After an honorable discharge from the Army, I returned home with a new vision and new energy. I was now a veteran in an America that was turning hostile to those of us who served. I know that is hard to believe in today’s culture, where people say to men and women in uniform, “Thank you for your service.” It wasn’t that way so much in Yakima, but in general, veterans were no longer appreciated.
My focus was on getting the education I had rejected in 1966-67 and seeking a new start.
GWU is a well-established academic center in the heart of the Nation’s Capital, located in Foggy Bottom, just a few blocks west of the White House. Chartered by an act of Congress in 1821, it today has over 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students. It was my first experience with a major urban liberal arts university with all the diversity and opportunity one might expect in Washington, D.C.
The graduate school MPA program consisted mainly of night classes because most of the students worked for federal government agencies in Washington, D.C., during the day. I lived on campus in a dormitory that housed only graduate, medical, and law school students. It was a one-year program, and I received a Master’s Degree in Public Administration in 1974. The program is now part of the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at GWU.
The 1972-73 academic year at GWU was a time of growth in my life. I don’t have many photos of those days but you can click here to see one.
Ellensburg, Washington, was a good place for me in 1970. I lived off campus with my friend Kurt Layman for the first year and then hung around other places until graduation in 1972. I got a BA in Sociology, and my GPA was good enough to earn a scholarship to George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Founded as Yakima Valley Junior College in 1928, it is located at the intersection of 16th and Lenox Avenues. The students at YVC loved to tell their out-of-town friends and relatives they attended UCLA (University at the Corner of Lenox Avenue). Lenox Avenue was later changed to Nob Hill Boulevard, which, of course, killed the insider joke.
Skagit Valley College is the second oldest community college in the state of Washington. It is located on College Way in Mount Vernon and has two beautiful campuses in Mount Vernon and Oak Harbor. After we moved to Skagit County, I took a Spanish Language evening class at the college. In 2000, Governor Gary Locke appointed me to the SVC Board of Trustees. Governor Christine Gregoire reappointed me to a second term, and I served until 2010.
June 2001 SVC Graduation, Board of Trustees: From the left, Lydia Lydesma-Reese, president, Tom, Katie Philbrick, Jess del Bosque, Barbara Anderson, Elizabeth Hancock.
