by Edmund Frazer Myer
Jorden Dakin-White, 28, graduated from WSU with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a minor in American Indian Studies.
Dakin-White was born in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and is a Coeur d’Alene tribal member, but she grew up in the Seattle area. She transferred to WSU from Olympic Community College. While in Pullman she met husband, Giles Dakin-White. Giles is from the UK.
The two got married earlier this year on Feb. 29, leap day. They had their ceremony at the Hitching Post in Coeur d’Alene. His family didn’t want to miss the event, so they flew to the United States for the wedding. His sister, who goes to a private school on the east side of the U.S., flew out as well.
The newlyweds, along with their 10-year-old son Donovan, plan on living in England now that they’ve both graduated. Giles is going ahead of her and Donovan. He wants to get a job and get everything settled, then Jorden and Donovan will follow.
They’re thinking about living outside of London, Dakin-White said. “It’s all about living near a train station,” she said explaining it will be easier to commute.
She’s applying to graduate school in the UK. Dakin-White said, “I’ve been thinking of business psychology, because it’s an emerging field and a lot of businesses are starting to realize the importance of having a psychologist on staff.” Having those kind of “in-house systems are really beneficial.”
Other routes she’s looking into are human rights or journalism. While at WSU, she wrote for the Daily Evergreen as an opinion writer. She published a weekly column.
She wrote articles on the Pah-Loots-Puu Powwow, missing and murdered indigenous women, water conservation, and the presidential campaign. Most recently she wrote a piece on the religious freedom bills, “based on the fact that businesses are given the right to deny people (customers or employees).”
Dakin-White said the biggest difference between community college and the university was that she’s 28 years old, and there was a generation gap between her and the other students.
She said it was at community college when she realized her passion for the field of Psychology. She said her honest reasoning for enrolling in WSU was because their Psychology program accepted her mid-way through the year.
The transition has worked out for her, and actually brought her life full-circle, for she got married in the same town she was born in 28 years earlier.
Giles will be moving to England in June, and begin to “prepare for the next stage” Jorden said. She will be staying in the area, which she said will be nice to spend a few months this summer with her family before she and Donovan move to England.
She wants to thank WSU for hiring more Native American professors and having them teach American Indian Studies. She said the thing she will remember most about WSU is the “rolling hills, with one small gem.”
UPDATE: Dakin-White has begun graduate courses online at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Congrats, Jorden!