There’s a lot to love about soccer — starting with the heroic saves, the graceful footwork, and the incredible athleticism players exhibit in a game that seldom stops.
But for Maya Mendoza-Exstrom ’03, there are even more reasons to love the sport often described as the beautiful game.
Matt McCully ’78 was an end-of-the-bench guard who took the court only for the final minute or so of the University of Puget Sound Loggers’ 1976 NCAA Division II men’s basketball national championship game victory over the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Yet, it was McCully who found himself on the shoulders of his teammates after the buzzer sounded on an 83–74 triumph that long-ago March evening at Roberts Stadium in Evansville, Indiana. “They didn’t have ladders back in those days, apparently,” McCully recalled with a laugh.
Chelsea Herman says one of the best parts of her new job as Director of Athletics at the University of Puget Sound is getting to walk around practices and see the student-athletes in action, under the guidance of coaches she describes as “tremendous masters of their craft.” Her goal, she said, as they develop in the classroom and competition, is for them to know she is their No. 1 fan. Herman knows from experience how formative and fun intercollegiate athletics can be for scholar-athletes, their institutions, and their communities.
One of the university’s key initiatives is to advance a championship culture that empowers student-athletes to achieve at the highest levels academically and athletically, building on an enduring legacy that has shaped generations of Loggers. The Arches team asked President lsiaah Crawford to share some insights into why this is such an important goal. Here’s what he had to say:
The photography of Doug Landreth ’73 may include all manner of flora and fauna, but he is more than a nature photographer. Whether photographing the blossom on an artichoke plant or a blurred image of a Mexican matador, he employs multiple digitally composited images, laced with textural overlays and backgrounds, to create visual statements that can be bold, foreboding, or sublime.
Landreth’s love of photography started in high school, when he bought a camera with his savings and took it on a two-week trip to Europe with his twin brother, Duncan Landreth ’74.
As a Fulbright scholar at Western Sydney University, Kyra Lee ’24 spends her days developing brain-inspired technologies that could one day reshape healthcare and robotics.
At the university’s International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems, Lee is part of a research team designing neuromorphic systems — computing technologies modeled after the human brain. These bio-inspired tools could improve machine learning, enhance robotic responsiveness, and expand how artificial intelligence supports patient care.
A high school friend working at a Spokane coffee shop in 1982 guided Jennifer Al-Abboud ’86 to the world of gelato. Now, the Logger and her husband, Fareed, use the dessert to make a living while fostering community connections.
“It’s a happy product,” says Al-Abboud. “People come into our shop happy and leave happier. If they don’t come in happy, they leave happy.”
When there’s an adorable kitten or puppy gamboling across your kitchen, you can be forgiven if you’re not thinking about its future demise.
“But unless you’re 80 and adopt a parrot, you’re going to outlive them,” said Mollyrose Dumm ’07, of Urban Animal, which is based in Seattle and is the country’s largest veterinary worker cooperative.
