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I am constantly amazed at the depth of our members when we scratch the surface and find out more than just their work commitment. |
WASFAA Happenings ... Tracy and Julia grew up in Alaska and temporarily parted company during college. Tracy headed to Willamette University in Salem, Oregon and Julia went to New York for her undergraduate work. Upon receiving her Bachelors Degree, Tracy decided to follow in the footsteps of her father and work in some facet of student services at a college or university. She literally got the phone book out and called every college in the Portland area, telling them that she had her degree and was ready to go to work in student services. She wasn't having much success with this method until she called University of Portland. They had two halftime openings, one as secretary in the Science Department and one as Student Employment Coordinator in the Financial Aid Office. She got both positions and began working for Rita Lambert who Tracy was sure hated her; she didn't know that Rita was really a sweetheart. She found working for her intimidating and "scary as hell" at first. Tracy later learned, as many of you know, that Rita is not only a sweetheart, but also a wonderful teacher and mentor. When Rita retired, Tracy became a candidate for her position and through tough competition was selected to follow in Rita's footsteps. When it comes to tough competition, Tracy is not one to back down. She has been a runner since her junior high days in Alaska, but has recently taken on the challenge of running marathons. Currently in training for the Honolulu Marathon next December, Tracy says that marathons have a distinct level of "funness." The Disney marathon in Florida and the Washington, DC Marine Marathon rank among the fun ones. The New York and Boston marathons were grueling events where Tracy says she "crashed and burned." It's those fun ones that keep her coming back for more. Honolulu looks to be a fun marathon (fun?marathon?) but if it turns out not to be, Tracy is still looking forward to sunshine and being able to "crash" on the beach. Being a twin is great fun and Tracy loves it, after all, she considers Julia her best friend. Since Julia moved to Oregon after college, she too got into student services with a college, but as a Registrar. Now, with Tracy's encouragement, she has joined the ranks of the FAA's at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. They bought a house together about eight years ago and find it a great arrangement as it's pretty hard to find two more compatible roommates! Have you ever heard of donating platelets? Well, Tracy does that, too. Tracy began donating blood in response to a fitness challenge that gave her bonus points for donating. Did I mention that Tracy is competitive!?! She was later asked to donate platelets for leukemia patients and was happy to be able to help. This is a process where they take the blood out of one arm via a large needle, run it through a machine to take the platelets out, and put it back in the donors other arm through another big needle. The value of her donation hit home when a friend was diagnosed with leukemia. That friend benefited from receiving platelets and to this day, is cancer free. Tracy credits Elizabeth Bickford for recruiting her into service as a candidate for secretary for the Oregon Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (OASFAA) and later treasurer. After holding these two offices, Tracy received another call from Elizabeth who suggested she become involved with WASFAA. Not being able to turn Elizabeth down, the rest is history. After serving as secretary and treasurer of WASFAA, Tracy has just taken over the gavel as President of OASFAA for 2002. I am constantly amazed at the depth of our members when we scratch the surface and find out more than just their work commitment. Tracy serves as a fine example of that. Get to know her at WASFAA - you won't be disappointed. |
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