Angela Aldrich, Pharm D Class of 1995, top right, Sylvester Jones ISU football receiver and running back 1989-1992, top left, and their daughter Amelia Jones, center, with friends, at the ISU Bengals game Sept. 6 at UNM in Albuquerque. Photo by Bernadette Lauritzen

By BERNADETTE LAURITZEN
Executive Director
Champions of Youth Ambitions

I graduated in 1986 from Edgewater High School (EHS), in Orlando, Fla. My JROTC instructor Lt. Colonel James O. Cranford would nominate me for a scholarship in my senior year. You see, an EHS cheerleader was injured, and they needed a mascot. I was deemed the student with the most school spirit and got the opportunity.

I was given the gift of a $500 scholarship from the Orlando Activities Association, which Col. Cranford nominated me for, and a girl with little means to go to college then believed she had potential. When my father passed away and I married a young Navy man (many know as the Sci Guy), Col. Cranford walked me down the aisle in his dress blues.

I attended Valencia Community College, then a year at the University of Central Florida. We were stationed in Idaho Falls, Idaho … “the best kept secret in the Navy” and we could never afford to go back for reunions. I attended Idaho State University, where I earned a BA in Speech Communications. I worked full time to pay for school, and my grades reflected it, but I did it. Dr. Short and his wife Dr. Hardy-Short, Dr. Disanza and his wife Dr. Legg-Disanza and Dr. Bruce Loebs were there.

I would have worked on an MA, but it was time to transfer to our next duty station, and I never got to walk that stage. It was a lovely campus. I worked the 12-6 a.m. shift at the radio station and then took a bus to campus. Only once did I accidentally fall asleep in the library and miss a class.

When we arrived in Los Alamos, I often noticed Idaho license plates and wondered if any other Navy folks had found their way to LANL. Many years later, I emailed the school and said I’d be happy to start an alumni group here. I’m still looking. Becky Hardy was a Chamisa teacher and ISU alum when I met her, and she always returned from Idaho with a trinket from ISU to brighten my day.

Amy Dressler, the Executive Director of Alumni Engagement, sent me a flag that we tried to auction off for the ISU scholarship program. I was the recipient of a $50 scholarship one semester and wanted to see what we could accomplish. Then, when the ISU Bengals were coming to play UNM in Albuquerque, it was game on!

Dressler and Senior Athletic Director Crew Keller sent some ISU swag, and I had a plan. My husband Chad and our son Chandler attended the September game, and one of them (the older one) wore a UNM shirt on the ISU side, but I hid it in the picture. It was the first college game for  Chandler and me, and it was amazing! I made a poster and rooted for 2 New Mexico kids on the ISU team, Teilor Tuioti (linebacker) and Jim Kang (kicker/punter), who had attended New Mexico Military Institute.

So, this weekend is really the ISU homecoming game, but being afforded the opportunity to represent the school in Albuquerque made me feel I had been to homecoming. The time was phenomenal, we gave out many free items and met some friends for the day. When sharing our stories with other alumni, we realized we weren’t the only ones who could afford to attend functions back then, but look at us now.

Go Bengals, and I believe Amy Dressler has recently given birth to a future Bouncing Baby Bengal Boy, and her fans in Los Alamos send their love and best wishes.

Learn more about ISU at www.isu.edu and beat those Arizona Lumberjacks today. See you next year in Albuquerque.