May 6, 2003
Contact: Karen J. Blair (509-963-1656/fax 509-963-1654/e-mail: blairk@cwu.edu)
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - For her work documenting life at a Native
American boarding school 70 years ago, Central Washington University
graduate student Jennifer L. Meyer won the “best graduate paper” prize
at the Phi Alpha Theta regional conference April 26 in Bellingham.
“Jennifer’s paper addressed the transition of the Chemawa
Indian Reservation in Oregon, in 1933, from a federal boarding school
with an assimilation emphasis to an autonomous trade school expected to
nurture American Indian culture,” Karen Blair, CWU history department
chair, says.
Meyer, 28, from Tacoma, is a member of the CWU student “Tau
Iota” chapter of Phi Alpha Theta. She is pursuing a master’s degree in
history, with a minor in dance instruction, at CWU. Meyer is a 1997
graduate of the University of Portland.
Colleges and universities from Washington, Oregon, Alaska,
Idaho and Montana compete annually at the Phi Alpha Theta regional
competition. Founded in 1921, it has grown to encompass 700 chapters
in 50 states, more chapters than any other accredited honor society.
Phi Alpha Theta is a professional society with a stated mission “to
promote the study of history through the encouragement of research,
good teaching, publication and the exchange of learning and ideas among
historians.”
With three graduate and four undergraduate students
attending, CWU’s contingent was the largest among the participating
schools this year, Blair points out, adding “Central was singled out
for the high quality of all our student research papers.”
