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Carol Lally '90 graduated with a degree in English.  She is now an intellectual property lawyer.

Neal Baer '78 earned his degree in political science.  He is the executive producer and writer for the hit show "ER."

Colorado U.S. Senator Ken Salazar graduated from CC in 1977. Elected to the senate in 2004, he had been the state's attorney general.

Holly Ornstein Carter '85 received her degree in political science and is now a writer and documentary filmmaker.

Karen Andersen Medville, a research scientist at Arizona State University, graduated in 1985.

Marcia McNutt, president and CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, earned her degree in physics in 1974.

Jay Engeln graduated in 1974 with a degree in biology.  He is the 2000 National High School Principal of the Year.

Basketball star Verdel Baskin, an English major from the Class of 1999, is now an El Pomar Fellow.

Laura Hershey, a disability rights activist, graduated in 1983 with a degree in history.

Jazz singer Lorna Kollmeyer, a liberal arts major from the Class of 1980, owns an ornamental plasterwork company.  

Richard Koo, 1982 alumnus with a degree in math, is the co-founder of Vitria.com.

Mountain climber Jake Norton, Class of 1996, was a history-philosophy major.  

Paul Markovich graduated in 1988 with an international political economy major and is the co-founder of MyWayHealth.

J. Ralph Armijo, a business administration major, graduated in 1974 and founded Navidec, Inc. and DriveOff.com. 

Theatre artist Liz Stanton earned her degree in business and economics in 1988.

Some people love challenge. Laura Hershey thrives on it. She disputed her doctors’ assumptions that spinal muscular atrophy would end her life while she was still a child.   

She took exception to any question that she could succeed academically. Today she challenges beliefs, laws, governments, individuals -- anyone or anything she feels threatens the rights of the disabled community.  

Laura always knew she would go to college, and she expected to go to the best one available. She came to the CC campus and found it, for the most part, ready to roll. “Right away,” she says, “they found me a dorm room that was accessible to me.”  

As she became more involved in campus activities, Laura found some paths that needed changing. She worked as a writer and features editor for the Catalyst student newspaper and had no trouble. She met with other writers and editors at different, accessible locations to discuss and submit her assignments. “Then I became editor in chief,” she recalls, “and I really needed to be there. So they relocated the office from Cutler Hall, which wasn’t accessible, to Cossitt Hall, which was -- if just barely.” Laura found much willingness and few barriers at the college. Only one class, scheduled to be held in one of the smaller houses on campus, had to be relocated.  

Prior to graduation, Laura didn’t consider herself an activist. But when she was awarded a Watson Fellowship, she traveled to England to write about the disability rights movement there. The experience was a turning point, and Laura became involved with disability groups, especially those for women, when she returned to Denver. Early in 1985, she attended the National Women’s Studies Conference in Seattle. After meeting Laura, one speaker suggested the conference organizers send Laura to the Nongovernmental Organization Forum on Women in Nairobi later that year. And they did. “That conference jolted me into an awareness of the global disabled community and the issues and possibilities for organizing and activism,” she says. “I was really drawn to the issues and felt like I had an important role to play. It made me make a commitment.”

Today, well known as a disability rights activist and writer, Laura speaks at conferences for disabled and non-disabled alike. She serves as a consultant and trainer for conferences and corporations, and she’s employed half time as the advocacy editor for CanDo.com, an Internet magazine. Colorado College paid tribute to Laura and her work by awarding her an honorary doctorate in 1993.  

While Laura used to roll her wheelchair out in front of buses, she says such tactics are no longer the norm. But her fight continues, focusing now on issues involving Social Security benefits, independent living, opposition to the legalization of assisted suicide, and work disincentives. “People with disabilities are often prevented from working for fear of losing crucial benefits,” she explains. On the board of directors of an organization called Not Dead Yet, Laura believes “the media presents the issue as black and white, the pro-life religious perspective and the liberal so-called pro-choice perspective. But we see this as an issue of discrimination based on health status.”  

Because of the focus on writing combined with the liberal arts at Colorado College, Laura believes she’s not only a better writer, but also a better advocate -- and a happier person. “Because I was taught to think from a variety of perspectives, I can write an article about a legal issue without having gone to law school, and people take me seriously,” she says. “I can control my own schedule and where I work. I can make my own decisions about what assignments to accept and when to say ‘no.’ My liberal arts education was a real benefit to me, and I’d like to see more people with disabilities take that same opportunity.”

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