Washington County BBQ & Senior Send-Off

The Washington County Alumni Chapter recently held its annual Summer BBQ and Senior Send-Off at Vernon Worthen Park in St. George. Nearly 100 alumni and their families attended and enjoyed good food and great company.


Chapter President Ryan Richey presented alumni scholarships to Payton Harris and Alyssa Morris. Both are new freshman and we welcome them -- and all incoming freshmen -- to SUU!

Alumnus Sam Lutui and his cousins Filipe and Sione Fa -- of Biggest Losers fame -- stopped by and shared their experiences from the hit televsion show.

Thank you to everyone who attended and helped make our BBQ a success!

SUU Commencement 2009!

Southern Utah University's 110th Commencement Ceremonies were held Saturday, May 2. The Class of 2009 totaled 1,755 - the largest ever - with 394 receiving master's degrees, 1,015 earning bachelor's degrees, 340 associate's degrees and six educational certificates. Graduates came from 15 different countries, 41 states and 26 Utah counties. They ranged in age from 17 to 67 years old and included 694 men and 1,061 women.

Honorary doctorate degrees were presented to reowned painter Jim Jones, LDS President Thomas S. Monson and the late philanthropist and economist Edward Rondthaler IV.

Congratulations to the Class of 2009 and Welcome to the SUU Alumni Association!

Alumni Spotlight: Katie Clifford

Katie Clifford (’98, Communication) lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and is the International Category Marketing Manager responsible for Golf and Women’s Fitness for PUMA Shoes.

After graduating from SUU, Katie served an LDS mission in Switzerland, returning home just in time to work in the Sport Department for 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.  She was assigned to Short Track and Figure Skating and quickly fell in love with the world of sports. 

Following the Olympics Katie was hired by a small women’s fitness shoe company called RYKA where she coordinated marketing activities and events.  A year ago she began working for a small fashion brand owned by PUMA called Tretorn, before making the jump to the “Big Cat” (PUMA).

In her new role with PUMA, Katie is part of a team that sets the strategy for the Golf and Women’s Fitness category.  Once the strategy is set, her team works with all the global markets to develop a marketing plan that will work for each area.  Katie is the coordinator between the creative department, the PR department, the product team and each market, and works to ensure that all their communication is as smooth as possible.

Katie has worked with Apolo Ohno , Geoff Ogilvy and Kelly Ripa, and has helped organize events such as the Avon Walks for Breast Cancer and the Iron Girl Race Series.   But even with all of that excitement, there are still stressful days filled with strategy planning and bottom line watching.  After a rough day, she admits that she pinches herself and says, “But seriously, you get paid to think about golf all day?  I’m a pretty lucky kid.”

One great SUU memory for Katie is the Unplugged Concert Series that was held every Wednesday in the Sharwan Smith Center Living Room.  She and her friends planned their class schedules around Unplugged and enjoyed a nice two-hour break with a slice of homemade bread with honey butter from the Country Store and a giant Coke.  They would sit up front and come away with a crush on whatever band was playing that day.  “The Student Center always felt like the pulse of campus – no matter what time of day you wandered in you would always find something going on.  I still miss having such easy access to my social network (with live people, not Facebook friends!).”

Alumni Spotlight: Joe Garces

Joe Garces (‘98, Elementary Education) is a professional firefighter for the Oxnard City Fire Department in southern California and published his first children’s book, Garrett the Firefighter, in October 2008.

Following his graduation from Southern Utah University, Joe spent five years teaching elementary school and high school English. He became a fulltime firefighter in 2002 and describes this career change as a huge transition. The job of teaching a class of 36 children and the responsibility of saving peoples lives are both great, but vastly different from one another.

While Joe has always loved to write and has written his entire life, it never crossed his mind to write a children’s book. The idea behind Garrett the Firefighter came from a song Joe would sing to his son Garrett before putting him to bed. One night while at the fire station and wishing he could be singing to his little boy, he came up with the idea to write a story that went along with his song. He got out of bed, turned on the computer and wrote Garrett the Firefighter. Four years later, in October 2008 the book was published and is currently being sold in 24 states and nine countries throughout the world.

He recently completed a second book that is scheduled for release in December 2009.  It is entitled Tyler the Cowpoke and was written for his middle son Tyler.

Joe has many fond memories of SUU. His most memorable was during his first Welcome Back Week when he attended a comedy show in the Adams Memorial Theater that featured a hypnotist. He remembers the night being crisp and cool, laughing with complete strangers and knowing that he had chosen the right school.

Joe resides in southern California with his wonderful wife Taira, and their three boys Garrett, Tyler and Ryan.

 

Alumni Spotlight: Bill McKane & Mechele Hebberd Collins

Bill McKane and Mechele Hebberd Collins were recently inducted into Southern Utah University’s Coaching Factory Hall of Fame for their achievements as coaches and their impact on youth and athletics.

Bill earned a bachelor's degree from SUU in 1972 and embarked on a lifelong career of exemplary coaching and teaching. A 1997 inductee into the SUU Athletic Hall of Fame, he has always strived to provide young athletes the means to improve their minds and abilities so they could then achieve their goals as individuals and as team members.

In 32 years as a football coach at Mesa High School in Mesa, Arizona, he has fashioned a winning percentage of .725 and produced numerous players who have achieved individual success as all- state performers, as high school all-Americans and as all-Western States stars. Two have gone on to the National Football League.

Bill's awards and honors over the years have been many and varied but perhaps most telling was his selection as a Super Learning Role Model by the Super Bowl XLII committee. That award, presented at the 2008 Super Learning Gala, marked Bill as a true and dedicated mentor to youth. His achievements include a 1992 state championship in football and a bevy of coach of the year awards as well as prep coaching awards from ESPN and the NFL.

Mechele, a 1985 graduate of SUU and current physical education department chair at Hillcrest High School in Midvale, Utah, has forged a brilliant career as coach of 12 Utah State 5A state championship teams and nine runner-up squads in three sports.

Following a stellar collegiate record as a gymnast and a national champion high jumper at SUU, where she is also enshrined in the Athletic Hall of Fame, she moved to Hillcrest and immediately began a successful run coaching gymnastics, winning five state crowns before the sport was discontinued by the Utah High School Activities Association in 1991. Her Huskie girl’s tennis teams won two state championships and a state second place trophy between 2002-2004. As coach of the Huskie boy’s tennis team in 2007, her squad finished second in the state.

She has coached the Hillcrest drill team for 17 years, racking up state championships in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008 and 2009. Along the way, her drill teams earned nine region crowns and seven second place trophies as well as more than a dozen national championships in various venues, including three times in the Champions Dance competition, twice in the United Spirit Association and twice in the New York Nationals.