Ducks @ Oregon - University of Oregon

Letters of Thanks to Powerful Faculty at the University of Oregon

Whitney M.

March 7, 2010 - 12:23 AM

 

 

Dear Sally Garner,

 

I am baffled and actually speechless over the thought of putting into words how much I appreciate all that you've done for me over the last three years. You've been my greatest support and have made my experience during my undergraduate studies something to be proud of. I KNOW that I would not be where I am today if it was not for all of your honesty, trust, respect, and everlasting support. I will go the rest of my life with the things you taught me embedded in my soul. As if to say this would be enough: THANK YOU.

 

Forever your humble and grateful student,

 

Whitney Mountain

 

 

 

 

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Dear Greg Kerber,

 

What can I say to thank you for all of your deep, sincere, and unconditional support over the last three years? Knowing you has been one of the most wonderful parts of my undergraduate studies.

 

THANK YOU-from the bottom of my heart,

 

THANK YOU.

 

Without you, I know that I wouldn't be where I am today. I will carry with me all of the things you taught me, both directly and indirectly, for the rest of my life.

 

Forever a product of your generosity,

Whitney Mountain

 

Greg Kerber and Puddles in Allen Hall.

 

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Dear Suzi Steffen,

 

My God this grad-school thing was the longest process I have ever undertaken (aside from rehab, of course). But you are the only one along the way who has given me the constructive criticism and the hands-on support that I needed to make the journey a worthwhile one. After months of reading, editing, re-editing, writing, submitting, and resubmitting, YOU deserve more than a simple thank you...and that's why I got you the mug.

 

Ha!

 

No, you deserve all of the gratitude that I have in my heart.

 

To the best professor I had at Oregon: THANK YOU!

 

Love,

Whitney

 

 

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Visiting Stanford

Whitney M.

March 3, 2010 - 11:24 PM

If you didn't see my earlier blog, I got into STANFORD for graduate school.

 

I will be in their 9-month journalism program, earning a master's degree.

 

When I got the news, the e-mail also told me that I was invited to attend an open house tour day.
Immediately, I called my dad and asked him if we could go.

 

So in short order, he and I were on a plane to SFO, where we would rent a car at an off-airport rental company, where we got what we paid for, and drive the half an hour south to Palo Alto: the home of "The Farm."

 

When we arrived on Tuesday, we took the day to fumble around the ENORMOUS Stanford University campus. It is at least five times the size of the University of Oregon's campus-I will definitely be needing a bike-and it took hours to figure out where we were going.

 

We saw the student union, the bookstore, the main quad, and after visiting the visitor center, we went to see the grad-student housing.

 

It was really interesting to find out that almost all of the graduate students live on campus. At Oregon, almost none of the grad students live on campus. Hell, no one beyond sophomore year lives on campus.

 

But I LOVE the fact that there is grad-student housing because it fosters a sense of community, which I will need in a new place.

 

The next day, I went to McClatchy Hall, where the Communication Department is housed-right in front of "The Oval," which is the first thing you see when you drive up the main street of campus.
They know how to prioritize journalism.

 

After meeting with one of their advisers, another prospective student, Chiara, and I went to a two-hour, 10-person class titled Human Rights Reporting. It was a FANTASTIC class, in which Chiara and I felt comfortable participating. After that, two of the current graduate students showed me a café built into the building in the half-hour break between that class and the hour-long Graduate Seminar. We talked about the program and I found myself extraordinarily comfortable around them.

 

I have never really considered myself Stanford-material, but talking with the students in and outside of class showed me that I am better qualified than I thought.

 

In the Graduate Seminar, we talked about media ethics with an associate editor from The Washington Post. We used a case study to discuss the difficult decisions that go into the art and business of the journalism industry. I LOVE this topic. It was one of my favorite courses as an undergraduate, and I am so glad to see that it will be incorporated into my graduate studies as well.

 

Chiara and I went to a series of meetings with the Pulitzer Prize-winning professors, in which we discussed the courses and opportunities in the Communication Department at Stanford.

 

Finally, one of the current journalism graduate students escorted us around campus and showed us all of the highlights-including the William Gates building.

 

I am still stunned that this was not a dream but an actual experience.

 

My dad and I ended the day with a dinner with our cousin and her husband, who live about 10 miles north of Palo Alto.

 

It was so nice to have someone with whom to connect while I am down there at school.

 

Before we left, Dad and I went to the bookstore so that I could get my long-anticipated Stanford sweatshirt and to pick up "Thank You" Stanford mugs for all of my wonderful recommendation-letter writers.

 

My dad was so proud that he got himself two T-shirts!

 

I will always remember this trip as an opportunity for my dad and me to do something extraordinarily memorable together. With a chance unlike anything we ever imagined for ourselves, he and I shared our pride and hard-earned success in a humbling trip to Stanford.

 

 

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Gleneden Beach

Whitney M.

February 28, 2010 - 12:13 PM

It is Sunday, and I am sitting in an armchair facing the Pacific Ocean, which is breaking in huge waves over a reddish-gray beach under a bluish gray sky. It is not raining, so this is perfect weather for Oregonians seeking a weekend hideaway.

 

I am staying at the Worldmark at Gleneden beach, where I have never stayed, but where my boyfriend Collin and his mother have been coming since he was small.

 

My dad and his girlfriend were invited for this getaway with Collin and Anne, and we have spent the last three days together, playing Yahtzee, going to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, shopping, cooking, swimming, hot tubbing, watching movies, and relaxing.

 

This last week I have spent anywhere between 2 to 8 hours a day on Flux magazine, which I am honored to have been selected as the Editor in Chief of this spring. But to prepare for this upcoming term, the Faculty Advisor Michael Werner and I have been conducting interviews, holding meetings, making plans, and exhausting ourselves over this magazine that we expect will be a fantastic issue!

 

I love working on this magazine. I love being Editor in Chief. This opportunity has shown me how much I have really learned about journalism both as an art as well as a business over the course of my undergraduate studies. It also, if I can say so humbly, has given me an opportunity to do something that I am really good at.

 

This week, I haven't wanted to fall asleep at night because I could be working on Flux, but I go to sleep because I know that I can't wait to get up in the morning and continue to work on it, and I should be as well-rested as I can for the job.

 

Now, I have a bit of a cold, a perpetual headache, and tense nerves. It surprised me to find when I arrived in Gleneden that I genuinely needed a bit of a break.

 

It was so wonderful to spend time with people whom I love dearly-just to talk and hear what they have to say, let them make me laugh, and fall in line as someone's kid instead of being the mother of my apartment, the go-to best friend and the Editor in Chief of a magazine. I got to relinquish some of the responsibilities that I have become accustomed to, and actually quite fond of, but this trip allowed me to relax a little bit, which is obviously what it was intended to do.

 

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Love...

Whitney M.

February 25, 2010 - 12:00 PM

As I was hugging Collin goodnight this evening before he went to the library to finish an essay that he had to rewrite because of a misunderstanding between him and his professor and before I delved into a series of easy, yet intimidating tasks that needed to be completed before the day was done, I felt our love again.

 

I feel it almost every day. But there is nothing like it to remind me that he is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.

 

After almost three years, he makes me feel like a giddy school girl while simultaneously bringing out the sophisticated academic in me.

 

To other people, Collin is a quiet, cuddly giant. He is 6'2'' and made of muscle-not in a gym-rat sort of way, but naturally covered in muscle. He has soft, twinkling blue eyes that are covered by a couple of masculine tufty eyebrows. The hairiness of his eyebrows continues over every surface of his body. Most of my friends think it is weird for guys to be hairy, but Collin is a man. He has beautiful, curly brown hair that started growing in when he was 14.

 

He seldom starts a conversation with anybody, but when you ask him his opinion, he is not afraid to let you have it. He is generous, helpful, considerate, and thoughtful.

 

In addition to these polite characteristics, he is stunningly brilliant and phenomenally funny. His sense of humor is a creeping, dry, sarcastic humor that seeps into conversation and offends listeners until they realize that he is joking. At other times, he pulls out witty twists to conversations that surprise listeners because they weren't expecting this reticent character to let out a joke, let alone one that brings a new angle to a conversation.

 

He has no qualms about showing affection toward me even when people are present. He never over-does it, and always makes me feel cherished and loved.

 

But when no one is looking, and he and I are alone, Collin is silly. This big, strong, smart, competent man lets out his goofball side and plays with me. We play like children. We tickle, wrestle, use silly voices, and make faces until we burst with laughter.

 

But when times get hard, when I am stressing out, he is overly tired, or we have gotten into a tiff, Collin is an expert communicator. We have agreed that our primary objective is to live happily together for the rest of our lives, so when the going gets tough, we know that instead of fighting or making it worse, the sooner we talk through it, the sooner we can feel connected again.

 

He is my everything. My friends can never find a boyfriend that satisfies them because they always compare the guys they date to Collin, and none of them ever measure up. They say that Collin's and my relationship is what love is supposed to look like.

 

I agree.

 

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Flux Magazine

Whitney M.

February 22, 2010 - 9:45 PM

This week I got more fantastic news than I could ever ask for.

 

I found out that I was admitted to Stanford University's graduate program in journalism while simultaneously learning that I had been invited to serve as the Editor in Chief of the U of O's School of Journalism and Communication's most prestigious magazine: Flux.

 

I still can't believe how fortunate I am to have seen all of these positive results in my life. It is crazy. I am stunned and taken aback that these things are actually part of my life.

 

Now that I have had a few days serving as E.C. of Flux, I have realized what it really means.

 

The faculty supervisor, Michael Werner, and I spent more than 20 hours this weekend interviewing people for positions and making plans and preparations for the structure of the magazine.

 

It was long, exhausting, and absolutely enthralling.

 

I had no idea that work could be so much fun. They always say find something that you love to do and it won't feel like work. I always thought, quite frankly, that that was bullshit, but this weekend, I could hardly have imagined somewhere else I would rather be than serving as Editor in Chief.

 

The people I get to work with, the ambitious plans we are making for ourselves, and the privilege of working on such a highly regarded publication make this work a dream come true.

 

I am so excited that this is my last term on campus. Not that this is my LAST term on campus but that THIS is my last term on campus!

 

I get to spend my final days in my beloved journalism school making the most out of the skills I have acquired as an undergraduate and dreaming about what is to come at Stanford.

 

It's so ridiculous that this is a reality. It really is preposterous, but I guess life gets that way sometimes.

 

I feel so honored, blessed, and 100 percent lucky. There must be some mistake, but I will roll with it.

 

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