December 31, 2012

ELLENSBURG, Wash. -- Central Washington University celebrates 2012 as a year of outstanding achievement by students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Below is just a small sampling of their accomplishments.

JANUARY
• The Washington Music Educators Association recognizes Jeff Snedeker as Collegiate Music Educator of the Year and Leslie Schneider as Elementary Music Educator of the Year
• CWU scientists win a $160,000-grant for a state-of-the-art, Leica DM5500 compound microscope system.

FEBRUARY
• Dual Admission program launches, allowing qualified freshmen to be admitted to CWU when they're admitted to a community college.
• Continuing Education launches state's first Sommelier Certificate Program.
• For the 15th time in 18 years, the student chapter of the Society of Physics is named national Outstanding Chapter by the American Institute of Physics.
• CWU welcomes trustee Chris Liu to the university's governing board.

MARCH
• Students place first in heavy civil construction competition at the Associated Schools of Construction 2012 conference.
• Veteran enrollment has nearly tripled, from 150 to more than 400 students in just four years.
• Brooks Library hosts National Darwin Exhibit from the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.
• Trustees Keith Thompson earns the U.S. Bank Pinnacle Award, the company’s highest community-banking employee honor.
• Christina Ordonez becomes the first woman in CWU wrestling history to win a national championship.

APRIL
• Moody’s Investors Services affirms CWU's A-1 bond rating.
• Athletic Director Jack Bishop is inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame.
• Doctoral internship in psychology achieves APA Accreditation.
• Alumna Kathy Elser (’89) is named Chief Financial Officer of the Year by the Puget Sound Business Journal.
• Army ROTC Wildcat Battalion takes top honors at the 46th Annual Sandhurst Competition for military cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point.
• The CWU Wake Board team sweeps West Region championships,  finishing first, second, and third.

MAY
• Junior Troy Kilburn wins esteemed Goldwater Scholarship ($7,500) for his work in chemistry.
• Alumnus Trevor Greene (’89) is named the 2012 Washington State High School Principal of the Year.
• 2012 SOURCE sets record for entries: 335 solo and collaborative presentations, artwork, and performances, including an opera flash mob.
• Art major Caytlyn Chilelli wins third place at the American Institute of Graphic Arts show for her “San Francisco Coffee identity project.”
• The Equestrian Team's Shannon Bedell places sixth at the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association nationals.

JUNE
• Paramedicine earns continuing national accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs.
• Music students John Geiger (horn) and Matthew Grey (trombone) win gold and silver medals at the Musicfest Northwest Solo Competition.
• Richard DeShields, CWU’s Associate Dean of Student Living, receives the Ken Stoner Distinguished Service Award at the National Association of College and University Residence Halls annual conference.
• Junior Sheena Wildes wins a $20,000 Boren Scholarship to study the Russian language in St. Petersburg, Russia.
• President James Gaudino is elected to a three-year term on the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
• CWU finishes fourth in the 2012 Collegiate Wake Board National Championships.
• Tony Pacheco is named Collegiate All American head coach and goes on to win the Men's USA Rugby National Championships in August.

JULY
• Anne Egger, professor of geological sciences and science education, wins the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction from Science Magazine.
• Math students link lack of freezers to risk of hunger in Kittitas County.
• English professor Bobby Cummings receives $20,000 from the National Writing Project for her “Teacher Leadership Development SEED Grant.”
• Ethan Bergman carries the Olympic Torch through Basingstoke, England, in the torch relay of the London Olympic Games.

AUGUST
• Seattle-based Hydrovolts, CWU, and the Central Washington Resource Energy Collaborative launch a  project to generate energy with turbines in irrigation canals.
• Former King County Sheriff Sue Rahr joins the advisory board for the Department of Law and Justice.
• CWU, community residents and agencies, and state and federal responders join forces to fight wildfire that burns throughout central Washington from August through October.

SEPTEMBER
• College Assistance Migrant Program wins $425,000 grant from the US Department of Education.
• Patrick R. O’Shaughnessy Accounting Professorship endowment surpasses $1 million goal.
• Jazz Band 1 and Vocal Jazz 1 are the only university student groups  on the West Coast invited to perform at the prestigious national Jazz Educators Network conference in January 2013.
• Washoe, the first nonhuman to communicate using American Sign Language, was memorialized with a bronze sculpture on September 22, at the new Friendship Park in Ellensburg.
• Grand opening for state-of-the art Barto Hall and Hogue Addition and Renovation.

OCTOBER
• CWU welcomes a freshman class of more than 1,440, a third of whom are people of color, making it one of the most diverse in Central’s history.
• Brooks Library renovation creates new Academic and Research Commons.
• Alumnus Jeff Charbonneau ('00) is named the 2013 State Teacher of the Year.
• The William O. Douglas Honors College enrolls a record 183 students, including 48 first-year students.
• The Observer is named a finalist for the prestigious Pacemaker Award, given by the Associated Collegiate Press to honor the nation’s top college newspapers for “general excellence.”
• Wake Sports Club defends their West Coast Collegiate Wakeboard Championship title, beating the closest competitor by 27 points.

NOVEMBER
• CWU installs a ballot box outside SURC, the first permanent ballot box at a state university.
• CWU is ranked second in the state and eightieth in the nation for research and development funding in the Earth sciences.
• Joseph Johnson, English, wins an Editor’s Choice Prize for his short story, “Starlings,” in the 2012 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, published in Carve Magazine.
• CWU says goodbye to the chimpanzee Dar, who died of cardiac failure at the age of 36.
• Wildcat football locks up the seventh conference championship in ten years. 

DECEMBER
• Professor Andrea Eklund wins the Educators for Socially Responsible Apparel Business Award for Sustainable Design at the International Textile and Apparel Association conference.
• Governor-elect Jay Inslee names 2012 CWU Alumna of the Year Mary Alice Heuschel chief of staff.
• CWU opens a South Lake Union office in Seattle to enhance outreach to Puget Sound-area students, alumni, business and others.
• The CWU 2012 Holiday Gift Project provides gifts to 343 of local children ranging in age from newborn to 18 years.
• CWU Rugby places 7th at the US Rugby National Championships.