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November 16, 2009
Kai Petainen loves a good adventure. Whether it’s swimming in the Arctic Ocean or hiking mountains in the Yukon, you can count him in. Petainen, the trading floor manager of the Tozzi Finance Center at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, takes annual trips with his wife to places that most people only dream…
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November 9, 2009
From art connoisseur to creative novices, most people who walk into a gallery or museum understand the important role played by the curators and exhibition staff. “You can’t just hang a painting on a nail and wipe your hands and walk away,” says School of Art and Design (A&D) Exhibition Coordinator Mark Nielsen. “Every element…
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November 2, 2009
Some kids grow up wanting to be a rock star. Crystal Borgman became one, at least locally. Borgman, a desktop support specialist at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, spends her extra hours playing drums in a local band, Lagerhaus5. “The name was derived from my husband’s and the lead guitarist’s shared love…
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October 26, 2009
Ryan N. Wilcox is a technology guru by day and his wife’s comic book career manager by night. Not unlike the protagonists in many comic books, Wilcox and his wife, illustrator Katie Cook, maintain double lives, each attending their 9-5 jobs and then rendezvousing at home for hours of brainstorming, storyboarding and illustrating. (Photo by…
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October 19, 2009
Sooner or later, some people are bound to have a life-changing experience. For Alex Pompe, his came when he joined the Peace Corps. (Photo by Scott Galvin, U-M Photo Services) Pompe, a Peace Corps campus coordinator at The International Center and a first-year graduate student in the School of Information, was inspired by his past…
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October 12, 2009
Katy Mattingly isn’t afraid to walk alone at night. The executive secretary in the Division of Student Affairs is a self-defense instructor in her free time, and she knows that, if necessary, she could stop any attacker in his or her tracks. (Photo by Scott Galvin, U-M Photo Services) Mattingly wasn’t always planning to teach…
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October 5, 2009
For some people, eating locally grown food is one way to support the local economy, promote environmentally friendly farming habits and create a strong sense of community. For Garin Fons, it “just comes down to the fact that local food tastes better.” (Photo by Austin Thomason, U-M Photo Services) Fons, an open education specialist in…
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September 28, 2009
From “Volunteen” for the American Red Cross to adult volunteer with the American Cancer Society, Lance Armstrong Foundation, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Food Gatherers, the Baking Brigade with Avalon Housing and more, Michelle Nasers keeps working to make the world a better place. (Photo courtesy Michelle Nasers) “I’ve been so fortunate in my life. I’m…
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September 21, 2009
Campus free-throw legend David Rigan has made more than 100 straight basketball free-throws in practice three times, and once won an all-campus free-throw championship with 95 out of 100. “I stumbled on what I would say is a methodical way of practicing,” he says, in the 1970s. “It’s a philosophical thing. You want to make…
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September 14, 2009
Amy Karaban, the assistant director for student activities at UM-Dearborn helps inspire students on a local level, creating lasting change in communities in Michigan and across the country. “Students come into my office and say ‘Well, I can’t solve world peace …’ and I just say, ‘OK, but what can you do?’ and together we…
