Milestones

Updated Milestones are here!Class of 1995

Dan Euhus

Dan accepted a position with Shintech as senior project engineer for a new Ethylene Cracker they are building in Plaquemine, La.

Thao Duc Tu

Thao’s profession is an X-Ray technologist at The Vancouver Clinic in Vancouver, Wash. He is a volunteer teacher at Van Lang Vietnamese School in Portland on Sundays. As vice president of the Vietnamese Community of Oregon, he has managed various projects: Vietnamese Dual Language Immersion, Vietnamese New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival and Rose Festival. They provide free tax services, senior citizen outings and student scholarships. His other activities include Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Institute (APICLI), Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO), and a member of the Madison High School Modernization Master Planning Committee. These are his new and exciting challenges for public service.

Class of 2000

Jennifer Kalez

In December 2015, Jennifer accepted a job with the State of Oregon. She serves the State as a public affairs and outreach coordinator at the Oregon Department of Energy.

Class of 2001

Sara (Brownell) Dotson

This last year, Sara was promoted to program supervisor, overseeing Adult Services for a County Community Behavioral Health Program. She’s had the privilege of implementing an ACT program. She’s worked with community partners to develop and implement a Mental Health Court program. Sara recently wrote two grants in which she hopes to be able to develop a Mobile Response Crisis Team, where law enforcement is paired with a behavioral health clinician to respond to dispatch calls. It has been exciting for her to analyze community gaps and look at program development to meet the needs of her community.

Class of 2003

Teresa Gomez

Teresa is in her third year of serving as an early intervention specialist (special education teacher for infants and toddlers) for the Willamette Education Service District in Salem. She has also become an entrepreneur and has a Metro PCS store in Salem, which she personally attends.

Class of 2005

Brian Eberhardt

Brian and Chloe were married in July 2014 in Philomath at Lumos Winery in the presence of friends and family. He graduated with a Master’s in Public Administration, Natural Resource Management and Policy from Portland State University and was hired as a business analyst for the Multnomah County Drainage District in September 2015.

Class of 2007

Shaleah (Towle) Wagner

Shaleah co-wrote and produced her first short film, and it was accepted and screened at FAB Fest for up-and-coming female filmmakers.

Class of 2009

Marshall Curry

On Nov. 1, 2015, Nelya Drofyak, Ford Scholar Class of 2006, agreed to spend the rest of her life with her best friend. It is hard to believe, but she made him happier than the day he received his Ford Family Scholarship. They plan to get married after her graduation from the physician assistant program at Oregon Health and Science University in late summer 2017. He wants her and everyone else to know he is still very happy.

Elise Heidy

Since graduating from George Fox University with a social work degree in May of 2013, Elise has lived overseas in Kotido, Uganda. She works with a team that serves the nomadic pastoralist Jie Karimojong people, striving to see a Karimojong expression of the church that is Biblical and self-sustaining. She oversees a project that helps culturally vulnerable women make handmade journals and use the income to help their families. She has helped women during childbirth and is applying for an overseas midwifery training program. She wants to become a midwife and then come back to Uganda to better the healthcare system and continue with discipleship and church-planting among unreached people.

Vanessa (Michaels) Navarro-Gomez

Vanessa graduated with her Master of Public Administration degree with a concentration in nonprofit management from the University of Colorado Denver in December of 2015. She recently started a new position at the University of Colorado Boulder as a first-year academic advisor and is passionate about helping students successfully transition to college life.

Brittanie (May-Fitch) Roberts

This last year has been full and exciting for Brittanie. In the spring of 2015, she ran for the local school board and won a seat. She also received a faculty internship to Portland Community College, where she is being mentored by a veteran employee. She hopes that this internship will help her transition into a teaching position with PCC, which is where she has always wanted to work. Brittanie also learned over Christmas break that she and her husband are expecting their second child. She hopes everyone else is experiencing great opportunities and fulfilling their goals.

Class of 2010

Ashley (DeSautel) Barth

Ashley obtained a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and passed the National Council Licensure Examination last summer. She accepted a registered-nurse position in the Emergency Department at Salem Hospital, the busiest ED from Seattle to San Diego and an innovative Magnet Hospital. She then was certified as a trauma nurse. She absolutely loves her job and coworkers. Ashley and her husband bought their first house in November and are enjoying being first-time homeowners.

Class of 2011

Christian Ochoa

Christian started graduate school at Western Oregon University in management and information systems. He also recently started working at Nike and hopes to move up to the headquarters after graduating. He plans to travel to Ecuador this summer to visit the country and learn about startup businesses. He will have a month-long internship with the owner and CEO of Community Hostel to gain insight on startup businesses in a foreign country.

Olivia Ponce

Olivia works at a women’s outpatient drug and alcohol treatment facility. She witnesses women change not only their lives from addiction to recovery daily, but the future for them and their children. It is a humbling experience for her, and she appreciates these women allowing her in their lives to help make positive change.