The first year of college is hard. It’s even harder when you’re the only person from your family—maybe the only person you know—to pursue a college degree. Whether writing papers, declaring a major, or living with someone you just met, making the transition to college life can be more than a little intimidating. That’s where Student Success Advisor Najhan Bell steps in. A recent college graduate herself, Bell helps students, and first-generation college students in particular, adjust to life at Puget Sound and succeed academically.

When a catastrophic equipment failure struck the computational chemistry lab, Max and his fellow students acted quickly. In the span of a week, the team used their collective know-how to build a complex hardware and software system from scratch to get the lab up and running again. Max, an experienced computer builder, led the assembly of three new computers and increased the system’s existing power by more than 10 times in the process.

Q: A theme I hear a lot around here is “belonging.”What’s your take on the importance of making people feel welcome at Puget Sound?

SOME SISTERLY HELP

Kris Hay, who has worked in Career and Employment Services for more than 20 years, has compiled a collection of recipes from chefs and restaurants in Tacoma—specifically, ones that thrive on local, sustainable ingredients. She wanted her cookbook, called Tacoma Aroma: Savor the Flavor, to benefit the region so 25.3% of proceeds (a wink to the 253 area code) will be donated to nonprofit organizations like Pierce County’s Emergency Food Network. Here, Hay recommends some of her favorite spots close to campus.

Ella Slattery ’25 had only been on campus for a few weeks when she laid eyes on the plasma chamber. As a first-year student at University of Puget Sound, she was on a tour of the physics department and got to chatting with postdoctoral researcher Brett Klaasen Von Oorschot about a project he was working on with some of his students—a small, silver device connected to a mass of wires and sitting on a rolling cart.

“I’d never seen a fusor before. It was utterly fascinating,” Slattery recalls. “I immediately knew I wanted to get involved and learn as much as I could about it.”

Lexi Brewer considers herself a sustainability generalist, having worked with city government, nonprofits, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration before becoming University of Puget Sound’s director of sustainability. Since March 2022, she’s has been getting to know the campus community and starting to lay the foundations for new initiatives to help Puget Sound achieve its environmental goals. We recently sat down with Brewer to discuss the new role, how environmental justice has to figure into any climate plan, and more.