Most Successful Grads

So our sports information director recently sent out an e-mail asking for a list of successful graduates for a series of articles he's working on. A couple of coaches hit "reply all" with some decent names, but in just a couple of minutes here's what I came up with:

• Alex Van Huis - admitted to four of the top fourteen biomedical engineering programs in the country (he didn't apply to the other ten) and is currently pursuing his PhD.
• Bryan Pelka - studying medicine at the armed services medical school in Bethesda (i.e. he's earning a salary instead of paying $100k/year in med school tuition).
• Ivan Manolov - recruited by Yahoo! out of school, quit that to make six-figures for a hot start-up in the valley (Honestly.com), though he's quitting that to work for another start-up (CollegeSwimming.com)
• Dr. Brad Wipfli - after studying neuroscience, Dr. Brad got his PhD from Arizona State. After this, he was awarded the 2009 dissertation of the year award from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education and is now a researcher at the Oregon Health & Science University.
• Nathan Fisher - just graduated from the National University of Health Sciences and is now a Chiropractor.
  
• Chris Trella - Getting Masters in Kinesiology from University of Johannesburg (South Africa) after teaching in Alaskan village and in China.
  
• Henry Somers & Nathaniel Chapman - rapidly rising up the corporate ladder for Oracle and Cummins up in the Twin Cities.
• Stacey Kiefer - Swimwear/Apparel Purchasing Manager with Adolph Kiefer & Associates. She's also a part-time model for Jockey International (photo right).
  
• Steve Szymanski - recruited straight out of Carthage to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the Big Five accounting firms.
• James Beaman & Charlie Staniger - James works at Corporate for Walgreens while Charlie is on the managerial fast-track and running the store at 18th street;
• Justin Reeder - Deputy Sheriff, Porter County Indiana; and
  
• Teachers & Coaches: Almost too many to mention and many I'm sure I've forgotten but they include Andy Bax & Tracey Keckler - both teachers here in KUSD; Tricia Biedron and Kristen Martin (Suburbs), Nick Parry (West Chicago), Jessica Bogie (Delta Aquatics), Delilah Center (Chesterton, Indiana) Amanda Croix (west point), really too many to mention
• 
  

I'm sure I've forgotten some, but not a bad list.

Beijing Blog: Arrival

The gang is almost all here! I was the first of what will eventually be ten of us. We are staying at the apartment of Steve and Cindy Chapman, parents of Nathaniel ('06). The only one not here is actually Nathaniel who is stuck home for a day after losing his passport.

Once Chip and Henry arrived we ventured out to explore the Olympic grounds. Beach volleyball will be taking place just a few blocks from here in Beijing's largest park. After several mis-steps and being pointed in the right direction, we purchased some tickets to something akin to a Fan-Fest. The 500 RMB tickets (about eighty cents) proved a fortuitous purchase as they enabled us to ride the subway for free.

The tickets were also helpful because they looked awfully close to the tickets for the opening ceremonies (which are amazing). We didn't get into the stadium but we did manage to act like we knew where we were going and breeze through about four different checkpoints (well, Chip and I did - Henry had trouble pulling it off until about the third try).

Beijing has proven an interesting contrast between desolation and massive crowds. The entire city has essentially shut down. Restaurants are closed. Streets are barracaded. The airport this morning was empty. But as we got closer to the arenas, the crowds were vast.

The only thing out-numbering the tourists were the soldiers, volunteers and other helpers. They are everywhere, even standing on the side of the highway. It is clear that everyone is very conscious of the world's impression of China. Everyone is eager to try out their English when they see us coming.

As if that wasn't enough to make you feel like a celebrity, how about getting interviewed - in the middle of an eight-lane street? That's what happened when we were stopped and told to turn around by one of the many officers. Then, just 30' after being turned around, we were told to turn back around. That's when members of the state media came forward to interview me and ask me about the games. They seemingly couldn't believe that I'd arrived just that morning and had already ventured out to explore.

So now, we're sitting back enjoy a thouroughly-American dinner of hamburgers, watermelon, baked beans and "Coke Light" while watching the opening ceremonies.

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