Profiles
Latest Profiles from Public School Kids
Brooks Barnes
When I asked Brooks about his favorite teacher growing up in Billings, he warned me about his answer. “Most people, if I said ‘Mrs. Will’, would recoil in horror and start shouting expletives. She was mean.” But sometimes “mean” is the opposite of what it seems in...
Ryan “Ol’ Cal” Callaghan
Ryan "Ol' Cal" Callaghan Missoula, MT Ryan “Ol’ Cal” Callaghan grew up in Missoula at a time when the Rattlesnake still felt like a neighborhood wilderness and a place where everyone could afford to live. Born in Billings to a mom from Lockwood and a dad from...
Chrysti “the Wordsmith” Smith
Chrysti “the Wordsmith” Smith - Poplar and Billings, MT Before she became Chrysti the Wordsmith, our beloved guide into the hidden lives of words, Chrysti Smith was a horse-crazy girl growing up on the Hi-Line. Born in Culbertson after her mom went into labor in...
Robin Selvig
Robin Selvig - Outlook, Montana Robin Selvig grew up in a town most Montanans have never heard of and even fewer have ever seen. Outlook, a tiny farming community on the Hi-Line in the northwestern-most corner of the state, had about 150 people when Selvig was a kid...
Tammi Fisher
Tammi Fisher Attorney. Former Mayor of Kalispell. Podcast host. Community advocate. Great Falls High, Class of 1994 Tammi Fisher’s story is one of Montana grit and a fierce belief in opportunity, responsibility, and the power of public schools to prepare kids for...
Freedom Week: Popular Sovereignty
This week is Celebrate Freedom Week in Montana’s public schools, a perfect time to reflect on what freedom really means here. The Declaration of Independence gave us the vision of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and the U.S. and Montana Constitutions...
Why Not Be Great?
Every week it feels like we’re being pulled further apart, but sit in a room with people from all walks of life, looking at each other instead of screens, and you’ll find common ground. We’d laugh, argue, cry, but mostly we’d be surprised by how much we share. We’ve...
Let’s Be Our Best
Every week it feels like we’re being pulled further apart, but sit in a room with people from all walks of life, looking at each other instead of screens, and you’ll find common ground. We’d laugh, argue, cry, but mostly we’d be surprised by how much we share. We’ve...
Monica Gilles-BringsYellow
Monica Gilles-BringsYellow Great Falls High Class of 2000 Monica didn’t grow up in a typical Great Falls family. Her mom was from Mazatlán, Mexico and didn’t speak English and her dad - a farmer turned journalist - did the ag report for the Great Falls Tribune. Monica...
Land Tawney – Sentinel High School
Land Tawney Conservationist Sentinel High School, 1993 Most people know Land Tawney as one of the fiercest advocates for public lands and backcountry conservation. But I first knew him as my 3rd grade pen pal. Our teachers paired students from Lewis & Clark and...