From farmworker roots to national acclaim for former Nyssa man and WOU alum | Malheur Enterprise

Yadira Lopez, Tech Register February 19, 2020 Nyssa schools and farm fields helped form Gustavo Balderas. Now the superintendent of the Eugene School District, last week Balderas was named the national superintendent of the year. Balderas has led the Eugene School District since 2015. The award, given by the national School Supertintendents Association, honors school [more…]

Five Benicia High athletes sign letters of intent to play in college, 2 Signing with WOU

By THOMAS GASE | tgase@timesheraldonline.com | Vallejo Times Herald PUBLISHED: February 13, 2020 at 5:47 p.m. | UPDATED: February 14, 2020 at 3:19 p.m. Five Benicia High student-athletes recently found their true north and their decisions were celebrated at a Thursday ceremony where they signed their letters of intent for college. While golfer Angel Antonio [more…]

Dominique Loggins earns GNAC track and field honor

Pamplin Media Group The Times By Dan Brood Tuesday, February 11, 2020 The Tualatin grad, running for Western Oregon, sprints to victory at University of Portland indoor meet Dominique Loggins, a 2019 Tualatin High School graduate, and a freshman on the Western Oregon University track and field team, got his 2020 indoor season off to [more…]

Corvallis names new police chief

Corvallis Gazette Times Bennett Hall Feb 11, 2020   Nick Hurley has been tapped to succeed Jon Sassaman as chief of the Corvallis Police Department, the city announced on Tuesday. Hurley, who currently holds the rank of captain, will take over leadership of the department when Sassaman retires on June 30. Hurley heads the division [more…]

Western Oregon runner wins national player of the week honor

Luis Ramirez Salem Statesman Journal Published 6:00 a.m. PT Feb. 5, 2020   Derek Holdsworth named National Track Athlete of the Week Derek Holdsworth put forth a record-breaking performance over the weekend for Western Oregon as won the 800-meter race at the University of Washington Invitational with a time of 1:47.74. Holdsworth won the event [more…]

New exhibit features work of NWC and WOU alumna

Feb 5, 2020 Published by Cody Enterprise The SinClair Gallery at Northwest College will soon feature an exhibit titled “Moth to the Flame” that will showcase a small group of painting by alumna Kelly Hartman. The artist’s reception opened this week. Hartman is a painter and printmaker who draws on nature, a love of color, [more…]

Several local athletes commit to next level- Western Oregon University picked up a pair of local commitments in South Medford

by Mail Tribune staff Wednesday, February 5th 2020 Several local standouts secured their future plans Wednesday on national signing day, with players from Class 6A South Medford and North Medford to 3A St. Mary’s and Cascade Christian and all in between making their plans known among friends and family. Western Oregon University picked up a [more…]

El Dorado High School’s Danny Bell bound for Western Oregon

Published on February 7, 2020  By Kevin Christensen Mountain Democrat Danny Bell – a three-year-starting quarterback for El Dorado High School – signs a letter of intent Wednesday, Feb. 5, to attend and play football at Western Oregon University. On hand for the special day were classmates, staff, coaches, former teammates and family, including his [more…]

New Independence Hotel is the perfect place for a Valentine’s getaway

Posted Feb 08, 2020 By Gerry Frank | For The Oregonian/OregonLive   Spend this Valentine’s Day at the recently opened Independence Hotel (201 Osprey Ave., Independence; 503-837-0200; theindependencehotel.com). The small town of Independence often gets overlooked, but this new boutique hotel has every intention of changing that. The prime historic downtown location, near Willamette River [more…]

Four Oregon City student-athletes confirm college plans on Signing Day

Sunday, February 09, 2020 By Jim Beseda Clackamas Review Pamplin Media Group Oregon City High School senior Austin Canchola, Carissa Feliciano, Abi Willett, and Zach Zumwalt joined a select group student-athletes who have an opportunity to continue their athletic careers at the college level.The four were joined by family, friends, teammates, and coaches during a [more…]

Ex-Roseburg standout Warmouth in first season at Western Oregon

Published by TOM EGGERS News-Review Sports Editor The News-Review Jan 30, 2020   MONMOUTH — Former Roseburg High School standout Collin Warmouth is in his first season of college basketball, playing at Western Oregon University. The Wolves compete in the D-II Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Warmouth, a 6-foot-5 guard, has appeared in 14 games for [more…]

Gabbie Acevedo-Solis ’20

Future educator rises to all challenges  As a senior majoring in middle/high school education with a concentration in social science and a minor in Spanish, Gabbie Acevedo-Solis’ dream job is teaching Latin American history in a language immersion program. Given her strong work ethic and impressive grade-point average, that goal seems well within reach. She’s [more…]

Same Tradition, New Opportunities

Since its founding in 1856, Western Oregon University has equipped the region’s young adults to serve the needs of the growing area. Even before Oregon was a state, students attended what was first known as Monmouth University to train as school teachers, a profession in high demand as people settled the Willamette Valley during the [more…]

IN MEMORIUM

1940s Macy (Elkins) Morse Alma Jean Watkins O’Meara (’42 bachelor’s) later known as Alma Jean Tipley (’65 masters) 1950s Don Carey 1970s Virginia Knapp Susan Esther Sproul 1980s Michael J. Mayfield 1990s Kathryn Meador Cheval 2000s Alan Boitz 2010s Donovan Gregg Marshal Leslie Evan Simonski-Davis   Friends of WOU Emeritus Professor Dr. Louis Edward “Lou” [more…]

CLASS NOTES

1970s Linda Johnston ‘70 just completed 12 years of service on the Woodburn School Board. She has recently been appointed as garden coordinator for the First Presbyterian Church Community Garden. She works with students from Head Start through high school growing food for the local food bank. Sheila Daniels ’75, ’93, retired in 2017 after [more…]

Jeanne Carver ’75

Coach, teacher, businesswoman, and thrives on obstacles  Jeanne (Zumwalt) Carver and her family moved around a lot, following the timber industry’s demand for new access roads to logging sites. “My father was a road contractor,” she explained. “He started his own company. It was a startup way back in the ’50s.” Carver’s mother was a [more…]

Howl Writers and Staff Net Honors- from Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association

Western’s student newspaper was first published Nov. 5, 1923, under the masthead The Breeze. Early editors envisioned the paper as “an organ of expression for all the students” and a way to improve the school, urging fellow students to subscribe so the paper could become a self-sustaining, student-led enterprise. That goal was reached in March [more…]

New Faces on Campus

This summer, Western Oregon University welcomed the new Dean of Library and Academic Innovation Michelle “Chelle” Batchelor. Her work at WOU will be focused on innovative academic resources that meet the demands of current and future students as well as support for faculty members who teach online courses. Batchelor had most recently been the interim [more…]

Big News: Western Oregon University in Salem

In the last edition of Western Edge, we told you about WOU’s expansion into Salem, where the university was leasing classroom space from the Willamette Education Service District. In September, WOU purchased a permanent space in downtown Salem: the historical Vick building on the corner of High and Trade streets. The building will get a [more…]

Community Builder: Bec Williams ’98

While pursuing a degree in health education with a minor in business, Bec Williams ’98 spent all four years at Western Oregon University working at Campus Recreation. Many years later, as owner of Eugene’s Playground Sports, which offers recreational sports leagues for adults, this experience has served her well. “I had a lot of skills [more…]

PHS Grad Lucas Sinclair Returns as Police Officer

By Brad Fuqua; published in the Philomath Express Patrolling Philomath’s streets and responding to calls overnight on graveyard shifts, 23-year-old rookie police officer Lucas Sinclair has a high degree of familiarity with the lay of the land. A little more than five years earlier, Sinclair had received his Philomath High School diploma to embark on [more…]

Interns aid Scappoose growth

By Anna Del Savio, published in the Columbia County Spotlight During a period of rapid growth, including residential and industrial, team of new city interns sets a productive pace. Now assistant to City Manager Michael Sykes, Alexandra Rains started working for the City of Scappoose as an intern in 2015. Rains was working toward her [more…]