Alumni News

Formal Partnership with University of Washington Tacoma Allows Qualifying Puyallup School District Graduates to Directly Matriculate

By Matt Wastradowski, Viewpoints Magazine

Roughly a decade ago, first-year literature and writing teacher Drego Little, education alum ’05, was in the middle of a lesson about fairy tales when a middle-school student piped up. “These stories are sexist,” Little remembers the young girl saying. He was taken aback but nevertheless listened to her rationale.

By Doree Armstrong, UW News and Information

Too busy to vacuum your living room? Let Roomba the robot do it. Don’t want to risk a soldier’s life to disable an explosive? Let a robot do it.

Andrew Drape was in the eighth grade at Aki Kurose Middle School when Mia Williams became his principal.

“Mia said this was her dream job and that she had begged the school district to send her there,” Andrew’s mother Chrissie Drape recalled. “At that moment, I said to myself, this is going to be good.”

After finishing eighth grade at Aki Kurose in Seattle’s South End, Andrew went on to Franklin High School, where he is a senior, ready to graduate. Under the leadership and stability of long-time principal Jennifer Wiley, Franklin has thrived.

Dr. Sheila Edwards Lange is the University of Washington College of Education Distinguished Graduate Awardee for 2013. The Distinguished Graduate Award was established in 1986 and is awarded annually to a College of Education graduate of marked distinction.

Lange is currently vice president for minority affairs and vice provost for diversity at the University of Washington. She received a doctorate from the UW College of Education in educational leadership and policy studies and a master's degree in public administration.