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LIVING CULTUR E Darlene Peters Weaves A Life Of Service
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Join Us on Facebook Facebook.com/groups/OlympicCollegeAlumni PHOTO OF OLYMPIC COLLEGE BREMERTON CAMPUS IN THE SNOW, SPRING '18
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SUMMIT MAGA ZIN E VOL .6 SPRING 201 8 The SUMMIT Magazine is published by the Olympic College Foundation for the Alumni Association and celebrates the successes and stories of Olympic College students, alumni, and employees by promoting them throughout the community. This publication aims to educate its readers, engage stakeholders and recognize donors through compelling stories and images. We thank you for picking up this copy and we hope you enjoy the read. If you would like to suggest a story or find out more about our magazine, contact us. EDITORS David Emmons, Terri Gleich WRITER Terri Gleich PHOTOGRAPHERS Logan Westom Photography, Eric Morgensen DESIGN Gretchen Ritter-Lopatowski ADDRESS CHANGES Please go to the website www.olympic.edu/alumni or call (360) 475-7120 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OFFICE 1600 Chester Avenue, CSC 530 Bremerton, WA 98337 (360) 475-7120 alumni@olympic.edu ON THE COVER Darlene Peters models the Raven’s Tail robe she helped weave. Photographed reflected in a display case at the Burke Museum in Seattle by Logan Westom Photography. Contents may be reprinted with permission of the editor. This magazine is printed on Forest Stewardship Council® certified paper. Please recycle when finished reading. Olympic College is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer.
I N THIS ISSUE FEATURES
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Digging Local History Deep in the woods on Bainbridge Island, OC’s Yama Project is yielding new insights into the birth of Japanese American culture and diversifying the field of archaeology.
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Master Weaver, Master Educator Darlene Peters is a Port Gamble S’Klallam elder, a traditional weaver and an educator with an impressive 45-year career. What’s the common thread? A desire to serve.
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The Slender Sprinter You can’t catch Pete Dufour! At 90, the former OC track star is still a champion, powering through life with a positive attitude he picked up from inspirational coach Doc Rethke.
DEPARTMENTS 3 5 15 18 20 21
MEET THE PRESIDENT AROUND CAMPUS OC Poulsbo trains cyber warriors SPOTLIGHT Suquamish Tribe invests in education 5 QUESTIONS Alum Sarah Christensen aboard Africa Mercy IN THE OC LOOP CALENDAR
Editor’s Note: We’re making changes in Summit to better serve readers. Look for an expanded features section and two new departments: 5 QUESTIONS, a quick conversation with a fascinating member of the OC family, and IN THE OC LOOP, a compendium of campus and community news of interest to OC alums. Suggest story ideas, share your news and tell us what you think at alumni@olympic.edu.
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MEET I
T H E P R E S I D EN T
t’s no surprise that one of Marty Cavalluzzi’s favorite memories is of his Italian grandmother making homemade pasta and lobster oreganata. Olympic College’s 15th president believes in bringing people together with food.
He’s planning quarterly potlucks, offering free lunches to get to know employees and inviting students to “Pizza with the President” forums. On March 2, his first day at work on the Bremerton campus, he noted it was National Banana Cream Pie Day and set up a buffet near his office, inviting faculty and staff to bring forks and dig in. “You can’t name a culture that doesn’t revolve around food,” he said. “When food is involved, it relaxes people. Cavalluzzi’s early jobs included cooking at restaurants in Southern California and he sees a lot of parallels between being a college president and working in a fast-paced commercial kitchen. “It’s the same adrenaline rush. Orders are coming in constantly. Some take 30 seconds, some take 10 minutes, some take 20. You have to prioritize and figure out how do I make it all come out at the same time and how do I make it look good and taste good.” An outdoorsman who likes to run, bike, hike and camp, Cavalluzzi came to OC from Pierce College Puyallup and has long coveted OC’s top job. He loves the region, the college’s commitment
to student success and being closer to his two teenage children, who live on Bainbridge Island. “It’s just a great place to be.” At its core, he said, the job of president is simple: Help faculty and staff get the resources they need to better serve students. He’s excited about the opportunity to set a vision and create a culture for OC. During his four and a half years at Pierce College, Cavalluzzi was credited with building strong teams and helping increase student retention and graduation. He’s already taking steps to build a similar track record at OC. The college has joined Achieving the Dream, a network of 200 community colleges using data to drive institutional changes that improve equity, address achievement gaps and increase student success. The goal: a seamless transition from high school to community college to a university or into the workforce. A community college graduate himself, Cavalluzzi believes Guided Pathways is an important tool to make OC work for everyone, including first-generation
college students. The approach simplifies choices and groups courses together to form clear paths to meet students’ educational and career goals. He wants to ensure students get the help they need along the way, including advising, tutoring, mentoring and early intervention when there are problems. And, he wants to track their success after graduation to measure how well OC is preparing them for their next steps. Energetic and approachable, Cavalluzzi has made it a goal to meet every OC employee. He also communicates via long, newsy emails filled with musings, invitations and interesting tidbits. In a spring-quarter welcome, he pointed out that OC students range in age from 14 to 81. “It is hard to find a community member who does not fit within that demographic, which means we can serve everyone,” he wrote. On campus and out in the community, he’s been struck by the strong support for OC. “There are a lot of people who love this college and they’re all a part of it,” he said. “We are literally changing the world one student at a time.”
OC BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OC FOUNDATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Harriette Bryant
PRESIDENT
Shannon Childs
Jim Sund
Cheryl Miller Jim Page '79 Stephen Warner
VICE PRESIDENT
Mark Hughes '94 SECRETARY, EX OFFICIO
Marty Cavalluzzi
PORTRAIT BY LOGAN WESTOM PHOTOGRAPHY
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TREASURER
Diana Smeland '82 AT LARGE
Cindy Lucarelli CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE CHAIR
Dr. Nathan Schlicher '99
GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE CHAIR
Kevin Wiley '93 IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
Monica Blackwood '96
OC FOUNDATION BOARD MEMBERS Dr. Damon A. Bell, John Berglind, Peter Braun, Harriette Bryant, Gayle Dilling, Ex Officio, David Emmons, Ex Officio, Tracy Flood '92, Meredith Green, Rita Mitchell, Ruth Ross Saucier '77, Enrico Sio, Sunny Wheeler, Kate Wilson
EMERITUS BOARD MEMBERS Doug Berger, Jeff Brein, Shannon Childs, Tracy DiGiovanni, Duane Edwards, Lynn Finlay, Klaus Golombek, Marilee Hansen, Drew Hansen, Joan Hanten, William Harvey '59, Joanne Haselwood, Michael Levi, William Maiers, Arthur McCarty, Dr. David Mitchell, Jim Page '79, Carolyn Powers, James Robinson, Kathleen Sanford, Douglas Sayan, Dr. Pankaj Sharma, Barbara Stephenson, Dr. Warren Van Zee
AROUND CAMPUS
Poulsbo's Cyber Warriors OC’S PARTNERSHIP WITH WWU MEETS GROWING DEMAND FOR COMPUTER SECURITY EXPERTS
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n the escalating battle against hackers, data breaches and ransomware attacks, an unassuming stack of computer servers at Olympic College is playing a surprisingly important role.
Dubbed Cyber Range Poulsbo, the setup allows students to experiment with viruses, malware, system attacks and other cyber threats in a contained way, separate from other computer networks and the internet. “If we’re teaching them how to protect a network from attack, they need to know how to attack a network,” said Erik Fretheim, director of Information Systems Security for Western Washington University, which partners with OC to provide bachelor’s degrees in cybersecurity at OC Poulsbo. The servers, donated by Boeing, make up one of only nine educational cyber ranges in the country and the only one in Washington state. Fretheim
likens it to the glove boxes researchers use when handling deadly germs or hazardous materials. Lab workers put their hands into gloves through sealed holes in the boxes to work with potentially lethal agents. The workers are protected and so is the public.
We’re trusting a lot of our future to them. Western’s cybersecurity program is in its infancy, with 27 students at the main campus in Bellingham and two enrolled in Poulsbo. Because of unprecedented
industry demand, Fretheim expects those numbers to grow rapidly. The program graduated its first three cyber warriors last year and all quickly filled jobs that didn’t exist before they were hired. “Our experience with our graduates so far is that they’re going places where nobody’s ever been before.” He estimates there are about 200,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the United States and expects that number to leapfrog to two million within five to seven years. In addition to OC, Western is partnering with four other Washington community colleges – Edmonds, Highline, Peninsula and Whatcom – to fill some
OC PARTNERSHIPS & DEGREES OC students can earn more than a dozen bachelor’s degrees without leaving Kitsap County, many through partnerships with other state higher education institutions. Here’s a breakdown: WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY – A bachelor’s in early childhood education was approved by the state Legislature this spring, making it the newest four-year degree to be offered through OC’s collaboration with Western. The university offers classes at OC’s Bremerton and Poulsbo campuses through its Western on the Peninsulas program. Degrees include business administration, elementary and special education, environmental policy, environmental science and human services. Aspiring education leaders can also earn a master’s in education and certifications for principals and superintendents. WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY – In this 2+2 program, OC students first complete an engineering associate’s degree, then earn their bachelor’s in mechanical or electrical engineering from WSU on the Bremerton campus. The program was created to help meet a high demand for engineers from Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
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ILLUSTRATION BY GRETCHEN LUND of those jobs. Participants in the 2+2 program first earn associate’s degrees in cybersecurity at the participating community colleges and then have the opportunity to finish their bachelor’s degrees from Western in two years at OC’s Poulsbo campus. “I really don’t want to do anything else. There’s so many ways to go with it,” said Cameron Blumenthal, whose long-time love of gaming sparked his interest in the field. “This program gives you a lot of flexibility,” agreed Ian Tucker, who like Blumenthal came to Poulsbo in 2017 from Peninsula College in Port Angeles. “I’m excited to know it’s a growing field.”
Fretheim is still setting up the cyber range, but when it’s at full capacity, other colleges and universities with computer science programs will be able to use it. In addition, private businesses can test systems and software on the cyber range, providing income to help support the program, as well as realworld experience for students. “We want to work with anybody and everybody that’s interested,” he said. Students already are analyzing data from a company that installs sensors in the networks of small Washington municipalities. Their assignment: Look for anomalies, signs of attack and illegal connections.
“It’s a great project,” said Fretheim. “The students are doing things with live data and cooperating with other organizations.” Another critical part of the program is teaching cyber ethics. Fretheim, who had a long career in the military and private industry before joining Western’s faculty, said instilling a sense of responsibility in his students is as important as teaching technical skills. “We’re trusting a lot of our future to them.”
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Digging Lo History BY TERRI GLEICH
YAMA PHOTOS BY SCOTTY RENNER
To the untrained eye, Yama looks like any other heavily wooded tract on Bainbridge Island. But during the past three years, Olympic College students, professors and volunteers have painstakingly scraped and sifted soil on the 7.5-acre site, poked beneath ivy and ferns, battled mosquitoes, and uncovered the story of a culture.
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hey have a lot to show for their work – more than 4,700 artifacts, a listing on the Washington Heritage Register of Historic Places and a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. “Yama was one of the first Japanese villages in North America. In a sense, the people who lived here were creating Japanese American culture,” said E. Floyd Aranyosi, Field Director for the Yama Project. Japanese for “hill,” Yama was home to about 300 lumber mill workers and their families from the 1880s to the 1920s. The thriving community consisted of 53 houses on a terraced slope, as well as bachelors’ living sections, a hotel, store, tea room, photo studio, community center and Baptist mission. But when Port Blakely Mill, once the world’s largest sawmill under one roof, closed in 1922, the village was quickly abandoned. Structures were dismantled and carted away, and the land was left undisturbed for nearly a century, making it one of the best preserved Japanese immigrant village sites in the Pacific Northwest. It is thought to be the only site in the region that was not subsequently developed. That gave OC an opportunity that’s rare for a community college – the chance to operate an archaeological field school. Working in partnership with landowner Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District and others, including the University of Washington’s Burke Museum, OC conducted a three-year assessment of the site from 2015-17.
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features are about 1.5 meters long by 1 meter wide and three to four bricks deep. Fire pit? There are no traces of charring. Religious shrine? Unlikely, since they aren’t decorative. Adding to the intrigue – the bricks are from Sheffield, England. Aranyosi theorizes they were ballast in the ships that came to Blakely Harbor to transport lumber, but nobody knows for sure. Other finds at the site are less mysterious, but no less memorable: remnants of a horse-drawn delivery cart, bits of cast-iron stoves, a mill worker’s leather shoe, pipes from an extensive plumbing system, shards of blue and white porcelain bowls.
TOURING YAMA On a warm, golden day in August 2017, Aranyosi is giving visitors a tour of the densely wooded site when he’s interrupted by field school crew chief Neal Endacott. “Floyd, we got some more salmon bones and teeth.” “Hold on. This is exciting,” said Aranyosi, excusing himself to go investigate. “Fish is such an important part of the Japanese diet and we haven’t found any fish bones. We were wondering why.” Mysteries like that became obsessions for Aranyosi and his 18 students at the 2017 field school. Turns out that contemplating what’s not at a site can be as revelatory as examining thousands of artifacts. In fact, that’s how they stumbled upon Yama’s main road. Using historic photographs and artifacts on site, field school participants had mapped much of the village but couldn’t quite place the road. “Three of us were walking side-byside, musing about where it was when we noticed we were finding lots of artifacts on one side,” he recalled. The topography was smooth with a gentle slope. “We realized we were standing in the middle of the town road.” Other enigmas endure. The field school crew found u-shaped brick structures below ground that appear to have been beneath some houses. The
“Every day out here seems to bring some exciting new discovery,” Aranyosi said. After each summer’s field school, students spent weeks in the lab on OC’s Bremerton campus cataloguing artifacts. Each piece was cleaned, weighed, measured, classified, numbered and photographed before being sent to the Burke for curation. Donna Fliger, a student in the first field school and a volunteer in subsequent years, loved cleaning the fragments of porcelain, whiteware and glass, and researching their origins and uses. “It just makes you more curious. I think that’s why I keep coming back,” she said. “It’s amazing to see how the Japanese people kept their own culture but integrated American culture into their way of life.” The idea of transnationalism was a key takeaway from OC’s three years of field work. Rather than assimilate, the Japanese at Yama created a hybrid culture, incorporating elements of both their old and new homelands.
Ashley Garrett, who has a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of California Santa Cruz and participated at Yama in 2017, said she was desperate to find a reasonably priced field school to prepare her for the job market. “No one is going to hire you if all you’ve done is be in the classroom.” OC’s field school was immersive, giving students experience in all aspects of site work, including surveying, artifact recovery, excavation, classification and cataloguing. Now that Yama’s first phase is complete, Aranyosi and OC Anthropology Professor Caroline Hartse are as excited about its future as they are about its past.
DIVERSIFYING THE FIELD One of the most exciting things about the field school for many of the participants was the affordability. Washington residents paid less than $1,200 tuition for the eight-week summer session in 2017 and nonresidents, who came from as far away as Tennessee and Alabama, paid about $1,300. That furthered OC’s mission to recruit scholars from demographic groups that have traditionally been underrepresented in field archaeology.
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Hartse’s next project is digitizing and transcribing 40-year-old interviews with Japanese immigrants discussing the early history of Bainbridge Island,
As the only higher education institution serving 320,000 Kitsap and Mason county residents, Olympic College is vital to our region’s economic future. To prepare students for the challenges of a complex and ever-changing world, the OC Foundation is raising $5 million by 2020 to address three critical areas. To date, the campaign has raised more than $3 million, with major gifts coming from Hospice of Kitsap County, First Federal Community Foundation and the estates of Sonia and Robert Blanchard and their son, Richard E. Grant. Yama Mystery - No one knows the purpose of these u-shaped brick structures.
including Yama. Aranyosi and some of the field school students are presenting their findings at regional and national conferences this year and next. And the Bainbridge Island Historical Museum is mounting a new exhibit with Yama artifacts in June. Aranyosi is also working with the Bainbridge parks department and other Yama partners to plan next steps at the site, which are expected to include another three years of field school beginning in 2019. Part of the work would include planning an interpretive trail through the site and ensuring that no cultural resources are damaged or lost in the process. Dave Davis, senior crew chief at the 2017 field school, walked away from Yama with a deep reverence for the site’s former occupants. “These people are real to us. We see their names on the Japanese exclusion memorial. We saw their graves. We’ve read their diaries.” Information gleaned at Yama also fills gaps in the public’s understanding of the Japanese American experience, said Aranyosi. “For many people, that starts with the (World War II) Japanese internment, but that story has a backstory. It’s a chapter that never gets told and we are some of the first people who get to tell that lost chapter of history.”
THE PLACE The state-funded College Instruction Center is the creative and technical hub of OC’s Bremerton campus and a community arts center, but the college must rely on private contributions to provide state-of-the-art equipment for nursing, digital filmmaking, visual art, music and design. Hospice of Kitsap County provided high-tech medical mannequins for the nursing simulation lab and the First Federal Community Foundation grant purchased computers and arts equipment.
THE PROGRAMS To ensure that OC students excel no matter their circumstances or interests, the college is committed to providing emergency funding for students in need, support for veterans, and unique learning opportunities at Yama Archaeology Field School and the Barner Learning Landscape outdoor classroom.
THE PROMISE To open the doors of opportunity for all students, regardless of their ability to pay, the Foundation is launching the OC Promise to guarantee one free year of community college to every high school graduate in our service area. The campaign will provide funding to pilot the program with Bremerton High School students. Student Government of Olympic College gave the effort a major boost this spring with a $100,000 donation from surplus student fees. President Shannon Turner said the gift will benefit students and the community. “Just knowing you have an opportunity to better yourself for future endeavors is huge,” he said.
Student Government of Olympic College pictured with President Marty Cavalluzzi in March.
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Master Weaver, Master Educator BY TERRI GLEICH
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PHOTOS BY LOGAN WESTOM PHOTOGRAPHY
here’s an almost mystical transformation that takes place when Darlene Peters slips into the intricate Raven’s Tail robe she helped create from an ancient pattern. The diminutive Port Gamble S’Klallam elder stands taller, exuding a presence both regal and timeless.
A masterful weaver and basket maker, Peters embodies the cultural resurgence Pacific Northwest tribes have undergone in recent decades. She studies and teaches traditional arts that her ancestors practiced for millennia, forging a link between the past and future of her Coast Salish people. Her lineage also includes the Suquamish and Skokomish tribes.
Seattle campus and handled carefully by curators wearing white cotton gloves. But, unlike similar works displayed in glass cases, the Raven’s Tail is a living part of the Salish culture and is available for use in cultural ceremonies, a condition set by Peters and the other weavers who donated the piece in 2005.
The yellow, cream and black robe trimmed with otter fur is part of the Burke Museum’s collection. A labor of love by Peters and eleven other weavers, it is stored in climatecontrolled conditions on the University of Washington’s
“This robe has danced many times,” she said. “This robe needs to stay alive. It needs to have the human within it.”
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This robe has danced many times. This robe needs to stay alive. It needs to have the human within it.
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I would have been so far ahead if I had walked onto a campus like OC. I wouldn’t have had all the struggles I had back then.
On Aug. 2, Peters will discuss the many ways Coast Salish tribes are keeping their culture and traditions alive as part of the Olympic College Alumni Association’s 2018 Speaker Series. After generations of U.S. government suppression, regional tribes are experiencing a rebirth of their cultural identity. “Some of the traditions were sleeping. They kind of took a nap,” said Peters, who cites the revival of tribal canoe culture and the annual canoe journey, which brings thousands of Native Americans to Western Washington each summer, as key factors in the resurgence. The first modern canoe journey was the 1989 Paddle to Seattle celebrating Washington’s centennial and the tribal celebration has grown every year since.
“We needed this, so we can walk in pride,” she said. “We are proud we come from this heritage.” A retired educator, Peters served on the OC Board of Trustees more than a decade until her replacement was appointed by the governor in January. When Peters was approached to join the five-member board in 2006, she was adamant that she wanted to have a real impact. “I wanted to make sure the disenfranchised have an equal opportunity to go to school,” she said. “That’s been my foundation forever.” The 79-year-old mother of four drew on personal experience during her board tenure, identifying with students who faced hardships. “I was able to ask the questions a businessman couldn’t.”
Her impressive resume – a bachelor’s in education, a master’s in psychology and counseling and a distinguished 45-year career as a teacher, counselor and special education director – disguises a rough start. She struggled with English and math and feared she would fail the GED. When she passed, it was a turning point. “I cried and cried and cried,” she recalled. During her years as an OC trustee, she made a point of attending GED ceremonies to honor others who had achieved the milestone. She’s also been an advocate for Guided Pathways, a national initiative that groups courses together to form clear paths through college and into careers. The program includes intensive advising and support, particularly for low-income students, firstgeneration college students and students of color. Peters lauds many improvements at OC in her time on the board: more robust advising, a streamlined financial
aid process, improved recognition of student success stories and more help for students with skill or knowledge gaps. In addition, she said, the college is more inclusive and welcoming. “Community colleges really are striving to become community based,” she said. “I would have been so far ahead if I had walked onto a campus like OC. I wouldn’t have had all the struggles I had back then.” The same tenacity that propelled Peters from GED to master’s degree to lifelong educator is woven into her Raven’s Tail robe. The thousands of twisting wool yarns form intricate herringbone and concentric diamond patterns across a fivefoot span, with each horizontal strand representing about two hours of work. For Peters, her career and her art form the warp and weft of her life. The common thread: a desire to make a difference in the world. “Part of my nature is to serve people.”
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S P OT L I G H T
The Slender Sprinter
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ete Dufour is a glass-half-full kind of guy and he says it started with a life-changing moment at Olympic College. The 90-year-old Dufour ’50 attended OC after serving in the U.S. Navy as a medic. He paid his way with the G.I. Bill, a track scholarship and an early-morning job lighting oil furnaces around the Bremerton campus. In the days before his financial aid came through, Dufour often was hungry. “That might be why they called me the ‘Slender Sprinter,’” he recalled. “I didn’t have breakfast and I wasn’t sure about lunch.”
Track Coach Doc Rethke found Dufour on one of those lean days and discreetly left a bag of food at his side. When Dufour reminded him to take his groceries, Rethke took the younger man by the shoulders, looked him in the eyes and said: “Remember what I’m saying to you. I want you to be strong and run fast. You have the makings of a champion.” Thinking about that moment still makes Dufour emotional. “That just hit me like a ton of bricks and it resonates with me to this day. I had never been told that and it made such a difference in my life. And, I thought isn’t it possible that I could make a difference for others by telling someone when I see them doing something outstanding.” Richard Rethke, the coach’s son, was only 6 years old in 1949, but he remembers the dozen members of the track team being frequent visitors to the Rethke house, especially at meal times. “I think my parents tried to make dad’s students part of the family.” Rethke said Dufour isn’t the only team member who has life-
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changing memories of the coach. Hurdler Dale Thornburgh told a similar story, crediting Doc Rethke with pushing him to achieve on the track and in life, steering him toward a career in forestry. In a letter to the younger Rethke, Thornburgh wrote: “Your father was a major inspiration and guided me in my life.” Dufour said Doc Rethke helped set him on the path to his eventual career as a counselor and hypnotherapist. He’s been practicing in Corvallis, Oregon, since 1989. Before that, he taught political science at Grays Harbor College and managed educational services for the Department of Defense in Europe. “A very special moment can change your life in a splitsecond,” he said. “(As a therapist) I’m sending a message to people who are willing to listen that whoever they think they are, they’re always more than that.” Rethke was right about Dufour being a champion. In 1949, he helped the OC track and field team place third in the Washington State Junior College Conference Championships, winning the 220- and 440-yard races and setting new conference records of 22.6 and 50.8 seconds. The “Slender Sprinter” went even further in 1950, qualifying for the National Junior College Championships in Los Angeles with teammate Merle Pierce and setting personal records in both races. He won the L. Hum Kean “Most Inspirational” award both years he was at OC and Rethke called him one of the finest competitors he had ever seen and “an ideal man to coach.” Dufour continued his track career at the University of Washington and in 1952, he won a silver medal in the 400-meter race at the Pac-10 Championship, missing first place by a tenth of a second. Last year, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the OC Athletic Hall of Fame, along with Rethke.
The native Californian has been a runner his entire life, starting on the beaches around Los Angeles as a 3- and 4-year-old and running “like a deer” through the woods of Stanley Park in Vancouver, B.C., when he was 9. During his Navy years, he recalls outrunning a rabid dog in Shanghai and impromptu races in Asian ports against other servicemen. “In those days, there was no training. I just liked to run like the wind. People would say, ‘If you look, one minute he’s there and the next moment he’s gone,’” Dufour said. “I actually think I was running to something. I was running toward life itself.” The nonagenarian, who describes his running style as “floating and gliding,” was planning to compete in a master’s race in Spain this year until a recent illness stalled his training. As he regains his strength, he’s looking forward to getting back to the track. “I often visualize myself running and I always remember winning. Champions never think about losing.” Dufour plans to attend the second annual OC Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony June 9 at the Bremer Student Center and he still feels great affection for the college that gave him his positive start. “The best teaching I ever had was at Olympic. It was superior even to UW,” he said. “I fell in love with literature, botany and psychology. I fell in love with nearly every class I had because the teachers were so motivating. Ever since then, I’ve been a big champion of community colleges because their opendoor policy provides people with a second chance, maybe even a third chance.”
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Preschool graduation at the Suquamish Tribe’s Marion Forsman-Boushie Early Learning Center. Photo courtesy of the tribe.
Tribal Connection COMMUNITY EDUCATION IS A SUQUAMISH PRIORITY
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he Suquamish believe in being good hosts. So even before the tribe had money to donate to community organizations, its people shared what they had – salmon, knowledge and their culture. Now, as a major employer with successful businesses that include the Suquamish Clearwater Casino and Resort, the tribe has also become a philanthropic powerhouse. “It’s a continuation of that practice, giving out a piece of us and wanting to see something grow,” said Suquamish Foundation Executive Director Robin Sigo '96. “Kitsap has some incredible nonprofits doing amazing work. If we can plant the seeds and help water them so that they blossom even more to help our community get stronger, then that’s what we’re going to do.” Since 2007, the tribe has donated $5.4 million to more than 250 organizations, including Olympic College. About 35 percent of contributions support education. Port Madison Enterprises, the tribe’s commercial arm, is a long-time sponsor of the OC Foundation’s Annual Community Luncheon.
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“All of our tribal council members grew up in poverty and are now in the middle class,” said Sigo. When they look at funding requests, they think about who supported them during hard times. “Number one was teachers. When you found the right teacher, it was life changing and that’s why we fund lots of teacher-based initiatives.” Sigo, who went on from OC to earn a bachelor’s degree at Western Washington University and a master’s at the University of Washington, said the tribe supports OC because of its accessibility for tribal members and the community. Tribal Chairman Leonard Forsman agreed, saying the college serves a diverse cross-section of Kitsap and Mason counties, which is key to the area’s future. “It’s important we have an educated population and community so that we can keep open minds and look for creative ways to solve challenges we all face in this region.”
5 QUESTIONS
FOR Sarah Christensen As a nursing student at Olympic College, Sarah Christensen (ADN ‘11, BSN ‘12) was already dreaming of helping people half a world away. In 2017, she achieved that goal, spending four months volunteering with Mercy Ships on Africa Mercy, the world’s largest non-military hospital ship. Below, she talks about helping women from Cameroon reclaim their lives and her future plans.
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WHAT IS MERCY SHIPS? It’s an international, faith-based nonprofit that travels to some of the poorest countries in the world, providing free health care. Since 1978, Mercy Ships has delivered $1.43 billion in charity care to 2.64 million people.
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HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED? My cousin volunteered for Mercy Ships more than 10 years ago as a housekeeper and I heard about it from her. I decided I wanted to go as a nurse. I had always wanted to be a nurse, but Mercy Ships was one of the reasons I decided to go ahead. You have to have two years of nursing experience to volunteer. Once I had that, I applied.
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WHAT WAS YOUR JOB? I worked in the women’s health unit as a ward nurse and took care of patients. Most of the patients had obstetric fistulas, an abnormal hole caused by a difficult birth. The baby’s head gets stuck and usually the baby dies. The hole causes incontinence of the bowel and bladder, and these ladies are often excommunicated from their villages. We fix the hole. It’s a disease of poverty that’s almost nonexistent in the Western world. There are two million cases worldwide, including 33,000 in Cameroon where we were. Often, these women are seen by their culture as worthless. It was an honor to care for them.
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WHAT EXPERIENCE ON AFRICA MERCY HAD THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON YOU? We had a patient, Mama Jose, who had a fistula. She ended up being on the ship for about three weeks. After the ladies have the surgeries and they’re successful, we have a ceremony for them. We make them a brand-new dress and headdress and do their makeup and hair and give them jewelry. And we celebrate with dancing and singing. They celebrate being a woman again. At her ceremony, Mama Jose shared that she had never encountered such love as she found on the ship and that she was healed even before she had surgery. It was special because some ladies can’t be healed. About nine out of 10 surgeries are successful. But, sometimes, even if we can’t heal their bodies, we can heal their souls, and hearing her say that was really special.
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WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? I’m working at St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor as a medical floor nurse. I’m considering going back to school to get a master’s in education. I would love to be a nurse educator. I enjoy teaching. Nursing school can be very challenging, and I want to be an encouraging presence and try to make the process of becoming a nurse more enjoyable and fun.
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2 1. “The Progress of Man” mosaic, assembled in 1956 by OC’s first art instructor and his students, shines in its new home on the Bremerton campus. 2. For his journey from homelessness to hope, OC welding student Josh Daley won the 2018 Washington State Association of College Trustees’ Transforming Lives Award. 3. In January, OC’s new art gallery opened with a stunning inaugural exhibit, “Home,” a collaboration with Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network
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News of note on campus and around the community. Share your honors, milestones and stories at alumni@olympic.edu.
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and OC Visual Arts. 4. The OC Alumni Association and Kitsap Economic Development Alliance recognized Microsoft Principal Software Architect Nathan Evans ‘98 with its first Distinguished Alumni award. 5. Kudos to Kate Cofer ’02, Kitsap Regional Library Foundation assistant director, for winning 20 Under 40 honors from the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal. 6. Olympic College was awarded a Bronze and two Gold awards in February at the CASE District VIII Conference for excellence in writing, photography and design. 7. Cheryl Miller, community services division director for the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, and Shannon Childs, senior vice president/ marketing director for Kitsap Bank, are OC’s newest members of the Board of Trustees. 8. “Extreme Makeover: Bremerton Campus Edition” continues: the new College Instruction Center opened for classes in January and crews quickly demolished the old art, music and theater buildings it replaced. By June, the sites will provide much-needed parking. 9. The OC Alumni Association tied for first place in the Fat Tuesday Parade of Service at Clearwater Casino Resort with a float showcasing the college’s International Program. The prize: $2,500 for the Student Success Fund! 10. OC’s 2018 YWCA Women of Achievement: Karen Bolton, director of Guided Pathways, Tracy Flood, attorney and OC Foundation board member, and Marie Weichman, art professor extraordinaire. Congrats! 11. The late Bill Harvey had an unforgettable impact during his 36 years as an OC drama professor. In February, friends, colleagues and former students celebrated his legacy in the new William D. Harvey Theatre.
SUMMIT MAGAZINE | VOL.6 | SPRING 2018 P. 20
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2018 Events JUNE 9 SAT
AUG 2 TH U R
SEPT 1-3 SAT- M O N
ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME
BLACKBERRY FESTIVAL
Get your tickets and find out more at bit.ly/oc-halloffame.
Downtown Bremerton Boardwalk, join us for some blackberry pie!
17 SU N
17 M O N
FALL QUARTER BEGINS SPEAKER SERIES Darlene Peters - Salish Cultural History
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OCT 8 MON
OC GRADUATION Kitsap Sun Pavilion at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds.
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BREMERTON GREEN DRINKS Refreshments and networking in the new College Instruction Center.
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ALUMNI NETWORKING NIGHT @ TACOMA RAINIERS Get your tickets and find out more at olympic.edu/alumni
KITSAP WINE FESTIVAL Proceeds benefit the OC Alumni Association in support of the OC Promise. Tickets on sale now! www.kitsapwinefestival.com
22-26 TU ES KITSAP COUNTY FAIR & STAMPEDE
Stirrup some fun & come check out our booth!
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23RD ANNUAL COMMUNITY LUNCHEON Take a trip around the world and learn about OC's international reach and the power of a scholarship.
Join us Saturday, June 9, to celebrate the 2018 Hall of Fame Class for Ranger Athletics, recognizing outstanding OC athletes, teams and coaches from the college’s 71-year history and from the current academic year. 1:00PM Social and refreshments, 2:00PM Induction Ceremony Olympic College, Bremer Student Center Presented by OC Athletics and the OC Foundation
CLASS OF 2018 INDUCTEES ATHLETES JILL BEKAR Women's Basketball BOB & BILL FREDERICKS Men's Basketball & Tennis MARK KEEL Football CHARLIE KOON Men's Basketball RENAE ROSS (LANDRAM) Women's Basketball MIKE LATIMER Wrestling
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE JACK STENHJEM Athletic Director, Coach, Instructor & Associate Dean of Students
TEAMS 1948-49 MEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM 1950-52 TRACK & FIELD TEAMS
SUMMIT MAGAZINE | VOL.6 | SPRING 2018 P. 22
NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID SILVERDALE, WA PERMIT NO. 111
1600 Chester Ave, CSC 530 Bremerton, WA 98337
(360) 475-7120 alumni@olympic.edu Join us on Facebook
Facebook.com/groups/ OlympicCollegeAlumni
TICKETS ON SALE NOW WWW.KITSAPWINEFESTIVAL. COM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2018 Proceeds benefit the Olympic College Alumni Association in support of the OC Promise.
