Blanchet

Best
alumni
Joe Monson and Martha
Choate Monson
Joe Monson and Martha Choate, both graduates
of the Class of 2003, were married on June 27
in Portland at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church by
Monsignor Timothy Murphy.
Joe completed his engineering degree at OSU
in 2008 and began working for Shimmick
Construction Company in California. Currently
he is working on the seismic rehabilitation of the
Tujunga Dam originally built in the 1930’s.
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Martha completed her first year of
medical school at the University
of Vermont this spring and has
honored in all but one of her
courses. “The material is just
fascinating and I enjoy all of
the clinical challenges that we
encounter,” said Martha. She
will take her first national boards
exam in February and will then
spend the remaining 2.5 years on the hospital
wards doing several rotations including surgery,
internal medicine, family medicine, ob/gyn,
emergency medicine and more. Martha spent
four weeks this summer working alongside an
ob/gyn from Salem. “I worked in the clinic
interviewing and examining patients, assisting on
smaller procedures and had the great privilege of
scrubbing in and assisting in c-sections, labor and
deliveries and other gynecological surgeries at
Salem Hospital,” Martha reports.
Kristin Crocker
This July, alumna Kristin Crocker, Class of 2007,
had the chance of a lifetime. She attended a
summer class at Regis University that culminated
in a trip to Ireland. Eleven students accompanied
by three professors visited areas of historic and
literary value. Some of the
most memorable places visited
were the Ring of Dingle
(located in southwest Ireland
on the coast), Blarney Castle
(with the famous Blarney
Stone), William Butler Yeats’
tower, Kilmanham Gaol in Dublin, and the Aran
Islands.
“The Irish are amazing people with a totally
different mindset. All the people we talked to
wanted to quiz us on our country’s history, our
president, our policies and our home towns,”
Kristin said. “They told us stories of the saints
and fairies, sang us songs like “Galway Bay” and
recounted memories about their own lives.” The
tour host told the students to “live lovingly and
love living.” These words summarize perfectly
the outlook of the Irish.
Alumni Weekend
Blanchet held its first
Alumni Weekend
during the first
weekend of August.
All alumni and their
families were invited
to activities on campus