"People sometimes underestimate Weber State's academic atmosphere and teaching environment. We are a teaching institution that doesn't ignore the value of research. Plus, we get to apply our research.

"It's one thing to regurgitate information for a test; it's another to take it and do something with it, like the students in my drugs and behavior class who volunteered at a local middle school. When they learned that a lot of those kids were huffing gasoline and other inhalants, they developed a drug education plan that was very specific to that age group. We collected data for a few years and found that we had made an impact.

"You can't put a price on the value of hands-on, community-based learning."