Dawn Graff-haight:
CLASS OF 1969
Oak Creek High SchoolClass of 1969
Oak creek, WI
Oregon State University - Health & Human SciencesClass of 1983
Corvallis, OR
University of Wisconsin - LaCrosseClass of 1982
La crosse, WI
University of Wisconsin - LaCrosseClass of 1973
La crosse, WI
Dawn's Story
Life
I'm living in McMinnville, Oregon where I am professor of health education at Linfield College, and chair of the Department of Health, Human Performance and Athletics. I've been married to Walt Haight for 21 years, and have one daughter, Delaney, who turns 16 on August 14. Delaney will soon leave to spend her junior year of high school as an exchange student in Sapporo, Japan. We have a beagle named Sherlock. Our family enjoys participating in community theatre productions. Walt and Delaney have been in many shows, while I've done a little bit of helping backstage. Last fall I had a small role in Music Man. We're also avid sports fans, and are lucky to have the opportunity to support the Linfield College Wildcat teams who have a long, strong sports tradition. Our women's softball team has made it to regionals the past few years, and the men's football team were national champions in 2004, and hope to repeat this year. The team also holds the nation's longest winning season streak - going for its 50th consecutive winning season this year.
After high school, I attended the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse where I majored in health education and physical education. My first teaching job was in Lake Zurich, Illinois. While there, I became a contributing editor to Current Health 1 magazine, an affiliation I enjoyed for 20 years. At the urging of my editor, I returned to UW-LaCrosse and earned my master's degree in health education. I took a one year teaching position at Onalaska middle school, and the following year entered the doctoral program at Oregon State University. On my way to completing my doctorate, I met my husband Walt. At the completion of my doctorate, I accepted a position at Eastern Montana College (now MSU-Billings) where I taught for three years. We returned to Oregon, where I have been teaching for 19 years with stints at U Oregon, Portland State University, and finally landing at Linfield where I've been the past 10 years.
I still enjoy being crazy, and have a great deal of fun in the delivery of my classes. While I take seriously my responsibility in helping students be successful in becoming health teachers, or learning the subject matter of my classes, I try to do so with a good sense of humor. My human sexuality class is the most popular course on campus, and I admit that there are times that things get wild. I am most interested in preparing teachers, and also addressing health is...Expand for more
sues that affect kids. I have also developed a travel course that takes us to Japan for three weeks to examine cultural and lifestyle factors that contribute to their long lifespan. I intend to offer this course during our special January term, on an every-other-year basis.
My brothers and sisters are all doing well. Most of my siblings are in the midwest, but sister Bonnie and her husband reside in New Hampshire, and brother Keith and his wife live in Okinawa. Bonnie has three kids and 2 grandchildren. Kevin has three kids, and three grandkids. Scott has three kids, Shawn has one, and Kerri (the baby) has five. Both mom and dad died last fall. Dad finally succumbed to cancer after years of suffering, while mom died suddenly and unexpectedly from heart failure just three weeks after dad.
I hope to be back in Wisconsin in summer of 2006 to attend a college reunion, and expect to see some of my siblings as well. I haven't seen the Brewers play in the new Miller Park yet and would like to take in a game with Judy (Wojtysiak) Valoe and her husband Larry who have remained good friends over the years. Walt and I also plan to make a trip to Sapporo to visit daughter Delaney before she comes home from her year of study.
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Update 2012 - Delaney is a college graduate and living in Portland Oregon now. She starts working at Athletia next week, and wants to go to grad school and travel in the future. We love having her closer to home. I've taken a leave of absence for this academic year and am helping to launch a new national elementary health education program for HealthTeacher.com. Its an innovative way to deliver health education to classrooms using interactive technology, and an opportunity I simply couldn't pass up. I'm working with some of the most talented teachers I know to develop the project, and think its going to make a real difference in the way classroom teachers approach teaching health education to young kids. In January I'm taking a group of Linfield students to Costa Rica for the month to examine environmental health issues in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Life is great, but extremely demanding right now. Back in 1969 I wanted to be a PE teacher so I could be active throughout my life. Never thought I'd spend most of my time sitting on my butt in front of a computer (of course, who could have known back then that personal computers would change the way many of us work?)
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