I'm going back to school! in January. I'm entering a post-baccalaureate program that will allow me to enhance my degree (BS in business administration) with the specific courses I need to get into the grad program I want. My prior physics course work is so old (I started college in 1989) I most likely will have to take and/or test out of most of the requirements to get a physics undergrad degree before I qualify for entry into a grad program, but that's ok. My goal is to get a doctorate in physics and do research, teach college level for a while. I have kept up somewhat sporadically in the field but there is so much going on now that I was not aware of...there are so many opportunities, especially in robotics, semi-conduction, biophysics, optics, etc. It's really exciting, I am looking forward to jumping in. Today was step one. I went to the university to apply, talk to admissions reps, and take a tour of the school. A lot has changed since I last attended Cleveland State....they've torn down a major building and added onto others, just revamped the school. it's awesome :) This is the bookstore, I actually had S-bop here in 1994. I went into early labor, went into the bookstore for help, and out he came! moments later. Then we got rushed to the hospital. I declined to be interviewed by the news, but they did write about it in one of the student papers :)

Technical knowledge and business skills are not always natural partners. C. Norm Winningstad MBA ’73 successfully brought them together. The technology side came naturally. As an undergrad at Cal-Berkeley, Norm became an expert in vacuum-tube technology, earning his degree in 1948—the year Bell Labs introduced the transistor. “I graduated obsolete,” he jokes, but he stayed with the curve of technology while working at Tektronix, taking a break to get his MBA at Portland State. While at Tektronix he met a group of engineers with a good idea for a tech business but no business skills. Norm quickly learned the practical skills he needed to found Floating Point Systems, which produced mini-supercomputers. He experienced additional success with subsequent startups Lattice Semiconductor and Thrustmaster. Now semi-retired but nonetheless working on a new technology venture, Norm has devoted much of his time and wealth to giving back to education, science, and the arts. He has served on the boards of the Boy Scouts of America, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, OMSI, and the St. Vincent Heart Foundation. He also contributes time and money to PSU’s School of Business Administration, because, says the self-effacing entrepreneur, “I’m just a tech weenie who got an MBA and became a business type.”