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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.

Richard Koo
Class of ’82
Math Major
Co-founder, Product Architect, Vitria.com
San Francisco, California

To meet him, you’d never guess Richard Koo was such a gambler. His mild manner, gentle humor, and logical nature belie that he’s a risk-taker at heart.

“I think being willing to leave one’s country is already a gamble,” says Richard, who’s originally from Hong Kong. His second gamble was coming to Colorado College. Always knowing he wanted to go to college in the United States, Richard had planned on, and was accepted to, an Ivy League school. Then a friend suggested CC -- a smaller, liberal arts college. “She thought I would get a better experience there,” he says, “and she knew I loved the mountains. So, I decided to take a chance.”  

He took another chance by taking a math class. “I actually didn’t do very well in math in high school,” he admits. So a math major wasn’t a natural choice? “Oh, no, no, no,” he says laughing. “That came later. That came from a chance encounter with Steven Janke.” 

Deciding to fulfill a requirement by taking Calculus I -- a class he had nearly flunked in high school -- Richard learned the class was full, so he went to the math department to see if he couldn’t talk his way in. That’s when he met CC Math Professor Janke. “We talked a little bit,” Richard says, “and he found out my background, and when he found out I took calculus before, even though I didn’t do very well, he said, ‘You’ll do fine here. Just come take my Calc II class.’ He made me feel very comfortable.”

Sure enough, Richard did well in the class and enjoyed it, so much so that he took more math classes with Janke, “and the rest just fell into place.” He attributes this good experience to two distinctive CC characteristics: the Block Plan and a dedicated faculty member. “Having Steven as a teacher made the most difference,” he explains, “and I also think the Block Plan worked quite well for me. I didn’t have to think about anything else, so I could concentrate.”  Both prepared him for graduate school as well. 

Finally enrolling at his intended Ivy League university, Richard earned his Ph.D. in computer science from Cornell in 1987. After graduating, he moved to California’s Silicon Valley, working for Sun Microsystems and another similar, but smaller software company. Then in 1994, he jumped at the chance to start a new software company with three others, Vitria Technology, a business-to-business infrastructure company. He figured if nothing came of it, he could at least say he tried to create something from nothing. “Back then it wasn’t fashionable to start your own company,” Richard explains, “but it was the right time to do it because of the emergence of the Internet.”  

Again, his risk paid off. Today, Vitria.com employs nearly 800 people, has offices in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and enjoyed a strong reception to their IPO in 1999.  

Comparing his undergraduate experience with graduate school, even with his knowledge of large research universities in California, Richard says CC comes out on top. Not only did the curriculum and the Block Plan prepare him for graduate school, it factors into his success today. “The Block Plan taught me to come up to speed on something very, very quickly,” he says. “Technology changes very quickly, and it’s not uncommon that we have to respond to changing market conditions in a matter of days.”  

He also enjoyed his experience at CC as an international student. “Sure, CC doesn’t have a major international student body,” he admits, “but it’s good because you aren’t treated differently, and you don’t have cliques, so you tend to assimilate faster.”  

Richard owns up to his gambling nature. “I took a risk with Colorado College, and I took a risk with this company,” he says. But he’s downright logical when assessing value and opportunity. “You get more for your money at CC,” he continues. “A smaller school does offer a higher-level experience, both in the classroom and outside the classroom. And I can’t say enough about the dedication of the CC faculty to their teaching. Really, they’re not there for the money; they’re there because they love to teach.”

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