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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.

First Lorna Kollmeyer carved her name into CC women’s basketball history as No. 1 all time in career and single-season scoring and rebounding. Today she carves plaster medallions and moldings to restore Victorian homes in the San Francisco Bay area.    

Her path has been one of twists and turns and chance encounters -- and she’s made the most of every one. 

A standout high school basketball player, Lorna planned to go to UCLA. But when discussing the future with a basketball friend, she realized she wanted a smaller school, “something I felt I could deal with on a much more personal basis.” In spite of scholarship offers at basketball powerhouse schools, Lorna chose CC after a campus tour and an afternoon visit with the coach. 

“Just as you’re encouraged to do at a liberal arts college,” she explains, “I took all different kinds of courses.” But the Phi Beta Kappa graduate wasn’t all hoops and homework. She played intramural sports, took dance classes, served as a resident advisor in her dorm, and worked various campus jobs to help pay tuition. After graduation, she joined a crew of seven other CC students and two professional contractors to spend the summer constructing the CC Cabin near Florissant, just 45 minutes from campus. They camped at night and worked all day, building lifelong friendships as well as a college retreat. Little did she know how the carpentry skills learned that summer would influence her later life.  

A year playing basketball in France left her doubting a career on the hardwood, so Lorna moved back to the States, this time to San Francisco at the bidding of a cabin-building friend. Then came a series of odd jobs -- among them, working on a remodeling crew and as a part-time high school basketball coach. “I didn’t ever have a of master plan,” she recalls, “but I kept going and pursuing things I enjoyed.” Doing household projects for an acquaintance led to buying his ornamental plaster business, and a lead from a bicycling friend led to her first big contract. While she underbid her nearest competitor by more than $30,000, Lorna found a new medium for artistic expression. “I never realized how much basketball fulfilled that role for me,” she says. She found another creative avenue when another friend encouraged her to pursue her interest in drumming, which eventually led to her second career, as a jazz singer.  

After being guided by friends and professors for so many years, Lorna’s goals today involve steering her own enterprises to greater success. She’s even used her creative passions to give something back to CC, serving on the Athletics Hall of Fame committee, sculpting the awards, and even returning to campus to perform at Homecoming dances.  

“Colorado College enabled me to develop the skills necessary so that I know I can teach myself anything,” she explains. “I know how to gain access to information, how to talk to people, how to write well. Not knowing what you’re going to do with the rest of your life is really okay, and having that kind of education behind you really helps.”

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