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Dog to walk down the hill with partially paralyzed graduate
Adam Burnett, a Melvern senior who will graduate from the University of Kansas on Sunday with a bachelor's degree in atmospheric science, will head down the hill in a wheelchair with his constant companion, Lorax. The yellow Labrador retriever has attended six years of college classes with her human partner, helping perform tasks that the partially paralyzed Burnett otherwise would find difficult. Burnett was injured in a diving accident just two days after his high school graduation in 1994.
"She's with me all the time," Burnett said of Lorax. "Who wouldn't want a dog to pal around with? The fact that she helps me out is just another added bonus."
Contact: Adam Burnett, (785) 812-1016 or (785) 549-3460
WNBA star interrupts training to graduate, walk down the hill
Last month, when Lynn Pride reported to her WNBA training camp, she packed the essentials: sneakers, warm-ups and her western civilization reading materials. Pride, a former women's basketball standout at the University of Kansas, will complete her degree in African-American studies this May. When she was drafted, she left KU with two semesters' worth of classes remaining toward her degree.
Pride had to juggle practices and training camp with classes and homework assignments. That meant a hectic travel schedule throughout this school year, shuttling back and forth between Lawrence and Minnesota, where she plays for the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx. "The fact that I'm the first in my family to graduate from college motivated me," she said.
Contact: Ranjit Arab, University Relations, (785) 864-8855, or Renate Mai Dalton, School of Business, (785) 864-7566
Graduate was no chicken when it came to getting a job
When it comes to creativity in getting a job upon graduation, Cori Gilbert stands apart from the flock. With a master's degree student in communication studies, Gilbert had her eye on the big Houston public relations firm The Richards Group. "I knew the job market was really bad right now, so I had to find a way to stand out," she said. In doing extensive research on The Richards Group she learned that one of its clients is Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chicken restaurant chain. So Gilbert wrote a cover letter salted with numerous chicken references. Then she sealed her resume inside a chicken-shaped pinata and sent both off to Texas.
Soon Gilbert will be winging her way to Texas to work in The Richards Group's account service department doing brand management.
Contact: Cori Gilbert, (785) 218-0576
A lawyer on a path to becoming "CSI"
As a special assistant attorney general in Nebraska, Lisa Swinton McLaughlin used her legal skills to solve child abuse cases. Now she is adding a medical degree and dreams of using her newly acquired medical skills to solve the kinds of cases featured on TV crime-scene investigator dramas "CSI" and "Crossing Jordan."
As a lawyer, McLaughlin dealt with children who developed major medical problems or psychological problems as result of abuse. While she could save them from their abusers, she was frustrated she didn't have the skills to also solve their medical or psychological trauma.
So after 13 years as a lawyer, McLaughlin went to KU medical school with plans to become a family physician. However, she soon discovered her problem-solving skills honed as a lawyer would be best applied as a forensic pathologist. After graduation this May, she will begin a five-year residency and fellowship program in anatomic and clinical pathology and in forensic pathology and begin training as a medical examiner.
Contact: Lisa Swinton McLaughlin, (816) 361-5728
Note: Father was former Missouri state Sen. Lee Swinton; mother Grace Swinton taught in Kansas City, Mo., School District for 35 years.
Graduate bound for Israel to study conflict resolution
Almas Tabassum Sayeed, Wichita senior graduating from the University of Kansas on May 19 with three degrees and a Fulbright scholarship, does not seek an easy path. Next fall, Sayeed, who is Muslim, plans to enroll at Hebrew University in Jerusalem as a Fulbright scholar to research strategies for conflict resolution employed by six women's peace groups in Israel and Palestine. She will be affiliated with the Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University.
Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap, University Relations, (785) 864-8853
A medical degree, 30 years delayed
Thirty years ago, Patricia Callaway Daniel was accepted to attend the prestigious Vanderbilt University medical school. Her course in life seemed assured. But life intervened.
She married her skydiving instructor and began raising their daughter. That marriage failed and it was 10 years later, as a single parent, that she earned a doctorate in biochemistry, finally completing her schooling -- or so she thought.
Even though she developed a successful career as a biochemist, rising to senior vice president of the medical testing service Lab One, medical school still called to her.
Four years ago, the same year her daughter graduated from college, Daniel finally entered medical school. This month, Daniel will complete medical school as a graduate of the University of Kansas. She now begins residency training to become a pediatrician and child psychiatrist at the University of Utah.
Contact: Patricia Callaway Daniel, (913) 894-1661 or pdaniel@kumc.edu
Deaf education graduate celebrates deaf culture with family
Even though Kester Marsh can hear, his family will say their congratulations with American Sign Language during the University of Kansas School of Education convocation on Saturday, May 18, at the Lied Center. With the exception of his 8-month-old daughter, Tymber Rain, all members of his family are deaf. His wife, Robyn, their 3-year-old son, Aryzona Sting, and Kester's parents, Charles and Kathy Marsh of Olathe, are deaf.
Marsh, who earned a master's degree in deaf education, will walk down the Hill Sunday during KU commencement at Memorial Stadium.
Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap, University Relations, (785) 864-8853
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