Letter from the President
Idaho helps Idaho. The University of Idaho makes investments in the future of the Gem State every single day that benefit all of its citizens.
This issue of Here We Have Idaho Magazine highlights those investments. The university helps this state thrive, and has for more than 130 years, just as this great state supports our land-grant mission. That virtuous circle ensures a bright future for Idaho.
The value of the Idaho/Idaho partnership became especially clear as we navigated the challenges of the past year. This magazine focuses on the green shoots that grow from that kind of collaboration.
Project ECHO added a COVID-19 series this spring to support the state’s rural healthcare providers as they quickly addressed the pandemic. The telehealth initiative, featured here, works with the Idaho WWAMI Medical Education Program. Another story looks at the work of our Inside Out program, in which Assistant Professor Omi Hodwitz teaches students about criminology by taking them to an Orofino prison. The program also enables the prison’s inmates to prepare for a new future in our society by pursuing their own higher education goals — thereby reducing the probability of recidivism.
Idaho is the nation’s second-largest grower of hops — one of more than 40 crops grown at the Parma Research and Extension Center. A 2018 economic analysis showed $1.41 is generated for every dollar invested in research and Extension efforts at Parma. In this edition, we’re featuring work that supports growers throughout Idaho and the region to benefit the Gem State’s $16 billion agricultural economy.
Vandals can support these projects and invest in our shared future by promoting access to higher education. Enabling accessibility is the mission of the Vandal Promise Scholarship program, now in its second year. The scholarship, which supported two dozen first-year Vandals in 2019-20, helps bridge the $5,000 gap most students face in the cost of attendance once scholarships, grants and other aid is taken into account. Our first cohort benefited from the generosity of our donors, but also from programming by the Dean of Students Office and a course designed to get them off on the right foot. These Vandals thrived, with an average GPA of 3.59 in their first year. A few of them are profiled here.
Enjoy these stories and the others in this issue of Here We Have Idaho. They provide yet more examples of the impact that the University of Idaho and the State of Idaho have by working together.
Go Vandals!
C. Scott Green '84
President
Published in the Fall 2020 issue of Here We Have Idaho.
