Posted by Sol Jensen

Wednesday, November 11 is a University holiday at WSU.  It is a day to remember all of our veterans who have served in the military or are currently serving, and to give reflection and appreciation for what their service has done for our country.

WSU has a long and rich tradition with ties to military service.  In fact, not long ago WSU was touted as a “Military Friendly School” by the magazine G.I. Jobs.  According to the news release, WSU is in the top 15% of colleges nationwide to embrace America’s veterans as students.  It states:

“The 2010 list of Military Friendly Schools honors state universities, private colleges, community colleges and trade schools with a priority of recruiting students with military experience. Criteria for making the Military Friendly Schools list included efforts to recruit and retain military and veteran students, results in recruiting military and veteran students, and academic accreditations.”

In addition to being a strong supporter of educating veterans, WSU also has been graduating commissioned officers through the ROTC program for many years.  Learn more about scholarships, classes, and see photos and video of WSU cadets in training at the WSU ROTC site.  As Captain Ed Gomez has told me many times:  “Cougar Battalion—Cougar Strong!”

Posted by Steffany Kraft

What will tomorrow look like? How can you, as a high school student, impact the future and make change for the better? What ideas do you have about helping our society transition to more sustainable lifestyles?

These are questions you can answer by participating in the Imagine Tomorrow competition which will be held on the Washington State University campus in May 2010. This will be the third year of the competition. It’s open to high school students from Washington State, and they compete in teams of 2-5 people. The top teams can win thousands of dollars for both the team members and their schools. Plus, you get to spend a couple of days on the WSU campus and interact with professors, business leaders, and other students like yourself who are interested in these important topics.

All rules, details and registration information can be found on the Imagine Tomorrow website. Registration is open now and will close in early 2010, so be sure to check it out soon.

I highly encourage you to imagine what your tomorrow could look like, and bring your ideas to WSU. You just might end up saving the planet.

And did I mention there are cash prizes?!? I think I did…

Posted by Sol Jensen

Jay Leno will be coming back to Pullman to perform during Mom’s weekend this coming spring.  His actual performance will be on Saturday, April 10, and tickets go on sale Saturday, December 4.  If experience tells me anything, like when the Elton John tickets went on sale for Mom’s weekend two years ago, you will want to get your tickets EARLY!

Although not as well-known as Jay Leno, Jeff Dunham will be headlining the Dad’s weekend events this fall with his ventriloquist characters and comedy routines.  Dad’s weekend is just over a week away on 11/13-11/15, and includes the football game vs. UCLA and many other activities.  For those who aren’t as familiar with Jeff, he is very well known on Comedy Central and you can watch a bunch of fun videos on Jeff’s website. 

WSU has a long tradition of bringing top performers of all genres to campus.  See a list going back to the 1970’s on the Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum Hall of Fame here.

Posted by Sol Jensen

The Hospitality Business Management program at WSU is one of the oldest (in its 77th year) and most prestigious programs of its kind in the country.  For years, the HBM students have gone on to long and successful careers in the hotel, restaurant, or cruiseline industry, or many other careers jumpstarted at WSU.  On a personal note, my wife actually worked for the HBM program for a couple of years while studying as an undergraduate.  In fact, she was selected to work on a research project for two of the top vice presidents of Westin Hotels (one a WSU alum).

Also, just last year Marriott Hotels donated $1.5 million to WSU’s HBM program to renovate their culinary lab kitchen and dining room for catering and events.  These new renovations will continue to allow WSU’s HBM students to lead the nation in receiving cutting-edge learning and preparation for their careers in the hospitality industry.

Most recently, the HBM program was just ranked #11 in the world for scholarly research by their professors.  This impressive feat was acknowledged despite only having 5 tenured or tenure-track professors on staff.  Congrats to all of the excellent work by the students, professors, and alumni in the WSU HBM program.  And on a personal note, thanks to everyone in the department for allowing so many opportunities for undergraduate students to get involved.  Whether it’s the work, research, internships, or networking with key contacts in the industry, it’s helping WSU students to be among the best prepared and launching them into careers around the world.

Oh, and by the way, I highly recommend using the HBM program to cater any events.  We’ve used them many times for events and they are absolutely wonderful in both taste and service!

Posted by Steffany Kraft

Here in the Admissions office at WSU things are getting very exciting as November 1 approaches. No, not because we get to sleep an extra hour when we roll the clocks back or because we are looking forward to the tummy-aches we will have from eating too much Halloween candy…

We are excited because November 1 is the day that we will send out the first round of letters offering admission to Washington State University for Fall 2010!

Students who applied early, have all their materials in (including SAT or ACT scores and all high school and college transcripts), and are highly qualified to be part of the next class at WSU, might find a belated Halloween “treat” in their mailboxes on Monday!

If you haven’t applied yet, make sure to do so soon and get all of your materials sent in! Remember, your application is not complete until we have your standardized test scores and transcripts. Offers of admission will continue to be sent out to qualified students throughout the fall and spring until we have filled the class for Fall 2010.

Go Cougs!