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.

On a rainy, winter evening, the stage lights went up in Tacoma’s historic Blue Mouse Theatre, where Grammy Award-winning trombonist, composer, and music educator Delfeayo Marsalis was on hand to lead the University of Puget Sound Jazz Orchestra for a night of holiday standards and reinterpretations of classic songs. Before the concert, Marsalis spent time on campus teaching a master class and rehearsing with student performers, which included vocalist Eli Kitchens ’22.

Police brutality incidents, such as the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020, have made the issues surrounding policing and racism more visible than ever before. The social movements sparked by these incidents, and dozens like them in the last decade, have caused many, including Puget Sound students and professors, to ask tough questions about the current American justice system.