Mom’s Weekend Brings Sunshine, Christmas in April and Much to Be Proud Of

In the midst of all of the negative publicity around potential budget reductions, it is important to celebrate our successes and the outstanding work that goes on day in and day out in our college. April 2-3 was Mom’s Weekend on the Pullman campus, and no event is better at showcasing the tremendous quality and diversity of our programs in the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences.

For me, the weekend started Friday night with the Department of Apparel, Merchandising, Design and Textiles fashion show. This year’s show, the 26th annual, attracted over 2,500 moms, students, and other guests to Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum. The show featured garments designed and constructed by 26 different students in the AMDT program, ranging from attire inspired by the musical “My Fair Lady” to the avant-garde. One can only be impressed by the creativity and hard work of these students.

Saturday morning it was on to the Cougar Cattle Feeders open house. This outstanding experiential-learning program provides students the opportunity to own several lots of feedlot cattle and make day-to-day management decisions around feed purchasing, animal health, feeding, and marketing. It’s a tough time to be in the cattle feeding business, but the Cougar Cattle Feeders are still projecting a profit this year!

Next stop was the WSU Bear Center where faculty and students from the Department of Natural Resource Sciences were providing tours which allowed visitors to get “up close and personal” with our grizzly bears. Not surprisingly, throngs of people were on hand to learn more about the bears. (For more info, check out this short video about the WSU Bear Center.)

On to the Vogel Plant Biosciences building where, on Saturday afternoon, the Viticulture and Enology Club was hosting a wine tasting event and pouring wines donated by some of Washington’s finest wineries.

The first floor of the Vogel Plant Biosciences building was also the location of the undergraduate research poster session which featured research projects conducted by 32 of the college’s outstanding undergraduate students. Projects ranging from the history and construction of the monokini (AMDT) to marker-assisted selection applied to the bovine genome (Animal Sciences) were shared by CAHNRS students with interested visitors, faculty, and fellow students.

Saturday culminated with the 50th Annual CAHNRS Awards Banquet where CAHNRS faculty, students, and staff were recognized for their achievements during the 2008-09 academic year.

The next morning, back at the Beasley, the WSU Horticulture Club held its annual Mom’s Weekend Plant Sale. More than a hundred eager plant buyers, including locals and mom’s who look forward to the sale for the entire year, swarmed onto the Beasley Concourse to scoop up the premium bedding plants, veggies, herbs and flowers grown by the Club. (Here’s a very short highlights video of the plant sale.)

Meanwhile, businesses all over Pullman enjoyed a sort of Christmas-in-April sales rush. Restaurants and retail stores were jammed with moms and students, and all enjoyed the first real spring weather we’ve had this year. Many of the windows in downtown Pullman had been spruced up by students the week before, as they completed visual merchandising projects for an AMDT class. (Check out this super short time lapse video of one downtown Pullman window being dressed by AMDT students.)

We may be in the midst of an economic downturn, but Cougar spirit brought good cheer and sunshine to Pullman once again this year.

We have a great college and much to be proud of. Thanks to all who made these events special and continue to do wonderful things with our students.