Currently I live in the panhandle of West Virginia. I work at Shepherd University, a Bachelors and Master Degree granting liberal arts university. I am the Director of the First-Year Experience Program, which is a unique program just for first year students. I create learning communities (linked classes) and interest groups (small groups centered on an interest taught by faculty or staff). I also direct the Common Reading Program. My objective is to integrate students into the university community and help them become successful students. Previously I was in Pasco, Washington at Columbia Basin College where I was the Associate Dean of Research, Planning and Assessment. I retired there after 26 years in education. I moved to eastern Washington from Sedro Woolley, WA where I worked at Skagit Valley College as the Director of Auxiliary Services. While in western Washington I received my MBA from City University of Seattle I came to WV after marrying Lewis McIntyre in Kennewick, Washington in 2005. I knew Lewis for most of my young life through our families in MD. He had asked me to marry him when I was 18. I declined. Forty-four years later Lewis started searching for me on the Internet. He looked for two years with no luck. He finally found me through my mother’s obituary in the archives of the Salt Lake Tribune. We traveled back and forth from WA to WV for a year and then decided to marry. I had been divorced since 1981 and had raised my two sons alone. Lewis has a summer home on the Potomac River and we lived there while building our current home. We still have the summer place and have all the necessary water toys – float boat, speedboat and personal watercraft. I have two sons, Chris and Dan. Chris graduated from the University of Washington in Geology and Environmental Science and is a missionary for Campus Crusade for Christ in Yekaterinburg, Russia (Siberia). He is married and they are expecting their first child in July. My son Dan graduated from Western Washington University in International Business and manages a travel company in Seattle that only deals in travel to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. At this moment he is traveling in Fiji with his fiance who is on Spring Break from working on her Masters Degree in Architectural Landscaping at the U of WA. I have received my 15 minutes of fame by being awarded the Skagit County Woman of the Year Award for service to profession and community, inducted into my college’s Hall of Fame as Alumni of the Year and received Soroptimist International’s Women Helping Women Award. Currently I am the Senior Warden of Trinity Episcopal Church in Martinsburg, WV and volunteer in various capacities. I honestly have had a great life. I enjoyed high school. I remember I attended every dance but one for four years and have fond memories of places and friends. I moved from Utah in 1965 but loved growing up there. My mother, father, grandmother, aunt and sister are buried in Bountiful Cemetery. If nothing else, that will bring me back to Bountiful occasionally. I invite anyone visiting in the WV or D.C. area to stop by and at least go for a ride on the beautiful Potomac. judimcintyre@comcast.net

If you are a regular follower of the blog (or a close friend or family member) you have heard about Luli. Luli is my sometimes-crazy-always-funny colleague. He is the coordinator for the sheep-breeders association--its mostly he and I that work together for the organizational development of the association. Luli studied agriculture in college (or "faculty" as they say here in Macedonia) and is studying human resource management for his masters degree...but in the meantime he is getting a special certification in mechanized animal husbandry farming something. For the last few months, on days we have meetings in Skopje Luli usually tacks on a meeting with one of his many professors and I get a little exposure to Macedonian University life. Now I hate to generalize as much as the next PCV, but from my experience and observation it seems that University Professors here see themselves as God's gift to academia and the students suffer for it. I received an outstanding education at a small liberal arts college, the University of Portland (Go Pilots!). I benefited from close relationships with many professors--I cannot imagine having an experience where I didn't feel a close connection with my professors. My situation in graduate school was also similar; although Western Michigan is a huge school with over 30,000 students, my graduate department was small and I knew my professors very well. Well in Macedonia it seems quite a bit different. I have heard many students talk about how the professors like to make students wait for hours for a quick chat about a paper, demand students write their papers emphasizing techniques or theories they like rather than allowing their students to explore the divergent theories, and I have been with Luli more than five times when his professors make appointments and then don't show up (not to mention the fact that some students purchase their grades!). Today Luli had to meet with one of his professors and I went with him to wait inside the building because it was so darned hot outside. I was shocked to see the professors ?office hour? was at 12:00 on Monday only. Yikes! Luli managed to squeeze in first but I think I counted about 27 students waiting to meet with the Great Professor. It was really eye-opening. I took this picture right as we were leaving the hall, (Luli is right in the center) there were about 10 students behind me and many more on either side of us. I must say I feel very fortunate to have had the educational opportunities I have had (thanks mom and dad) with professors who are more concerned about their students learning than how much they are revered.