Making Whitworth Home Beyond Graduation
By Bethany Monroe

Gail Fielding, '62, still cannot eat green Jell-O. She remembers her studies at Whitworth fondly, but her memories of the dining hall's vegetable and lime Jell-O concoction and other menu items are less positive.

"The dining room gave a new meaning to mystery meat," she said.

When current students complain about cafeteria food, Fielding has little sympathy. But she knows much more about Whitworth than the cafeteria's history. She spent four years as a student and later returned to the campus to serve as the Harriet Cheney Cowles Library inter-library/reference specialist, a job she has held for over 30 years.

"The day I graduated, I said, 'Someday I want to come back here and work,'" Fielding said.

While the Whitworth experiences of most alumni span roughly four years of their lives, some make Whitworth their permanent home. From the library to the fieldhouse, Whitworth alumni can be found teaching and working on staff. Some dreamed as students of working at Whitworth; others never imagined they would return to their alma mater. But they all seem to have one thing in common: a love for the Whitworth community.

Like Fielding, Janie (Pryor, '68) Edwards has also watched Whitworth change. A lifelong dancer, she participated in a student protest urging the administration to allow dancing on campus. The rules have changed since then, and Edwards now teaches ballroom dance at Whitworth.

Edwards met her husband, Jim Edwards, '67, while attending Whitworth. Although they now both teach, their jobs are decidedly different. Janie teaches dances ranging from salsa to the lindy hop, while Jim serves as a theology professor and department chair.

"I always say, 'Jim knows five languages and I know 25 dances,'" Edwards said. "He'll never know all the dances I know, and I'll never know all the languages he knows."

The couple has been married for nearly 40 years. After his graduation from Fuller Seminary in 1973, Jim Edwards' had a bout with cancer that helped lead him to his teaching career.

"I wasn't given a very good prognosis to live, so we decided it was best to do what I wanted to do. I became a professor at Jamestown College, in North Dakota."

Edwards survived cancer and taught at Jamestown for 19 years before a teaching position brought him back to Whitworth in 1997. He had not been on campus in 28 years. Since his days as a student, the college had added many new buildings and the student body had doubled, but the same Whitworth spirit remained.

"There's kind of an openness and curiosity about the world, an adventuresome spirit – a desire to test and not be limited by conventional boundaries," Edwards said. "Most Whitworth graduates go out and do interesting things. They don't go out and fit into the boxes society wants them to."

Alan Mikkelson, '00, is in his first year as a communications professor at Whitworth. Mikkelson was still finishing graduate school at Arizona State when a teaching job opened up at Whitworth. He snatched the opportunity to return to his alma mater.

"When I went to grad school I had always hoped and dreamed that I would be able to teach here," Mikkelson said.

During his time as a Whitworth student, Mikkelson appreciated the faculty's interest in students and desire to see them succeed. He kept in touch with several of his professors while in grad school, including communication-studies professors Ron Pyle and Mike Ingram.

"Now, Ron and Mike in particular have to put up with me as a colleague," Mikkelson said.

For Brenna (Robinson, '00) Stanfield, returning to Whitworth meant returning home. As President Bill Robinson's daughter, Stanfield spent most of her high school and college years on Whitworth's campus. She first had planned to attend college elsewhere.

"What I was looking for was only available here," Stanfield said. "I wanted a distinctly Christian environment that would also challenge me to think deeply about my beliefs. I wanted the freedom to choose whether or not I would attend chapel, but also an atmosphere that would encourage me to grow in my faith."

Stanfield now holds an interim position in the admissions office while her husband, Alan Stanfield, '97, finishes his administration certification in the School of Education. They plan to move to New Jersey next year so that Brenna can finish her studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. Eventually, they may migrate back to Spokane.

"If the opportunity ever arose, I would love to work at Whitworth," Stanfield said. "To me, this is home. I love college campuses."

Scott McQuilkin, '84, thought his days at Whitworth would end after graduation. Instead, he was hired as Whitworth's head baseball coach that summer. The following year, he received a full-time teaching contract.

"When I graduated from Whitworth I fully expected to have a career as a high-school math teacher and coach," McQuilkin said. "I had no expectation of working at Whitworth, particularly as a 22-year-old who hadn't yet done his student teaching experience."

McQuilkin, now the athletics director and chair of the department of kinesiology and athletics, has taught at Whitworth for nearly 20 years, aside from a three-year break to complete his Ph.D. He has watched the college grow and change over the years, but said that the professors' commitment to their disciplines and personal interest in students remains.

Laura Bloxham, '68, also did not expect to return to Whitworth after graduation. She found herself back on campus as a professor after six years away. She was not gone for long, but said major changes took place during her time away.

"Dr. Lindaman had been hired as president. He brought some changes to the campus that allowed students to make more decisions about their education," Bloxham said. "Teaching strategies were aimed at where students were in their development as learners."

Cheryl Florea Vawter, '94, never planned to attend Whitworth and never thought her on-campus job would lead to her career. Vawter entered Whitworth as a non-traditional student.

"I had absolutely no intention of going to school as a single mom," Vawter said. "I just thought, 'I can't waste four years; I've got to support my kids.'"

To make ends meet, she worked 20 hours each week in the continuing- studies office while raising two elementary-school-aged children and attending Whitworth classes full-time.

"I did most of my studying after the kids were in bed at night," Vawter said.

"I think God gives us the grace to do what we need to do at the time that we need to do it."

When she graduated, Vawter expected to leave Whitworth and start a new career. Instead, she slowly worked her way up in the continuing-studies office, becoming director in 1998.

"Whitworth kind of chose me," she said.