The magazine for Western Washington University

Featured galleries

Science by Moonlight

Stories in this issue

Iron Heart

Triathlon legend Cherie Gruenfeld ('66) won't give up -- on herself or on the kids she coaches

Online exclusive: Five tips to get you to the top

Survivor's Story

Student Ater Malath wants you to know that he, and the world's newest country, have a future worth getting inspired about

Also: Before Ater Malath could continue his education, he needed to reunite his family

A journey for water

A recent alumna joins a Seattle family on their quest to bring clean water to their former village in Ethiopia

The Western-Microsoft connection

Have you heard about the not-so-secret network of hundreds of Microsoft employees?

The face of Windows: Julie Larson-Green ('86, Business Administration), Vice president of program management for Windows

The retired executive: David Cole ('84, Applied Mathematics; '86, M.S., Mathematics), retired senior vice president

The explainer: Keith Boyd ('95, Political Science), senior content publishing manager

The piano men

Richard E. Clark ('52, '70) never forgot how his piano teacher, Ford Hill, helped him start a new career

Also: New piano takes center stage

Capturing the sun

Tougher, more flexible solar panels could harness the sun's energy at less than half the cost

Online exclusive: Western could become a hub of solar research

Flames of autumn

Brown, Porter, Gruszecki and women's rowing bring home national titles

Fairhaven's Montoya-lewis joins a national panel on juvenile justice

Faculty develop apps for learning Spanish, German, mathematics

Meet the new Alumni board members

The WWU Alumni Association board of directors is an increasingly diverse group of accomplished alums

Paul Madison tallies up four decades of career highlights in Western Athletics

Paul Madison ('71) has told the story of Western Athletics since 1966

Alumna’s listening, persistence pay off in tribe’s journey to marriage equality

Heather Purser ('08) successfully lobbied her tribe to make same-sex marriage legal