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April 7, 2011  |  Cheer, Meet, Outside Seattle

Brandon Roy, Nate Robinson meet with Husky fans

By Derek Belt

Brandon Roy and Nate Robinson - UW HuskiesBrandon Roy and Nate Robinson are Husky basketball legends. Both spoke to UW alumni and fans at an exclusive post-game Q&A following the Portland Trail Blazers-Oklahoma City Thunder game April 1 at the Rose Garden.

It was all part of the UW Alumni Association’s fifth annual Husky Night with the Trail Blazers. Brandon Roy, an All-Star for the Blazers, has been our star here since he was drafted by Portland in 2006. Nate Robinson, the only player in NBA history to win three Slam Dunk contests, just so happened to be in town with the Thunder.

And, yes, since the game was against the Thunder (who used to be the Seattle SuperSonics – grrrr!), many loyal Sonics fans showed up wearing their green and gold.

Two Husky legends in an intimate setting—this is what the UWAA is all about!

More than 100 people came out for the event, which began with a Husky Happy Hour in downtown Portland. We raffled off a few great prizes, including a Brandon Roy autographed jersey and a picture with Brandon after the game. The Blazers rallied for a 98–91 victory after being down 11 points at halftime.

The Q&A following the game was a lot of fun. Everyone was pleasantly surprised when Brandon was joined by Nate Robinson, who was recently traded to the Thunder. Together, they answered questions like:  “What did you think of Isaiah Thomas going to the NBA?” and, “What was your favorite memory as a Husky?”

As always, it was a very exciting and fun-filled evening. Go Huskies!

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April 4, 2011  |  Cheer, Meet

One in 3 million: UW alum Diana Inch is the only entrant to correctly pick the Final Four

By Derek Belt

UW alum Diana Rich correctly picks Final FourBe honest, how many of your teams actually made it to the Final Four this year? Not many, if you’re like most of America. In fact, 80 percent of brackets filled out on the Yahoo! Tourney Pick ‘Em game failed to pick a single Final Four team. Not a single one!

Diana Inch had them all. The UW alum and high school librarian is the only participant out of rougly 3 million in the Yahoo! universe to correctly pick the Final Four: Connecticut, Kentucky, Butler and Virginia Commonwealth. She has UConn vs. Butler in the NCAA title game, and believes the “other” Huskies will win the national championship.

Read a full-length interview with Diana from Yahoo! Sports. She says her favorite numbers are 7 and 11 and picked teams closest to that throughout the tournament. Butler is a No. 8 seed, while VCU was a No. 11 seed. She also picked winners based on mascots that were either dogs, cats or had four legs. UConn Huskies. Kentucky Wildcats. Butler Bulldogs. VCU Rams. “Any mascots we didn’t know, I looked up online,” Diana told Yahoo! Sports. “That’s what librarians do, we look things up!”

A 1996 graduate of the UW iSchool, Diana is a librarian and coaches girls soccer at Jefferson High School near Salem, Ore. Way to go, Diana!

Photo courtesy of AP.

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March 4, 2011  |  Meet

Life’s a dish for “Orangette” author Molly Wizenberg

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UW alum and Orangette author Molly WizenbergAn intense love of food is nothing new to Molly Wizenberg, a former Ph.D. student at the University of Washington who now writes a popular food blog along with a full plate of other goodies.

Molly came to the UW after graduating from Stanford to study the cultural values surrounding the French social security system in the pursuit of becoming a medical anthropologist. Today, she is very far from that goal. Now she’s the author of Orangette, a tasty blog that mixes Molly’s life experiences with the foods she loves. She’s also the co-host of the humorous food podcast Spilled Milk as well as a columnist for various food magazines, author of the best-selling book A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, and co-owner of the Ballard pizzeria Delancey with husband Brandon Pettit.

Molly has become a true foodie of Seattle. “I’m just grateful to earn a living doing work that I love,” she said. “That’s the best part, hands down.”

Orangette is the blog Molly began in 2004 just after leaving the cultural anthropology program atCake by Molly Wizenberg UW. Since then, she has shared with readers stories about her past, her love of food and many innovations on new and old recipes. Molly recently announced she had sent out her new book proposal, and while she cannot divulge the secrets of her new book she did say it will be similar to her previous book, which intertwined memories with the food that made them memorable; much like the blog does on a day-to-day basis.

The stories Molly tells on Orangette are heartfelt and honest, and her inner self shows through completely. In the story of living in France and having leeks vinaigrette prepared by her host mother, readers can feel the love of learning about new food. Likewise, her enjoyment of summer is evident in the raspberry yogurt popsicles she shared with readers last July.

Read more…

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March 1, 2011  |  Meet, On Campus

Beloved UW Lecturer Karma Hadjimichalakis passes away

By Derek Belt

UW Lecturer Karma Hadjimichalakis passes away.The University of Washington lost a dear friend recently. Dr. Karma Hadjimichalakis of the Foster School of Business passed away Feb. 21 after a long illness.

Karma was Principal Lecturer in Business Economics and Finance, and served as co-host for the popular “State of the Economy” forum along with her colleague Dr. Ed Rice. A native of Utica, New York, she joined the UW faculty  in 1970 and won more than 45 major teaching awards, including the first PACCAR Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Foster School’s highest recognition of teaching excellence.

Karma was a favorite of many UW students and alumni, and the UWAA wishes her family all the best. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to either Northwest Harvest or the Karma Impact Fund (click on “Search” and type in “Karma Impact Fund”).

Read more on Karma’s life and accomplishments in this story from the Foster School of Business and this beautiful piece from the Seattle Times.

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February 9, 2011  |  Act, Meet

UW alum Ken Hughes and the JaK’s Grill community

By Derek Belt

UW alumni Ken Hughes of JaK's Grill (Harley Soltes)The story of JaK’s Grill is the story of community.

Ken Hughes and his business partner, John, both UW alums and the principal owners of the popular JaK’s Grill family, started the restaurant in 1996 in the Admiral District of West Seattle. They were hands-on from the beginning, bringing in their own equipment and building their own stuff, including the wood benches that are now a staple of the JaK’s experience.

Today, there are three JaK’s Grills: the original in West Seattle—albeit in a new location down the street—and two additional spots in Issaquah and Laurelhurst. Opening in Laurelhurst, with its close proximity to the UW campus, was like coming home for Ken and John. “It’s a nice place to celebrate a victory,” Ken says. “We’ve had some bad years recently, but I see a lot of Cougars buying after the Apple Cup.”

The two Huskies, both economics majors at the UW, wanted to excel at customer service and aimed to become “the Nordstrom of neighborhood steakhouses.” Ken is proud of the restaurant’s local roots and the fact it supports roughly 100 employees who work in the JaK’s community.

“It feels good giving people a place to work, especially at the UW,” he says. “We see a lot of really good young people working their way through college.”

Last year, the JaK’s team opened the Sunset Alehouse in Issaquah that is Husky-themed. It’s not your traditional bar, but a hybrid with “a little pub feel, a little alehouse feel.” So far, the restaurant has given the loyal JaK’s following a place to enjoy in addition to their favorite Grill.

Read more…

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February 8, 2011  |  Learn, Meet

Two UW alums elected to National Academy of Engineering

By Derek Belt

UW alum Frank Robinson elected to engineering academyTwo UW alums, Frank Robinson and Hank Levy, have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the most prestigious honors an engineer can receive.

Robinson, a 1957 UW alum and lifetime member of the UW Alumni Association, is retired president and chairman of Robinson Helicopter Co. He was elected for the “conception, design, and manufacture of low-noise, low life-cycle cost, and high-reliability helicopters.” A former engineer for Bell and Hughes and a few other multimillion-dollar helicopter makers, Robinson wanted to create a reliable “personal” helicopter that was affordable for flight schools, small business and thrill seekers. In 1973, he founded Robinson Helicopter in his living room and today outsells all North American manufacturers put together. Robinson was named one of the 26 most fascinating entrepreneurs by Inc. magazine in 2005.

Levy, a 1987 UW alum, teaches at UW and is the Wissner-Slivka Endowed Chair in Computer Science and Engineering.  He was elected for “contributions to design, implementation, and evaluation of operating systems, distributed systems, and processor architectures.” Levy is the author of two books and over 100 papers on computer systems design, and in 2006 co-founded of Skytap, a Seattle cloud-computing company. He also co-founded Performant, a Java performance company acquired by Mercury in 2003.

Here are this week’s Dawg Treats:

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February 7, 2011  |  Columns, Learn, Meet

New – Watch videos on the Columns website

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Seattle Camera Club photo by Frank Asakichi Kunishige Betti, ca. 1924. Like Columns magazine? Like UWTV? How about the Seattle Camera Club story that ran in Columns in December and on UW 360 this month?

Then, we hope you’ll love this: Readers can now enjoy our Camera Club story, then watch UW 360′s fantastic episode on the club, all from the Columns website. Click here to watch the video and see the new feature!

This is just another look at how we storytellers are beginning to work together across the UW campus. I’m excited to see how this evolves.

Until then, check out the entire UW 360 February episode :

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February 2, 2011  |  Act, Learn, Meet

UW’s workplace giving campaign raises $2 million

By Derek Belt

George Washington statue at the University of Washington
Every year, the state of Washington’s Combined Fund Drive raises millions of dollars for local charities, and the University of Washington plays a major role in that effort.

Our annual workplace giving campaign, the Combined Fund Drive ended Dec. 10 and UW faculty and staff raised a record-breaking $2,044,404. I was lucky enough to serve as a campaign coordinator for the UW Alumni Association and University Advancement. This was an honor indeed, and I am proud of what we accomplished.

Peter Kelley, assistant editor of UW Today, caught up with Campaign Manager Kerri Everly and penned a nice story on this year’s wrap-up. Everly said the UW’s fundraising represents 36 percent of the total raised throughout the state. Northwest Harvest was the top charity to support for UW employees, while the UW Foundation and University Food Bank were also popular gifts. All told, there were more than 2,800 charities to choose from, and many rely on the Combined Fund Drive to support their annual budgets.

“It was a tough year this year but people are really still supporting their beloved charities,” Everly told UW Today. “That makes it even more special, that the UW community stepped up in that way.”

Read the full story here, and make quick work of this week’s Dawg Treats:

  • Nathaniel Greenberg, a doctoral candidate at the UW who is studying in Egypt, offers his views of the uprising from his Cairo neighborhood. A great read from The Common Language Project as published in the Seattle Times.
  • The UW is partnering with Intel and the U.S. military to help scientists experiment with designs for faster, more energy-efficient optoelectronic chips that compute using both electrical impulses and photons of light. Sounds impressive.
  • A study by the UW, University of British Columbia and University of Wisconsin looked at more than 1,600 college students and discovered that many depressed students are being missed. According to researchers, one out of every four students who visits a university health center has the signs of depression.
  • The Dream Project, founded at the UW to help low-income and first-generation students get to college, was awarded a $972,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

    Read more…

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