{"id":58239,"date":"2019-12-12T14:04:16","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T21:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=58239"},"modified":"2019-12-12T14:04:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T21:04:36","slug":"graduate-malia-runge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/graduate-malia-runge\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate Malia Runge: Second-gen Lumberjack found strength, purpose during her time at NAU"},"content":{"rendered":"

Malia Runge<\/strong> has one B on her otherwise straight-A transcript.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the grade she is proudest of during her time in college. To Runge, who graduates this weekend with a degree in criminology and criminal justice, that B represents the resilience and fortitude she found in herself when faced with an unexpected challenge halfway around the world.<\/p>\n

While doing a semester abroad in Australia, Runge woke up to an alarm, but not the alarm she expected. Her residence hall was on fire. It was a terrifying experience, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI woke up to alarms, screaming, smoke and flames,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I opened my door, the hallway was filled with smoke. I didn\u2019t think to bring anything with me because I was in shock and in survival mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

She struggled to get out of the building, maneuvering around piled-up mattresses and other furniture that had been discarded after a flood and a cyclone hit the area. She got out and called a friend who lived on the other side of the building. As she walked to meet her friend, she turned around to look at the residence hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw that my home was covered in flames,\u201d she recalled. \u201cAfter I found my friend, my second thought was, \u2018I just lost everything I brought over here and I am completely alone.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She struggled after the fire, feeling lost and displaced for weeks afterward. Life on the unfamiliar campus continued to move forward; Runge did homework, took exams and turned in papers even as she strove to find something familiar to hold onto or ways to replace what she\u2019d lost, ranging from clothes and books to important papers like her passport and visa. Slowly, however, she found, if not her footing, then others in the same struggle.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t go home, as some students did, despite her support system being 8,000 miles away. She didn\u2019t stop going to class, even as she struggled. She got a new passport and new clothes, though she packed them into a bag every night just in case she had to flee again. So that B on her transcript? Runge earned it. To her, it\u2019s a mark of the adversity she overcame.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe craziest thing was, I wasn\u2019t actually alone,\u201d she said. \u201cOver 200 kids also lost their homes and at least a dozen of those kids were also foreign exchange students. I learned that when people experience a traumatic event together, it brings them closer. I became much closer to the other study abroad students than I ever believed would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those aren\u2019t the only relationships that defined Runge\u2019s time at NAU. She said the people she\u2019s met here\u2014faculty members, other student workers at Campus Recreation, roommates and classmates\u2014were the best part of her collegiate experience. She signed up for several courses just because she knew the professors teaching them would be interesting and would challenge her ideas.<\/p>\n

A Flagstaff native, she began building those Lumberjack relationships long before enrolling in school. She\u2019s a second-generation Lumberjack; her father, Peter Runge<\/strong>, is head of Special Collections and Archives at Cline Library and her mother, Vanessa Bowden-Runge<\/strong>, is a two-time NAU grad who earned her degrees as Runge was growing up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched my mom work and go to school all through my childhood,\u201d Runge said. \u201cShe would study late into the night and on weekends regale us with stories of everything she was learning. Watching her complete her degrees made me realize how important education is and what an amazing university NAU is to be so supportive of her educational goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her parents are glad to see NAU be so supportive to the next generation now.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past three and a half years, as I watched Malia attend NAU, I was filled with a deep sense of pride with her accomplishments and growth as a human being,\u201d Bowden-Runge said. \u201cIt is with a deep sense of anticipation and excitement that I look forward to her attaining her professional goals and personal dreams. NAU prepared me for a career as a speech-language pathologist, and I know that NAU has prepared Malia for her future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her father agreed, reflecting on his appreciation of NAU\u2019s history and the university\u2019s deep roots in student-focused education.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew Malia would receive an excellent education at NAU while being exposed to a wide range of complementary experiences such as studying abroad, student organizations and cultural activities,\u201d Peter Runge said. \u201cNaturally, Vanessa and I are so incredibly proud of Malia\u2019s achievements and success, but we also feel privileged that we had courtside seats to watch her grow as a young adult and become a self-reflective citizen of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Gold Axe recipient, Runge listed Upward Bound math and science director Mark DeSpain<\/strong> as having a significant influence on her education. Which he admittedly did, just not the way you might think. They met 12 years ago when a little girl who was excited about education walked into his fourth-grade classroom.<\/p>\n

They met again years later when DeSpain walked into the Campus Recreation Center, where Runge worked. They caught up with each other and this time stayed in touch, with Runge occasionally seeking out advice from DeSpain, though he was never a teacher or official adviser or mentor. He was thrilled when she told him she was listing him as her mentor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to give her a strong foundation that her education would be able to thrive on: Believe in yourself and others. Speak up when you need to and listen the rest of the time. Life is meant to be explored and lived,\u201d DeSpain said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how well I instilled these values in Malia, but my reason for keeping in contact throughout the years was to bear witness to Malia\u2019s growth, not just as a student, but as a wonderful, kind, strong, resilient human being who represents the best in all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

From start to finish, NAU was a life- and perspective-changing experience for Runge, whose next step is with the U.S. Coast Guard; she\u2019s applying for Officer Candidate School and plans to spend the next few years in uniform. From there, she hopes to work in the FBI\u2019s Violence Against Children International Task Force, which works to prevent child sex trafficking.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most unexpected lessons I learned was just how quickly life can change from one moment to the next,\u201d Runge said. \u201cThe night of the fire, I went to bed unconsciously confident that tomorrow would be the same as today and I would have the same community, privileges, material objects and opportunities as the day that just concluded. Within moments, my life changed and everything that was elemental was gone. Suddenly and unexpectedly, I understood how a single event can leave you vulnerable, alone and displaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully, that situation was temporary for me, but I know for others, it is not temporary. No matter how confident and sure we are of our lives, we\u2019re all vulnerable and susceptible to the whims of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a>Heidi Toth | NAU Communications
\n(928) 5236-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Malia Runge has one B on her otherwise straight-A transcript. It\u2019s the grade she is proudest of during her time in college. To Runge, who graduates this weekend with a degree in criminology and criminal justice, that B represents the resilience and fortitude she found in herself when faced with an unexpected challenge halfway around…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":58240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}