Denzlee Knudsen For The Herald Journal

Published Dec. 19, 2023

The driver greeted each individual passenger as they climbed aboard the Silver Stadium Express. The compact bus shielded passengers from the chill air of the rainy winter morning.

“The First Noel” played over the speakers of the shuttle. The bus driver wore a smile on his face and a baseball cap on his head with felt reindeer antlers sticking straight up from a headband.

The Silver bus pulled out of the stadium parking lot and headed up the hill. It wrapped around the drop-off as students stirred in anticipation to get off.

“Have a great day,” the driver said over the bus’s intercom. “There’s plenty of candy canes here at the front.” He gestured to a white bucket strapped to the dashboard full of individually wrapped miniature candy canes.

Passengers getting off thanked the driver for his service while new passengers hopping on exclaimed their admiration for his festive hat.

Tom Reading loves driving for the Aggie Shuttle and has loved doing so for nearly 15 years. He started driving shuttles for Utah State University in 2009. Driving in circles isn’t his motivation for doing this job but rather for the connections with the university students.

“I like to stay around young adults, keeps me young,” Reading said. “I get to know a lot of you and the great things you do. I see how outgoing you are.”

Reading first was assigned the South Campus route looping Highway 89 and the Lundstrom Student Living Center northeast of Logan Cemetery. Now he can be seen transporting students back and forth from Maverick Stadium and campus.

There are eight various designated routes the Aggie Shuttles may follow, each coordinated by a specific color. The buses run Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. while a single evening bus runs from 5:30 to 10 p.m.

One of the main ways of transportation for USU students is taking the bus from their student housing to campus. For many passengers, riding the bus is a necessary convenience in order to get to class but for a lucky few, riding the bus has become a highlight of their day.

Students who regularly ride the Silver bus touring Maverick stadium know Reading and are always excited to be riding with him.

Ted Muir is a loyal passenger of the Stadium Express taking the route to get to and from campus “everyday.” Of the drivers that take her to campus, “Tom is my favorite.”

“When he dressed up for Halloween, he wore that chicken costume,” Muir said, followed by a laugh. “I like that he has candy sometimes. He always knows people. I think he recognizes me.”

Another steadfast Silver passenger, Olivia Phillips, agreed with Muir’s observations.

“Tom makes an effort to get to know individual people and make them feel like they had a friend they saw that day and I think that’s really sweet,” Phillips said.

Reading will more than gladly take any opportunity to drive the bus for the service of student athletes outside of his shift hours. He has made close connections with the sports teams by taking them to their various tournaments.

“I call the gymnastics team my ‘girls’ and the softball team are my ‘babes,’ I haven’t labeled other teams yet,” Reading said.

Reading doesn’t get to drive USU’s sports teams as much anymore since most teams have other forms of transportation to take them to tournaments or the airport. But Reading will jump on any opportunity to take a sports team to their event.

“I will suggest taking them and they will honor that because I have seniority,” Reading said.

Graduating from USU in 1972, Reading studied to be a seminary and institute teacher, going on to teach for 37 years. During his freshman year of college, he was on the baseball team with a scholarship. Reading served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for two years in England between his freshman and sophomore year.

Reading has gotten a good balance with work life and hobbies. His work hours consist of starting at 7 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays and 9 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, ending his shifts always at 1 p.m. He keeps his Fridays free for extracurricular activities.

Reading will be playing racquetball with friends in the mornings before his 9 o’clock shifts. In the wintertime, he normally goes skiing on his time off.

Gardening and hiking are among Reading’s favorite outside hobbies. He also considers himself a “handyman” when it comes to tools. Aside from working with the Aggie Shuttle, he and his wife work in the Logan temple Thursday evenings.

Another job Reading has had in the past was ski patrol at Beaver Mountain Ski Resort.

Feature story by Denzlee Knudsen

Mar. 29, 2024

Bursting through the front doors of the house, Brittany Lowe threw all of her teaching supplies on the floor by the foot of the stairs. She raced through the kitchen, rummaging cupboards to grab a quick snack.

Lowe gave her husband a peck on the cheek as she brushed past him. “How was work today?” he asked.

She turned around, a bagel clenched between her teeth, and mumbled, “It was rough.” As her husband left the kitchen, she pulled out the cream cheese from the fridge and spat out the bagel onto the counter. 

“I had two kids cry today, one runner during the fire drill, and I need to get nine kids closer to benchmark before next month,” she sighed. “I’m also super worried because if I don’t work some magic to get those kids to where they’re supposed to be, I don’t think I’ll be coming back to teach next year because of my one-year contract.”

Lowe ate her bagel as she rushed to the master bedroom at the back of the house. Her days aren’t typically busy but this day was especially different since she had to have a couple meetings with parents discussing their kindergartener’s behavior issues.

Lowe emerged from the bedroom wearing workout clothes and rejoined her husband in the kitchen to quickly refill her water bottle before leaving again.

Lowe said her goodbyes and headed back out the door. She started the car, took a deep breath in and blasted the Barbie movie’s soundtrack on the speakers as she drove to her second job, teaching classes at Sports Academy.

Lowe’s true comfort zone is instructing adults at the gym. She lets her worries go as she turns on the playlist she had put together that morning at 5.

Lowe has been working at Sports Academy for eight years and has connected with a lot of people in that time. She has close friends who she can share everything with.

Lowe’s friend Roxanne Stewart has been coming to spin ever since her college days more than 20 years ago and the two have bonded well over the years.

“Half the stuff Brittany has said to me about working at a school,” Stewart said, “it’s just nothing that I think I can have the patience for. She has a gift for sure.”

Teaching kindergarten at Adams Elementary has been a life-altering challenge for Lowe, and her career lies in uncertainty as her short-term contract nears its end.

The team of teachers Lowe had walked into were very exhausted only halfway through the 2022-2023 school year. Lowe was hired as the third kindergarten teacher before Logan City School District was back from winter break. She received a third of the students from each of the other classes.

Debbie Hurley, Lowe’s fellow kindergarten teacher, was relieved. With a new teacher, Hurley’s class of 26 energetic 5-year-olds dwindled down to 18 manageable students.

“This year, the class sizes are still much higher than we want, but, man, am I glad to have Brittany around this year,” Hurley said.

Lowe is happy to have so many people around her in both parts of her life who support her as mentors and allies.

“I have friends that we support each other,” Lowe said, “and we keep each other accountable. These girls are my strength. They give me energy.”

Lowe returned to teaching after an eight year hiatus but was used to being around fourth graders when she first taught. When she came back for the last half of the school year, it felt like a trial run. So this year feels like her actual first year back teaching.

“I get my own class now with my own set of rules so really I am a first-year teacher,” Lowe said. “I don’t know exactly what I am doing.”

By the end of May, the majority of kids went from not knowing how to hold a pencil to being able to keep up with first grade. The district expects the school to achieve the same outcome with this new group of kids.

Hurley believes it is possible since the team works like “a well-oiled machine.” However, Lowe has doubts about her own abilities.

Her contract to come back to teaching allowed her to alleviate the other class sizes. But the designated time of her contract has passed. So, Lowe is now waiting to hear if her superiors will let her renew a full contract or have someone else replace her.

“She’s definitely had some learning curves,” said Katie McClellan, the school’s instructional coach. “Brittany’s learned a lot already and she still has much more to learn.”

Lowe feels the pressure of having to meet certain expectations in both her different jobs. Whenever she needs a break during spin, she can hop off her bike at any time to walk around. However, she can’t turn her back around for a single second while in the classroom.

The majority of her weekdays consist of entertaining 21 children to learn how to read, write and count. However, Lowe quickly learned it was much more than that. Helping children who come from many different backgrounds with their educational and behavioral needs has proven to be quite the difficult task. Learning how to line up at the door takes months to comprehend. Some days are better than others.

Wednesday evening spin class never fails to cheer up Lowe after a long, tough day at school. She challenged the attendees, song after song, to “get your heartrate up and your sweat dripping.”

Lowe encouraged the attendees to come back for the early Friday morning session she also teaches.

When Lowe isn’t teaching spin at the gym, she co-teaches high fitness Mondays and Thursdays in the evening. And when she isn’t teaching any class, she still attends spin classes that other instructors teach.

During the school’s last routine fire drill, Lowe had gotten every student safely out of the building and waiting patiently out in the field. When it was time to go back in the school, one of her kids broke away from the line, running to the road. Lowe called over to an aid to watch her class as she sprinted across the field. Lowe wrapped her arms around the little girl’s waist before she had reached the curb and hoisted her in the air. She redirected that student to join the line.

“That’s my motivation to stay in shape,” Lowe breathlessly said to the aid.

Despite the trouble some of the kids give her, Lowe adores walking into her teaching job if that means “seeing their cute little faces light up when something clicks in their heads and they start to get the material.”

At the end of every school day, Lowe takes her class to the playground gates as each of her students get picked up by their parents. The children will see their family and run over to Lowe, giving her a hug. Sometimes the hugs catch her by surprise but she doesn’t mind the young kids clinging to her legs. She knows she has made an impact for these children and they have made an impact on her.

When the last of her students leave to go with their parents, Lowe looks back to see them walking away. There’s a special connection between her and the kids. There’s a deep longing in her, one she hopes will last for years to come.

Feature story by Denzlee Knudsen

Feb. 23, 2024

John-Michael Sutherland’s breath rose into the air as he hunched over his shovel on the sidewalk, lifting and moving the snow near the Saint Jerome Newman Center near Utah State University’s campus.

His lungs were on fire despite the bitter cold. 

His lower back and shoulders refused to continue moving in the same repetitive pattern he had done all morning. But the task gave him solace. He knew why he was there. 

Sutherland didn’t ever mind when it was his turn to get to work scooping the snow off the pavement at the center. But this is a simple act that many people who own properties and businesses around campus can’t seem to replicate.

Logan City Municipal Ordinance 12.08.080 states that it is the resident’s responsibility to make public walkways clear. This ordinance has been in place since 2004, and is stressed every year by Logan City Council.

Street maintenance crew chief Reed Romney reiterates the public’s obligation every winter. “I believe every month from October to March, we have in the newsletter a whole section highlighting these duties,” he said. “Clear your sidewalks that are heavily traversed, make sure vehicles or other obstructions are off the side of the road and don’t dump your snow in the street.”

The city does all it can for the streets so it is up to citizens to do their due-diligence on getting the sidewalks. “It’s for the safety of the elderly, people in wheelchairs and kids walking to school,” Romney said.

Volunteers from the Newman Center, like Sutherland, often help remove snow that remains on adjacent sidewalks. And unbeknownst to them, next door to their church resides someone who hates the thick snow more than anyone. Samuel Thomas, a wheelchair user at Utah State University, rages over those who have seemingly forgotten this basic civic duty. It has even gone to the point where Thomas has struggled in his schooling because of the snow that’s been left on sidewalks — which can make it difficult and sometimes impossible to get to class. 

The automatic doors of 800 Block apartments swung open as Thomas rolled into 3 inches of snow the morning of Jan. 14, with no sign of the weather stopping anytime soon. Gripping the tires at his side, he heaved his wheelchair forward with all the strength he had in his upper body. His chest dipped forward to further propel his weight without launching himself out of his seat. The chair rocked up onto the snow only for it to sink back into the divot it had already created.

Thomas leaned over his knees and dusted away the snow that was blocking his wheels. 

“When the snow reaches my toes, it is completely impassable,” Thomas said. 

Thomas sat back up to try again, this time with more umph. He thrusted his body weight to scoot the wheelchair while he aggressively spun its wheels.

Thomas’ chair bumped forward. The wheels slipped, losing all of what little traction it once had. Thomas spun out and clutched his armrests.

Thomas looked out to the sidewalk 50 feet in front of him. Three measly inches of brand new snow coated the walkway, standing between him and his classes. “I’m not doing this today,” Thomas said as he wheeled himself around to go back to his room.

While Thomas had skipped his first class, Sutherland came back to the church after his morning class. One of 25 volunteers must have shoveled earlier in the morning while Sutherland was on campus, but it looked like it was already time to shovel again.

Sutherland began tossing the snow with the shovel provided by the center. He had to shovel in front of the church and around the corner downhill before starting his schoolwork.

Sutherland sees the chore as being “a moral obligation,” simply a “charity to others.” He does it for the young and old coming to Mass and the university students walking up the steep hill to get to campus. “I find it quite relaxing, actually,” Sutherland said.

Volunteers get organized as early as October in preparation for the upcoming winter. Volunteers include Catholics attending Mass as well as miscellaneous students from campus. Cesar Hernandez, head of organizing the snow removal committee, gets a sign up sheet posted in the foyer for people to put their contact information on.

“He likes to be on top of getting people ready and willing to shovel as early as October or November,” Sutherland said.

Hernandez always looks for people to help in the winter, although he never has to worry much because “there are a lot of people wanting to do a service for the community out of the kindness of their hearts.”

Hernandez is never shocked by people’s willingness but he is astounded by the amount of people willing to provide aid.

“Last year I had several people out here to shovel throughout the entire day because it just kept coming down,” Hernandez said. “But it would still be awesome to have more and more people willing to perform a service; we can never have enough.”

Hernandez debated how much of the sidewalks he’d like to see be cleared. During the construction of 800 Block, his volunteers had expanded their services beyond the center’s property. But seeing that the new business is not fulfilling their civic responsibility, Hernadez concluded that they could reenact their previous favor.

Hernadez plans to get more volunteers to sign up and for more people to work whenever the next time snow comes around. “I promise my volunteers that they will feel accomplished and warm inside and this is perfect that they get more opportunities to do so.”

To Thomas, USU is a very accommodating campus and people are always trying their best. He has voiced his appreciation for those who have done more than required. 

“They don’t have to…but I greatly appreciate that!” Thomas said.

Hernandez plans to grow his team of volunteers before the next snowfall. Without knowing what kind of people will truly benefit from this act, Hernandez is excited about sharing that warmth of service with more people.

Enterprise story by Denzlee Knudsen

Oct. 25, 2023

USU students are able to give back to younger generations through the power of knowledge at Adams Elementary School.

Over 50 Utah State University students consistently volunteer throughout the week for Reading Buds at the elementary school. Reading Buds is a program where college students can volunteer to read with elementary kids during After School Club.

Sondra Knudsen, a kindergarten teacher at Adams, created the program in hopes to make a difference in readers and volunteers’ lives by making community connections. She has witnessed both the USU students and elementary students thrive from this exchange.

“Volunteers look forward to coming every time, and the children’s excitement when their reading bud walks in the door is amazing!” she said. “It’s not just about reading but it’s about the connections.”

The elementary kids have bonded with the volunteers by “having someone care enough to listen to these young readers read,” Mrs. Knudsen said.

Reading Buds has 52 willing volunteers for 80 elementary students. USU outreach representative Julie Dennis said, “It’s so awesome that so many USU students want to help! There are usually multiple people in every grade helping students.”

Many volunteers shared that they were struggling readers when they were in school and now they want to give back and help younger students.

Mrs. Knudsen said some volunteers are elementary education major students so it’s also providing an opportunity for them to see if this is a direction they want to go with their career.

The coordinators in charge of running Reading Buds are thrilled with the success that has flourished in the new school year. “Our students are being given the opportunity to have someone to read to every day,” Mrs. Knudsen said.

Dennis described how helpful the volunteers are for the students as well as for the After School Club staff.

“The After School Club tutor had about eight or nine students just for her.  That’s a lot of kids for one tutor,” Dennis said. “It took some of the stress off of her for me to help every single student.”

The program has generated success within the school, catching the attention of Logan City School District as the coordinators head to the school board meeting Oct. 24 to share their accomplishments.

There is a need in early grades to communicate with non-English speaking students. Spanish speaking volunteers are glad they are able to use their Spanish whenever they get to work with those students who also speak Spanish.

The program’s technical provider, Gavin Knudsen, said, “We have had readers who didn’t even know English beginning to know letter names and sounds as well as basic words in English within a few short months. Every student we work with has shown significant progress and the teachers are very happy with our program so far.”

Despite the program fully running for three months, USU students continue to reach out willing to volunteer.

“We ended our advertising efforts a while ago and yet I am still getting asked questions from people who are interested in joining,” Knudsen said.

Knudsen said the program could very well continue to grow throughout the year since “many more have expressed interest but are unable to come due to a time conflict.”

Knudsen had created a website along with multiple QR codes to get as much information out as possible.

With how many USU students have already joined the program, the coordinators hope Reading Buds will keep going for years in the future.

“I hope that the program continues to provide value to the community and that we can continue to provide USU students with a way to inspire the leaders of tomorrow,” Knudsen said.

“It would be pretty sad if we only had this one awesome year and then nothing happened the next,” Dennis said.