Nola Thury ’22 was a first-year student when they attended their first event at the Northwest Detention Center. Surprised to learn that there was a detention facility holding immigrants only a few miles from University of Puget Sound’s campus in Tacoma, Wash., Thury was determined to raise awareness of the plight of detainees and undocumented immigrants among fellow students.

For Alden Robert ’23, creating an environmentally sustainable campus involves a lot more than recycling, but it’s a place to start. The religious studies and international political economy major is the student manager for Sustainability Services and oversees the students who collect, sort, and transport all of Puget Sound’s recycling output.

As a first-year student in Ann Putnam’s Introduction to Creative Writing course, English major Daniel Pollock ’22 was given an assignment to write about a memory or a moment he thought he had forgotten. Not only had the memory he chose stayed with him, but three years later, it would inspire an independent research project exploring identity and belonging, and help Pollock reshape the narrative of his own life.

They work with a faculty member in the spring to craft a proposal and then, if the proposal is approved, they spend 10 weeks working full time on their projects, supported by research funding and a stipend to cover living expenses. Here, we spotlight seven of the students who took on research projects last summer.

Perched on a log above the Mashel River a few miles from the Puget Sound campus, Daniel Sherman explains the complex and often harrowing plight of perhaps the most iconic creature in the Pacific Northwest: the salmon.

Tacoma, Wash. – University of Puget Sound will be featured in Amazon Prime’s popular series The College Tour beginning Feb. 8 and is now available to watch at pugetsound.edu/thecollegetour. The 30-minute episode takes a broad look at all aspects of the Puget Sound experience, designed to challenge and support students who seek to make a difference in the world.

Ruthy McBride ’22 is studying a topic that’s controversial in the education community: the role of police in schools.

When Jaden Francis ’25 stepped up to the edge of the pool for his first relay as a member of the University of Puget Sound men’s swim team, it was a moment he’d been building up to for almost two years. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled his high school swim meets, Francis had to contend with the closure of the public pools back home on the island of Guam due to funding and maintenance issues.