News Release

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May 4, 2005

Media Advisory: Boise State Graduate Stories

What: Boise State graduate stories

When: Commencement, 10 a.m. Saturday, May 14

Where: Taco Bell Arena

Boise State will host its 75th Commencement at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 14, in Taco Bell Arena with President Bob Kustra officiating.
 

Boise State’s ceremony will be filled with happy graduates, proud family members and inspirational stories. A few of these stories follow. Contact numbers are provided for each graduate. If you’d like to speak with someone that day, please plan to arrive at least 45 minutes early so we can attempt to find them in the crowd. A representative from our office will be at the Taco Bell Arena near Entrance 1 to assist in helping you locate graduates or university officials.

STUDENT GETS HOSPITAL LEAVE TO ATTEND GRADUATION

Without an amazing will and the help of several of her professors, economics major Karinne Wiebold would not be graduating with her peers. A bike accident resulting in a stroke landed her in the hospital, where she’s still expected to be on May 14. Concerned professors have worked to keep her up-to-date on her assignments and her doctor granted her a 2-hour pass to allow her to collect her diploma in person. Plans call for her to abandon her wheelchair just long enough to walk across the stage.

Wiebold can be reached at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, Room 344. Her parents are staying at her home and can be reached at 345-3425, and you can also try to reach her through her boyfriend’s cell phone, 850-1141.

BOSNIAN REFUGEE RESEARCHES POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

Sandina Begic (beg-ITCH) and her family fled Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early to mid-1990s and lived in a refugee camp in Croatia before moving to Germany. Sandina and her sister moved to Boise as refugees in 2000 in order to join their parents and younger brother who had come to the U.S. several years earlier. All of them were assisted by the local Agency for New Americans. Sandina and her boyfriend Samir (who is also graduating) are big success stories for the ANA and the entire Bosnian community, which is 3,000-strong in the Treasure Valley.

Sandina is a double major in psychology and German. She is a member of the inaugural class of McNair scholars and has done some excellent research on the prevalence of certain mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression in both Bosnian refugees and Bosnian residents (she and Samir traveled to Bosnia to collect data on this project last summer). She has presented her research at a number of conferences, including the annual meeting of the Western Psychological Association in Portland.

Sandina was recently accepted into the Ph.D. program in psychology (with an emphasis in peace studies) at Clark University in Worchester, Mass. She is also the mother of a beautiful new baby, Mia. She can be contacted at Sandina75@msn.com, or 371-5046.

STUDENT REPORTER RECEIVES NUMEROUS AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE

Justin Terry is a communication major and a reporter for NPR News 91. He served as chairman of the BSU Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Committee for two years and as a member of the BSU Leadership Committee. In 2003 he earned a Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence national award; he has also earned several awards from the Idaho Press Club and the Hewlett Packard Scholarship for Leadership in Human Rights. He is a board member for the Idaho Human Rights Education Center and a volunteer for 4-H, Habitat for Humanity, Relay for Life, Idaho Rivers United and more.

The Mark of Excellence award was for his “New Freedom Riders” story. Terry traveled with the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride bus as it traveled through Idaho. More than a dozen buses traveled across the country, picking up hundreds of immigrant rights advocates along the way, similar to the civil rights movement in the 1960s. They met in Washington D.C. and New York for mass demonstrations promoting changes to the U.S. immigration policy and other civil and human rights issues. Justin can be reached at 342-0135.

COURSE OF STUDY HELPS GRAD DRAFT A PLAN FOR LIFE

The Selland College of Applied Technology at Boise State has a high job placement rate for graduates, with many students rolling into jobs immediately. Brian Coleman, an officer for Boise State’s chapter of the National Technical Honor Society, is one of them. He will graduate with a bachelor of applied science degree in drafting and starts a job as a drafter with an architecture firm in Reno at the end of May. Coleman, 23, said he didn’t know what he wanted to do after high school and wound up attending three different universities before spotting the drafting program at Boise State. The drafting program has given Brian some solid skills that have helped him find a place in the work force. Brian can be reached at 860-9563.

HIGH ACHIEVER EARNS AWARDS, GETS INVOLVED

Heather Gribble is a graphic design major with a marketing minor. The director of Boise State’s Volunteer Services Board, Gribble was named a USA Today All USA Academic Collegiate Honorable Mention earlier this spring. A 4.0 GPA student, Gribble has been named to the dean’s list with highest honors every semester. She is a member of Boise State’s Honors College, the Golden Key National Honor Society, National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. An involved student leader, she co-taught a leadership course in fall 2004. Gribble is a 2000 graduate of Bishop Kelly High School. She can be reached at 344-7516.

GRAD OVERCOMES OBSTACLES TO PURSUE ‘HIGHER CALLING’

Maria Gomez-Salinas worked as a Canyon County civil employee for 12 years before enrolling at Boise State. She said that she made the change because she felt a “higher calling” — that of being a teacher. She worked full time while attending school at night, and her professors call her extremely involved. As a student teacher, she spent many hours translating for parents and teachers and worked to bring more cultural awareness to school. Her latest project is a Cinco de Mayo celebration at Park Ridge Elementary in Nampa. She is a member of the Kappa Delta Pi Honor Sorority.

She has done all of this while caring for her wheelchair-bound husband, whom she calls “the strength of my character ... he fights for life, and I am an advocate for others.” She also cares for her parents. Gomez-Salinas can be reached at 455-0760 or MariaSalinas@mail.boisestate.edu

STUDENT ATHLETE IS TRUE TEAM PLAYER

When exercise science major Mindy Bennett first came to Boise State four years ago to play volleyball, little did she know she would wind up being a two-sport athlete for the Broncos. After completing her senior season in volleyball, Bennett joined BSU’s fledgling women’s ski team when it fell one skier below the required number athletes to compete in Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association events. By doing so, Bennett helped the Bronco ski team remain eligible for intercollegiate and regional competition.

The Arvada, Colo., native is not only a “team player” in every sense of the word in the athletic arena, she enjoyed a stellar career as a student and campus leader. Earlier this spring she was inducted into the 2005 class of the Founders’ Leadership Society at BSU. Criteria for the award include leadership skills, commitment to service, an appreciation for diversity and academic achievement. Bennett coaches the Idaho Elite Volleyball Club and is an intern for BSU’s biomechanics lab in the Center for Orthopaedic and Biomechanics Research. She is a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Golden Key honor societies and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and was named to the WAC All-Academic Team three times. She also served as president of the Boise State Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. After her graduation from Boise State later this month, Bennett hopes to enter medical school. She can be reached through Lori Hayes, sports information director, at 426-3438.

GRAD MASTERS THREE LANGUAGES IN QUEST TO BECOME BILINGUAL TEACHER

Eden Rodriguez was born in the United States but was raised in Mexico, where she graduated from high school in Loreto, BCS, Mexico. When she returned to the United States, she took English as a Second Language (ESL) courses to improve her written and verbal communication. She met her husband while attending Boise State in the late 1980s. The two have been married for 16 years and have two sons. She attended Boise State full time in the evenings to pursue her current career as an elementary school teacher and also received an endorsement in teaching ESL and bilingual education. She worked while attending evening school and raising her young family.

Rodriguez also took on the task of learning a third language, Portuguese, while working at Boise Cascade and attending school. Her tenacity and commitment to become a bilingual teacher are an inspiration. She can be reached at 989-4103, 465-6582 or EdenRodriguez@mail.boisestate.edu.

For more information, please contact Kathleen Craven, Communications Specialist, at 426-3275 or kcraven@boisestate.edu.

The Office of Communications and Marketing - Boise State University
1910 University Drive - Education Building, #726 - Boise Idaho 83725-1030

208-426-1577
(fax)208-426-4001

email newservices@boisestate.edu

Last reviewed on Thursday, December 22, 2005