Portland State Magazine Spring 2019
3 LETTERS I was surprised, excited, and very honored to see the piece, “New honor for composer,” in the winter 2019 Portland State Magazine about my recent Global Music Award. PSU was such a huge part of my life from 1967 to 1987. As an undergrad I gained incredibly deep and critical knowledge about music and life from the music faculty, guest artists and my fellow students. As a master’s student and graduate assistant, the process only deepened and broadened while I taught and continued to study alongside colleagues, many of whom remain dear friends. As a doctoral student in the School of Education working toward an Ed.D. in institutional development my connection with Portland State became a major, central part of my life. Those 20 years of involvement remain paramount and an underpinning for my success as a musician, composer, conductor, college professor, artistic director and music producer. It all traces back to PSU! The honor of the article reflects directly back to you, my alma mater. And while my formal doctoral studies were interrupted and stopped due to health issues, I feel no loss. The massive impacts of my training there continue to influence every aspect of my professional and personal life Thank you. ~Eric Funk ’72, MS ’78 Portland State Magazine wants to hear from you. Email your comments to psumag@pdx.edu or send them to Portland State Magazine, Office of University Communications, PO Box 751, Portland OR 97207-0751.We reserve the right to edit for space and clarity. Editor’s note: My colleague Julie Smith, director of marketing at Portland State, received this amazing letter from a student who appeared in one of our University advertisements. (Yes, we do use real students.) I had to share it. Aleena will be graduating this spring having completed a double major in computer science and mathematics. Julie, I am so grateful that you reached out to me for the opportunity to be in an ad. I saw the poster at the airport, and it was surreal. I took a picture of myself in front of the ad and posted it on LinkedIn. It got almost a million views, over 8,000 likes, and over 400 hundred comments. It has brought me a lot of exposure I did not have before. I’ve never had much family support, so seeing the poster gave me validation that this thing I’m doing is actually impressive. Impressive enough to be on a poster at an international airport, to be the face of a not typically woman-represented field, and to be an inspiration to others. I’ve had so many women reach out to me on LinkedIn. People I don’t know (some I do) from all over the world encouraging me. I lost my mom at a young age and having these women empower me (along with you and others in this process) has given me the support I wish I’d had throughout my degree. I am excited to be so connected with the professional world now, especially with the women in tech. I think that the rest of my career will be much more supported after this chain reaction that was started by the ad. ~Aleena Watson ’19 An unexpected outpouring My 20 years at PSU
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