Aggies with the Most…
Beyond a bachelors
Teena Ivers is a graduate student at Utah State University. Again.
Ivers is the Aggie with the most degrees, certificates, and endorsements.
Ivers said she has a one-year certificate in early childhood development, a two-year associate degree in education, a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, a math level II endorsement, a middle school endorsement, a physical education endorsement and a master’s of education.
Ivers will be graduating this spring. She said she wants to be a principal when she is done.
“I’ll be very happy when spring semester is over,” Ivers said, “I’m feeling very over-educated at this point.”
Ivers just got her master’s degree this summer she said., she is currently working on her administrative supervisory certificate and teaches math 0900 at USU. She also teaches 7th-grade pre-algebra and girls’ P.E. at a middle school in Wellsville.
“I couldn’t decide what I wanted to major in. I stayed in education, but went to different areas. I started in preschool, and then fell in love with middle school. So I went back to get the middle school endorsement,” Ivers said.
She started going to school in 1989. “I’ve been going on and off since then. I took time off to have kids,” she said.
Ivers has attended Utah Valley State College, Weber State University and USU.
-hollyadams@cc.usu.edu
The Family Edition
One mom, one boy, three girls and two in-laws add up to a whole lot of Aggies.
Meet the Griffiths family: DeAnn, Kate, Tiffany, Shawn and TesAnn. The Griffiths are Aggies with the most family members attending Utah State University.
Just a few of the challenges this family faces are coordinating rides, having lunch together three times a week, moving the car before time is up and finding babysitters, said TesAnn Peel, a sophomore in financial management and the youngest of the Griffiths siblings. They grew up in Wellsvllle and are now all married with two grandkids in the family and one on the way.
Tiffany Jensen, the second sibling and a freshman in social work, said, “[Going to school] is a lot easier when you don’t have a family. When you don’t have to juggle the kids, the babysitter and school.”
When it comes to school and grades, though, even with so many members attending, they aren’t struggling.
“Mom has the best GPA and it’s embarrassing,” Shawn Griffiths, the third sibling and a sophomore in civil engineering, said.
Peel said, “If you take a class with mom, you’re bound to pass.”
The family has a lot of advice to give those entering school, especially for those with family members going to school at the same time.
“Go together. Over the dinner table, we all talk about school and our tests. It’s way fun,” Telene Griffiths, a freshman in elementary education and Shawn’s wife, said.
DeAnn Griffiths, a junior majoring in sociology and the mom of the bunch, said, “We try to have fun amid all the stress and stuff we have to do.” Shawn said his family has too much fun. “I try to avoid them because I have too much to do.”
The oldest of the siblings is Kate Bradshaw. She is a junior majoring in communications. Though not currently attending USU, there is yet another Aggie in the family.
DeAnn’s husband graduated from USU 23 years ago in agricultural business and now works construction.
-hollyadams@cc.usu.edu
From the slopes to the sofa
Brett Reeder took a ski lesson at Beaver Ski Resort when he was 12 and he hasn’t stopped skiing since. He now owns 17 pairs of snow skis and three pairs of water skis, bringing the grand total to 40 individual skis in all.
Reeder said he stores most of his skis in his living room, “until my roomies complain, then I take them to a storage shed.” Reeder said he is currently using three of his pairs of skis on the slopes while he finds new ways to use some of the others.
“I got addicted to building furniture out of them,” Reeder said. “Last year, I got an idea to build a nice ski chair. So, I got a pattern and started collecting skis – old ones I had, skis from Deseret Industries and garage sales. I have now built three benches and one ski chair.”
Reeder said he is trying to sell them and plans on making more types of furniture. “This bench [in the picture] is an Adirondack style. It folds up flat for storage. It looks uncomfortable, but really it is quite comfy. I also have a ski pole for my gear shifter in my jeep.”
When his skis are slicing through powder instead of being made into furniture, Reeder said he has the best time at Alta and Targhee.
“Alta is great [because they have] no snowboarders, no lines and excellent snow and Targhee has always had great snow when I visited it.” ? Reeder said his views of snowboarders are that they are “a little sideways.”
After having a season pass the last four years, Reeder said he now works as a ski technician at Beaver Mountain.
“What can I say, I’m a ski addict.”
-etippetts@cc.usu.edu