Whitties in the World

Hello everyone,

This summer has flown by and in my travels in and out of Walla Walla I thought I'd posted a couple times, once on the summer construction with our outdoor courts and once with some of the news our team has been making.  My apologies for the technical breakdown, I'll try to post a timeline of the court construction soon, which you can also read about on Coach Jeff's Men's tennis blog at http://www.whitmantennis.net/outdoor-courts/

BUT, the reason I'm writing you is to let you know what happens AFTER our Whitties leave the Whitman bubble and move on to the 'real world'.  A recent wedding of alums who both spent time as assistant coaches here brought back many former players from their jobs, grad schools, med schools and worldly adventures.

The short version is that both Kate Kunkel-Patterson and Alyssa Roberg have jobs right out of school working in fields that they are passionate about.

The more detailed version starts with KKP, who was recently featured on the Whitman website with a story of her gaining her dream job.  I have to admit when Kate first told me that as a History major she a) did not want to teach and b) was obsessed with the civil war, I was skeptical of whether she would end up doing anything relating to her degree.

http://www.whitman.edu/newsroom/headline-news/my-dream-job

This was one of many lessons I have learned in 5 years at Whitman not to assume anything about these students.  Kate's passion and drive to make her dream happen are not uncommon on campus and as her coach I couldn't be happier for anyone that she is heading to South Carolina with a full time job in Civil War History....WOW.

This trait to discover the things that really fire them up and make them a part of their life both during and after college is not monopolized by Kate.  Kate's fellow 2013 grad Alyssa has just moved to Texas (possibly under the influence of her friends' copious reminders that Texas is the best, or maybe because she met someone special at school who is attending Baylor med school...hmmmm.).  Well, she's in Houston and has excitedly reported already getting a job at the Westview School.  While she did study education along with her Psychology degree, Alyssa wasn't looking to be a teacher per se.  She has had an interest in special education, specifically how people learn (which she did a cool senior thesis on).  During internships the past two summers and now at her job, she is working with students on the autism spectrum.

If anyone has the love of children and the immense patience and caring required to work with autistic children it is Alyssa.  But more than just working, she is gaining experience that she can carry into further study and/or work in special education.  If being a teaching assistant wasn't enough, she is also working part time in a clinic that provides therapy around the verbal behavior of children with autism. In her words:

Basically, I am working at the clinic to get experience with ABA, which is the only autism treatment that has any empirical support... but is very different from what I am trained in (which was Son-Rise), and many people/schools do not like the rote, mechanical therapy that ABA provides. The Westview School does not use ABA, and Son-Rise was basically the opposite of ABA, so I am kind of inherently against it, but obviously need to experience it first hand to develop my own opinions on it. 

There are so many other great stories of what our players are doing: Elise just finished a second year with Princeton in Asia, Charlotte has worked two years in Spain, Lizzy is still doing Americorps in Hawaii, Zoe and Emily are in Seattle loving life, Alex (Duke), Jacquie (Montana State) and Katie (Montana) are in grad school, Hadley is working full time in Sun Valley and Div is still at OHSU Med School.

Now that we've looked back a bit, stay tuned for future posts looking forward to this years team, our new facilities and some other things we've been working on.

Proudly,
Coach John