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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.

Paul Markovich
Class of 1988
International Political Economy Major
Executive Vice President of Marketing, Co-Founder, MyWayHealth
Oakland, California

Since Paul Markovich grew up in North Dakota, everyone expected he would look for a college where he could continue playing competitive hockey. Since he came from a family of college educators, everyone knew he'd choose a college with a rigorous academic program. But, in spite of his talent, no one could have known he would go on to win the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. Regardless of the arena -- academics or athletics -- he stuck by his personal philosophy: Prepare the best he can, enjoy the process, and hope for the best outcome, knowing there was much he couldn't control.  

That philosophy served him well at Colorado College. Paul always knew he would study politics and economics. But what he appreciated most about his CC education was the liberal arts approach. "That exposure to a variety of topics and subjects and people just really whetted my appetite for more and prepared me for continuing to question and learn," he explains. "And being on the Block Plan and having a new class every three and a half weeks, I guess I learned not to feel intimidated about trying new things."  

His attitude carried over from studying to center ice, helping him cope with a collegiate hockey career that was less than what he dreamed. Not only were the Tiger teams struggling in the late '80s, but Paul also saw little ice time himself. A walk-on, Paul was young for a starter -- only 17 -- and lacked the physical development of other players. "All I did was practice and work hard and work out," he recalls, "just trying to break into the lineup." He did that the next year, playing regularly and earning an athletics scholarship. But as the year ended, a knee injury sent him right back to the bench. He missed all of his junior year and never fully recovered, even though he came back to play his senior year. Nonetheless, the hockey team presents the Paul Paul Award each year to the team's top scholar-athlete. "There are a lot of lessons to be learned playing a team sport," he says. "I had the opportunity to test myself, find out how good I could be, deal with adversity, and work with others to achieve a common goal."  

He had a similar opportunity in applying for the Rhodes, one of the most prestigious post-graduate scholarships in the world. Studying Russian in Moscow, Paul planned to pursue graduate work in politics, economics, and international relations regardless of whether the Rhodes came through. When it did, "I could really see that CC prepared me well for the style of academics, the critical thinking and essay writing," he says.  

After Oxford, he took "the liberal arts approach to career management." Wanting to apply the economic theories he had studied, Paul became a management consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton in New York City. Four years later, he and his wife moved to the San Francisco Bay area, where he joined Blue Shield of California as director of product development. It was there Paul gained the background he needed to start his own company, MyWayHealth, an Internet-enabled healthcare plan intended to reduce bureaucratic problems for consumers. 

"I never would have predicted that I'd be trying to improve the healthcare system," he says now, "but CC taught to get over my trepidation about going after things I wanted, even in making a career change. What's life for if not to make a contribution and change the world for the better?"

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