When brothers Joshua ’98 and Jeffrey Jones ’02 watch a movie or a TV show, they pay attention to wildly different things. The Jones brothers host Cinemental, a podcast that mixes humor and personal experience to analyze the way mental health is portrayed in film and television.

Lost your copy of The Iliad? Need to check out contemporary queer fiction? Want to cry happy tears as you thumb through a best-selling romance? 

Then you’ve come to the right place: Grit City Books.

A trio of Puget Sound alumni launched the independent bookstore online in 2023, followed by a brick-and-mortar store opening in May 2024 on Tacoma’s trendy Sixth Avenue.

For many people, the first years after college are awkward. It can be difficult to find footing in what seems like an ever-more-competitive and saturated landscape of not only job finding, but purpose finding.

This does not seem to be a concern for Alessandra Vidal Meza ’22. 

Peter Bittner ’12 didn’t set out to become an A.I. expert when he first set foot on campus at the University of Puget Sound. As an International Political Economy major with a minor in Spanish, he was initially drawn to international affairs. However, a passion for storytelling and a detour into freelance journalism led him to become well-versed in the capabilities of artificial intelligence—and gives him a unique insight into how the technology is upending the media landscape.

When Burbank, Calif., native Frank Reed ’05, MAT’08 topped out at 5’8" in high school, he begrudgingly accepted that he probably wouldn’t be headed to the NBA. But when then-Puget Sound basketball coach Joe Callero asked if he’d be interested in joining the team, Reed liked the sound of continuing to play while getting a top-tier education. With a grant from the Gates Millennium Scholars Program covering his undergraduate tuition, Reed committed to Puget Sound and the basketball team with sights set on a career in marine biology.

Elizabeth Shatswell ’24 wasn’t sure what to expect when she walked onto the campus of the University of Puget Sound after 23 years in prison. She had started her higher education in the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor through FEPPS—the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound. Arrested at age 17 and serving a 55-year sentence, she was released early in July 2023.

President Isiaah Crawford welcomed the incoming Arches editor, Lisa Kozleski ’94, to his office for a visit in August to share his insights on what she should be sure to check out during her time in Tacoma and reflect on the ties that connect alumni across the decades.

Participants in Puget Sound’s first-ever alumni trip to Qatar will be visiting during the best time of the year. In Doha, travelers will encounter one of the safest and cleanest cities in the world. From our home base in the gorgeous and boisterous bazaar known as Souq Waqif, we’ll adventure all over the city and beyond. The full trip itinerary promises all sorts of experiences and adventures, but here are some of the most exciting highlights that travelers will encounter.

Beyond the cheering crowds and the final whistle, the journey of a college athlete is a demanding one. Recognizing this, the University of Puget Sound is taking a significant step in supporting the whole athlete by prioritizing the well-being and leadership development of its female student-athletes, thanks to a generous endowment of $1 million from 1991 graduate Christi Offutt and the Offutt Family Foundation.

New Arches editor Lisa Kozleski ’94 started getting paid to write when she was 16, writing for her hometown paper in Woodland Park, Colo. Thanks to a well-timed conversation with admissions counselor W. Houston Dougharty ’83, she chose to study at Puget Sound where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English with honors. Kozleski went on to work at newspapers of all sizes, including the South Pierce County Dispatch and the Philadelphia Inquirer.