Humanities on the Palouse

Ruth is an award-winning filmmaker, published writer, and web designer with over twenty-seven years of experience in the creative industries. Her creative and scholarly work examines the intersection of media, technology, culture, and power. In 2021, Ruth started the Humanities on the Palouse program to provide Humanities and Arts students with compensated internship opportunities where they can apply the skills they’ve acquired in their coursework in a real-world environment. One of her goals is to continue to address inequity in higher education.

Diana Alonso is a senior at Washington State University. She is majoring in Digital Technology and Culture and minoring in Comparative Ethnic Studies. She is currently the chapter president for her sorority, Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. and the Executive Vice President and VP of Standards for the WSU Multicultural Greek Council. In her free time, she enjoys making meals that remind her of her home and she also loves to practice self-care activities, to better help others. For her internship, she has the opportunity to find and create resources and opportunities for the undocumented community at Washington State University and beyond. 

Sophie Dutton is from Kirkland, Washington and is an aspiring graphic designer and comic book creator. She is currently pursuing a major in Digital Technology and Culture with a minor in Fine Arts and certificates in Game Studies and Design and Graphic Design at Washington State University. Sophie enjoys helping out in her local community in any way that she can. In her free time you can find her brainstorming and creating graphics for her comic book/Webtoon storyline or spending time with her friends. She has spent her years in college learning about different types of media creation and curation as well as advancing her artistic skills. Sophie enjoys being able to utilize these skills while serving the non-profit organizations in her community.

Rachel Fox is a Senior at WSU majoring in Digital Technology and Culture and minoring in Fine arts and Criminal Justice. She is serving at the Washinton State University 4-H Teen Equity and Inclusion Taskforce where she produces the Taskforces recruitment materials to help the committee grow. She is also responsible for creating the educational materials for the projects that the teens on the committee produce. Fox also occationally runs workshops teaching the youth committee members the principles of design and art. The teens and Fox are active promoting social inclusivity of the LGBTQ+ community as well as gender and racial equality. Fox is originally from Bainbridge Island Washington, a very rural small island about a 30-minute ferry ride west of Seattle. She really enjoys art and design. In her free time she paints and draws to try and build her skills as an artist. On campus she is a member of the Chi Omega Beta Beta Sorority and a LAUNCH ambassador, a role where she tries and communicate the importance of experiential leaning to WSU students. 

Entering his senior year at WSU, Nicholas Kawaguchi continues to expand his skillset through the courses offered by the Digital Technology and Culture program; all while completing a Japanese language minor. When he’s not focusing on school, he enjoys dabbling in photography, animation, and web design. Nicholas values family and friendship above all else and continues to put forth thought and consideration into every aspect of his life.

Rae Kolke is a senior at Washington State University. She is majoring in Digital Technology and Culture and triple minoring in Communication, Fine Arts, and Music Technology. She has a passion for her education, learning new skills, and constantly growing in all aspects of her life. When not serving or doing schoolwork, Rae is either with her rescue dog, Xena, or her friends. She loves to make music and exploring various art mediums like painting, drawing, and graphic design. She is originally from Renton, Washington, but has loved her time in the Palouse. Rae enjoys the opportunity to use her digital skills in serving with Families Together and feels fulfilled being able to help families and children with special needs in the community.

Collin Montez is a WSU Baseball player, but is more than just a student-athlete. He has aspirations to work in the field of 3D animation after he graduates. Using his leadership and teamwork skills from athletics, plus the creative knowledge from DTC courses, Collin makes a great candidate for any field. As a part of his work with AmeriCorps, Collin will be assisting the Moscow Food Co-op in their goal of developing and implementing a database that will amplify the resources available to the food insecure on the Palouse.

Long Nguyen is a senior majoring in Digital Technology and Culture. He transferred to Washington State University from Columbia Basin College. He was born and raised in Kennewick, Washington. He is currently working towards a Digital Technology and Culture degree with a certificate in Game Studies. Some areas of interest that he is exploring are web design and development. In his down time, he enjoys watching movies, playing games, and working out with friends. One of his greatest passions is helping anyone in need to the best of his abilities. Whether it be school related, community related, or personal, he wants to try and assist people whenever possible. This is one of the biggest reasons why he joined AmeriCorps, to give back to the Pullman community that welcomed him with open arms when he first came to WSU Pullman.

Andrei Obnial is a creative individual who works on various projects to bring fantastical worlds to life, such as creative writing, film, and digital art. As someone who is involved in various content creation, he aspires to create something that can inspire those to expand their horizons and create something wonderful. Whenever he is tasked to do something, he will stick with it and not stop until his objective is complete.

Cedar Scott is a junior at Washington State University. He was born and raised near the small town of Naches, WA, west of Yakima. He is working on a double major in Digital Technology and Culture and Creative Writing. He is participating in an internship with the Queer Digital History Project, working with Dr. Avery Dame-Griff to archive the internet history of the LGBT+ community. When not serving or doing schoolwork, Cedar loves to spend time on self-improvement and learning new skills, as well as making his own video games and writing fiction and poetry. He has a love of nature and uses this as inspiration in his creative work. 

Esmeralda Solis Garcia is a senior at Washington State University. She is pursuing a major in Digital Technology and Culture as well as a minor in Fine Arts and has a passion for helping people in their educational growth. When not serving or going to school, Esmeralda likes to do window painting for small local businesses, exercise, and spend time exploring new places with family. She also loves to draw, watch anime, and play video games with close friends. She is originally from Royal City, WA and after being in Pullman for 4 years, it has become a second home for her. Esmeralda appreciates the given opportunity to use her graphic design and leadership skills in serving the Humanities on the Palouse program at her university and feels fulfilled when being able to help students with their professional and educational development.