Dusty Dodd

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“I will be the first in my family to graduate from a university and doing so will allow me to fulfill a dream that my mother had for all of her children.”

  • Program: 2009 Graduate Scholarship Recipient
  • Resides: Springfield, OR
  • Hometown: Roseburg, OR
  • Age: 51

Biography

PROFILE:  Dusty Dodd dropped out of high school, but found a love for history when she went to college after an injury ended her job at a lumber mill. The love of the past was always there for Dusty, who recalls her mother telling her about their pioneer ancestors leaving New York and arriving in the Willamette Valley via the Oregon Trail. “We visited many museums when I was young, which caused me to see the past not as a boring set of facts but as a living part of who we are.” After her injury in 2003, Dusty pursued and received her high school equivalency degree. From there, like chapters in an historical novel, everything started to fall into place. Awards and honors followed, including the Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation which allowed Dusty to enroll at the University of Oregon where she graduated from in the spring of 2009.

 INSPIRATION: Dusty is grateful to Charles Young, her first history professor at Umpqua Community College. “His love of history,” she says, “and the enthusiasm with which he presented his lectures spurred my desire to become a historian.”
 
ASPIRATION: Dusty wants to pass along her love of history to others by developing interactive programs “that help them see history as exciting.” Of course, her ultimate goal, the “big leagues” for historians, is to eventually work as an archivist at the Smithsonian Institutution in Washington, DC. “It may seem to be a lofty dream to many, but I see it as the logical conclusion to dreaming big, working hard, and achieving a goal.”
 
MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Dusty has tutored fellow students at the University of Oregon, while also volunteering in a local health clinic. In addtion, she’s held a part-time job doing what she loves best, working in a museum in Springfield, OR.
 
ACCOLADES: Dusty was named to Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. In addition she was awarded the Paul Dull Memorial Endowed Scholarship from the University of Oregon History Department and many other academic honors including being a member of the Golden Key International Honor Society.  
 
INTERESTING FACT: Dusty is an accomplished song writer, especially of gospel songs. “I also make up silly songs about things that I have experienced.”

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