Alumni Stories

Bringing Slackline to the Super Bowl Spotlight

On Tuesday, Andy Lewis (’08, Recreation Administration) was base-jumping from the Fisher Towers rock formations in Utah, at altitudes of more than 500 feet. Just two days earlier, the adrenaline-junkie was in Indianapolis, Ind., showing off his sport and sharing the stage with pop-icon Madonna at the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show.

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Student-Run Consulting Class Puts Business Students to Work

Last spring, senior business students formed Humboldt State Business Consulting; a class run like a business, as part of Professor Nancy Vizenor’s Small Business Consulting Class, or BA 417. This fall, the current group of students will work with their first clients.

Small Biz Center Puts Alumni, Students Behind the Camera

Two Humboldt State alumni and two students recently teamed up to create a series of videos highlighting the work of the Small Business Development Centers of Northern California, a national program that helps local entrepreneurs and small businesses succeed.

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Humboldt State Team Scores World Energy First in Bhutan

A Humboldt State University team in Bhutan has completed the first installation of Smart Grid devices called GridShares with the specific purpose of enabling rural electricity users to stabilize their own electricity grids and curb damaging brownouts.

Alumni Help Anchor Waste Management Forum

Five Humboldt State University alumni will join other experts in the waste management field and luncheon presenters Assemblyman Wes Chesbro and Maggie Gainer of Gainer & Associates at a Zero Waste Innovation Forum at noon on Friday, Aug. 19, at Arcata’s D Street Neighborhood Center at 13th & D Streets.

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Bear-Proof? Student Tests Wilderness Food Containers

In the old “Yogi Bear” cartoons, you had to be “smarter than the average bear” to steal a camper’s food. But Kate McCurdy (M.S. NRPI, ’06), found that improperly stored food can attract even the average bear to a backpacker’s campsite.

HSU Alum Wins Tsunami Readiness Laurel

Humboldt State University alum Kathleen Fairchild (’05), a graduate student in the Environment and Community Master of Social Science Program, has received the Community Leader Award from the Redwood Coast Tsunami Work Group for her master’s project to bolster the tsunami readiness of the Big Lagoon community and Big Lagoon Rancheria.

Luke Trout: Uncovering Ancient Civilizations

Luke Trout’s interest in archeology began early in life – with Easter eggs. As a child, Trout would ask his family to hide the colored eggs over and over again. When his father began to manage ranch land in Colorado, Trout’s interest in Easter eggs shifted to the arrowheads he discovered there. The rest, he says, is history.

Pig Waste Project Powers New Business

Not every master’s thesis turns into an award-winning sustainability enterprise. But that’s just what happened for alum Alex Eaton (’09), who earned his master’s degree in Environmental Systems.

HSU Honors Top Alumni April 23

Humboldt State University will recognize leading alumni in the fields of business, athletics/physical education, social work and forestry science at its annual Distinguished Alumni dinner and awards presentation on Friday, April 23, in Eureka. Pre-registration is required.

Alum Named Top U.S. Professor

Humboldt State University alumnus Robert Thomas (geology, ’85), professor of geology at the University of Montana Western, Dillon, Montana, and a 2008 winner of HSU’s Distinguished Alumni Award, has been named a 2009 U.S. Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Alum Honored for Light Bulb Research

Humboldt State University sociology alumnus Lou Jacobson (Master’s, 2008), an energy specialist with the Redwood Coast Energy Authority, will be honored at ceremonies in San Francisco August 10 for outstanding research in barriers to student use of Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs.

Journalism Alums Nab Emmy

Bill S. Green (’78) and Henry Mulak (’84), journalism graduates from Humboldt State University, recently took home an Emmy for their news reporting work at ABC-7 News in San Francisco.