FEATURES

The manual typewriter wasn't such a rarity 35 years ago when the Master of Fine Arts in creative writing program was established at WSU. Today, the program - among the oldest in the nation - offers serious, aspiring writers an apprenticeship in writing fiction, poetry and nonfiction, enriched by the study of literature.

It would have been a more lucrative career. But in 1989, during her senior year of chemical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Lisa Meiers '05 had an inkling that her professional life was going to veer from the path she had originally envisioned.

This summer semester The Shocker's student editorial assistant Molly Walsh embarked on what has been aptly described as a "boot camp" for journalists: Greensburg Rebirth. Here is Walsh's first-hand report about her two-week stay in Greensburg, Kan., the tornado-ravaged town that has gained worldwide attention for rebuilding "green."

Mark Parkinson '80 took over the Kansas gubernatorial reigns from Kathleen Sebelius on April 28, the day Sebelius gained Senate confirmation as the 21st U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Parkinson is Kansas' 45th governor.