Deeper Than the Skin

red brick hallway with arches to the right and double doors at the end.

Alumni

Community

Arches

She volunteered at a local zoo in her hometown of San Jose, Calif., thinking she was interested in being a veterinarian, but later shifted her focus to human health. As a second-year Matelich Scholar at Puget Sound, Jiang was accepted to a prestigious medical school through an accelerated pathway with support from staff in Puget Sound’s Health Professions Advising program. But it was an internship with the Neighborhood Clinic in Tacoma that solidified her passion for helping patients navigate the complex world of healthcare. 

‘It Felt Like Everything Had Come Full Circle’

Stumbling stones in Germany.

Alumni

Arches

When Maddie Hanses ’20 was visiting Germany in 2019 as part of the Connections 330 course—Finding Germany: Memory, History, and Identity in Berlin—she was intrigued by the Stolpersteine, or Stumbling Stones, that she had learned about in class from Associate Professor Kris Imbrigotta. These four-inch concrete cubes, which are inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution, commemorate the last place a person chose freely to live, work, or learn. Hanses said she looked for them wherever they travelled. 

Five Questions With Assistant Professor of Education Alisun Thompson

Asst. Prof. Alisun Thompson

Faculty

Arches

Alisun Thompson has always aspired to be the kind of teacher she needed when she was in school. While she loved her time as an English teacher, she also saw firsthand many of the flaws in the K–12 education system. Her new book, Going the Distance: The Teaching Profession in a Post-COVID World (Harvard Education Press, 2024), presents an unflinching yet ultimately hopeful appraisal of the workplace factors that determine career risk and resilience among teachers, informed by the lessons of the pandemic.

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