I have been enjoying travels these past few weeks as I advocate on behalf of the college in Washington, D.C., attending a conference focused on topics of national importance to veterinary medicine, and meeting with donors on the west side of the state. Urban environments full of cherry blossoms to the beautiful waters of Puget Sound — environments so very different from those of the Palouse. Beauty in such a very different way. Feeling grateful. Earlier this week, I felt a different sort of gratitude.
WSU’s annual day of giving, affectionately called #CougsGive, was a resounding success in so many ways. In the spirit of my inner competitor, I will tell you our college, once again, raised more money ($161,833) and had a greater number of total gifts (320) than any other college at the university. Dr. Steve Hines, emeritus professor extraordinaire, led the ambassador board with over 100 people giving through his ambassador link — he successfully raised more money and brought in more gifts than any other ambassador. Relationships matter and Dr. Hines has those in abundance. Thank you, as always. I may have spent a minute or two gloating to a few other deans on the evening of Cougs Give. I hope they forgive me for my moment of impropriety. The good news is my inner competitor also resulted in personal giving which I spread out among several gifts that benefit our programs. I have been the recipient of generosity and one lovely side about giving is it inspires paying it forward. And I can’t forget the generosity of our development and communications teams that work so hard to steward donors and tell our stories. And they are stories worth telling.
Over the next year, you will be hearing stories about our new public health undergraduate education program (our first two faculty have been hired!), our global health initiatives (we have successfully completed another step in our goal to initiate a joint PhD program with the University of Nairobi), our new federally funded resilient livestock initiative, and our dreams for expanded research support for aquatic health. We will also focus on stories around our campaign priorities that include student success, teaching hospital support, research, One Health, and global health. We do so much that impacts our community, region, nation, and world. Thank you for the support you have already given, we will be continuing the conversation.
If you’d like to know more, you can always read the latest stories from our college on our news page. For even more content, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and TikTok.
Be safe, healthy, happy, and stay hopeful.