State Board of Education and OSPI.

And she’s a Coug (Ed.D. ’80) who has received WSU’s Alumni Achievement Award.

In the announcement about the chancellor search, Gay said:

“The search committee is focused on finding the person who is the right ‘fit’ for the university and the community,” said Selby. “The right fit is a person who will continue to lead WSU Vancouver in its mission to provide world-class higher education opportunities in southwest Washington through high-quality programs with a strong research base and positive working relationships with constituents throughout the region.”

What a great way to end the work week — with a visit from someone who helped thousands of WSU College of Education students.

George Boyko ran the WSU student teaching center in Tacoma from 1970 until 1996. When he dropped by Cleveland Hall in Pullman on Friday, he was surprised to find people who remembered him. He got an especially warm greeting from Director of Field Services Chris Sodorff, who gave him hugs and a college souvenir. “George took care of the entire west side of the state,” Chris recalled.

Now he has a special interest in one of of our elementary education majors: his granddaughter, Paige Thomson.

George lives in Sammamish with his wife of 59 years, Wyn. Also visiting Pullman was Paige’s mom, Keren Thomson, who earned a fashion merchandising degree at WSU in 1979.

Jo Washburn, highlighted in the last EduCoug post, isn’t the only College of Education alum who will be honored at the Washington State University Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony next weekend. In fact, 15 of the 31 inductees are from our college. That’s a great reminder of the contributions that physical education students, in particular, have made to the university.

Here are the names of the athletics pioneers being honored, with those of our alumni shown in bold.

Harold Ahlskog, 1928-30 Football; Rick Austin, 1967-68 Baseball; Ed Barker, 1950-52 Football; Ron Bennink, 1953-55 Basketball; Gordie Brunswick, 1947-50 Baseball and Football; Carl Dietz, 1912-15 Football and Track; John Divine, 1925-27 Track; Pete Duncan, 1969-70 Baseball; Jack Elway 1953 Football and Coach; Bill Faller, 1946-48 Baseball; Doug Flansburg, 1965-67 Football; Dan Frisella, 1965-66 Baseball; Dixie Garner, 1938-40 Track; Doug Gibb, 1942-74 Swimming Coach and 1940-41 Swimming; Boyd Gittins, 1967-69 Track; Gordy Gladson, 1952-55 Boxing.

Jennifer Gray, 1972-75 Basketball; Katie Gray 1974-77 Basketball; Pat Haley, 1941-44 Track; Bobby McGuire, 1948-50 Baseball; Jack Melson, 1948-51 Boxing; Bob Newman, 1956-58 Football and 1957 Baseball; Julie Newnam, 1976-80 Skiing and Biathlon; Carl O’Donnell, 1963-65 Track; Dick Rall, 1956-58 Boxing; Art Sandison, 1967-70 Track; Karl Schlademan, 1927-40 Track Coach; Paul Swift, 1931-33 Track; Bill Tomaras, 1948-59 Wrestling Coach; Laurie Turner, 1976-79 Basketball and Joanne Washburn, 1965-82 administrator.

The WSU College of Education has established a scholarship in memory of a devoted Pasco teacher who died this summer, and whose story was shared in the EduCoug post  “Teacher David Ruiz lived his dream, but not for long enough.