Wednesday,
Jan. 21, 1998
Clackamas student shines on Jeopardy
UHIekncwn
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• Contestants
stand on boxes
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• You cant buzz
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JOEL P. SHEMPERT
Feature Editor
Clackamas students who sat down
to relax the day after Christmas and
tuned in to Jeopardy may have recog
nized a familiar face—Clackamas stu
dent Nancy Hungerford-Levine, who
embarked on the journey toward Jeop
ardy contestanthood last March.
“It’s all [Political Science Instructor]
Dean Darris’ fault. I blame this all on
him,” states the courageous 27-year-
old. “I asked him a question in [US
Government] class one day. He didn’t
know the answer, so I went and looked
it up.. .and he said, ‘That’s the kind of
thing you would only need to know on
TIMOTHY BELL / Clackamas Print
Nancy Hungerford-Levine, ex-marine, political
science student, and Jeopardy contestant,
relaxes between classes by Barlow Hall.
Jeopardy.’ So it’s his fault.”
Hungerford-Levine reveals that
Darris had even more to do with her
Jeopardy odyssey than planting the
seed. “It’s actually his fault that I
passed that [Jeopardy tryout] test, too
. . .one of the questions on the test I
know I got right, and the only reason I
got it right is because of that class,”
Hungerford-Levine explains.
No matter who is to “blame” for her
appearance on Jeopardy, Hungerford-
Levine’s own initiative drove her far in
her quest.
“I saw that they were having tryouts
in the Seattle area, and you’re sup
posed to send in a postcard, and if they
select it, then you get to go to the try
outs,” she says.
“It was a really great experience,”
Hungerford-Levine recalls. She adds
that “the tryouts weren’t that hard. You
go there and take a 50-question writ
ten test. There’s a videotape of Alex
Trebek asking the questions.”
Hungerford-Levine passed the try
outs, and in October traveled to the
L.A. Jeopardy studio (paying her own
travel and hotel costs, mind you) to
tape the show. A regular Jeopardy
viewer, the experience was nonetheless
new to her.
“You don’t get to see what you’re
doing, so you don’t really know what
you’re doing. It’s really strange using
the button. You have to click the but
ton after Alex is finished talking.. .You
know everything at home, and you just
yell it out—well, you can’t do that
here,” Hungerford-Levine relates.
“I don’t really remember what it’s like
on there,” she continues. “It’s kind of
a blur. I got to watch a lot of the other
shows, because they tape five shows
in one day, so I remember a lot more
about that than when I was actually
on.”
Nancy Hungerford-Levine is of
course now well-versed in all manner
of behind-the-scenes Jeopardy knowl
edge. A lot goes into the task of pre
senting the smooth-running, well-oiled
quiz-show machine viewers see on
their TV sets every weekday.
“I was standing on a box,”
Hungerford-Levine cites as one ex
ample. “They want you all to be the
same height, so to equalize it out me
and this other girl, Joyce, were stand
ing on boxes.”
There were other idiosyncrasies to
the show’s production.
“I was mainly concerned with not
tripping when I got on stage, because
they literally push you on that stage.
When you see contestants walking in
sort of chilled out, well, you have the
stage manager behind you going,
boom! ‘Now entering the studio...’”
says Hungerford-Levine with a smile.
“Everybody wants to know how Alex
Trebek is,” Hungerford-Levine says.
“I didn’t talk to him for very long.” She
did have a humorous exchange with
the host during the between-round on-
air banter, telling how she met her hus
band in a V.A. Hospital, riding on his
lap down wheelchair ramps.
Of course, it’s even more likely that
everyone is wondering, “How much
did she win?” While she had a slow
start in the first round, Hungerford-
Levine gained momentum in Double
Jeopardy, pulling swiftly ahead from
last place to a good lead.
Final Jeopardy proved to be her un
doing. She correctly answered the ques
tion yet made a classic Jeopardy bet
ting error, only wagering $200 and al
lowing the other contestants to regain
their leads. In all, though, she conducted
herself with poise and confidence. She
took home consolation prizes including
a vacuum cleaner and camcorder.
When Nancy Hungerford-Levine told
Jeopardy staff she was a political sci
ence student, they responded, “What
can you do with a political science de
gree?” Thanks again to Darris,
Hungerford-Levine is now supplied with
answer: “Oh, I don’t know, change the
world?”
Machine shop
Beekeeping takes ELC by swarm
instructor has
Clackamas roots
LAURA ARMSTRONG
Staff Writer
MIKECHESLAR
Contributing Writer
Clayton Smith, a machine shop instructor specializing in
CNC (computer numeric code) programming, milling and
turning, is a former student of the college who successfully
made the transition from school to industry.
Smith got a job working for a major manufacturing shop
after he left Clackamas, and 15 years later he is still work
ing for Cornell Pump, a machine shop located in Milwaukie.
As a part-time instructor, Smith splits his very busy sched
ule by working during the day and teaching evenings Mon
day and Wednesday. He enjoys teaching, and describes the
working environment at the school as pleasant. But it is also
hard for him being a full-time employee for a manufactur
ing plant.
“The downside of working full time and teaching part
time is that it is wearing mentally and physically,” Smith
said.
The CNC machine class that he teaches is available to
anyone interested in working in the manufacturing indus
try. Most of the students taking the class or who want to
take the class are involved in the machine shop industry,
either working for a company or planning to work for one
in the near future.
As a whole, Smith said he likes what the college is doing
for the manufacturing industry. He did say, though, that there
should be prerequisites to take the class, such as basic math
and computer skills.
Is taking this class enough to prepare a student for the
real working environment? It doesn’t duplicate on-the-job
training, Smith said.
“College, being a learning institution, is naturally shel
tered and can’t be like a manufacturing plant.”
Smith said he wants to spend more time teaching at
Clackamas when he retires.
¡Wednesday, January 21,1998
Have you heard the buzz on cam
pus? The Lakeside Hall of the Envi
ronmental Learning Center will be host
to a swarm of students taking a bee
keeping course starting Jan. 20.
Instructor Glen Mills is going to teach
the course through the winter term at
Clackamas.
Student Marcia Sinclair is interested
in it for several reasons. Like many
others, Sinclair keeps a couple of bee
colonies for a personal hobby. She
hopes to gain knowledge from the ex
pert instructor on how to maintain a
hive in Oregon’s wet climate.
“Bees are complex little critters,” said
Sinclair. “It takes a lot of experience to
know what to look for in colonies.”
Mills, who worked at OMSI for sev
eral years, has a background in bee
keeping. Enrolled students may or may
not know of his expertise, but are in
store for an exciting and educational
course in beekeeping.
Joyce Sanders of the ELC said that
Mills is well-known as a bee wrangler
and wasn’t surprised when both
classes for the course filled up in a
week.
There is a fee of $45 for students en
rolled in this specific class. The fee
covers a text book and numerous hand
outs detailed to starting up hives and
equipment needed to maintain the
hives.
There most likely will not be any real
hives on campus. There may be a
sample of a mock-hive that will be used
for study. The course is primarily set
up for classroom study.
Sinclair also mentioned that Mills’
years of experience will help her to be
able to recognize specific problems that
might arise in her bee colonies. Given
certain weather conditions the bees
tend to feel cramped and they start to
swarm. They divide and separate, and
the colony owners lose half of their
colony. There are identifiable patterns
that beekeepers can recognize to pre
vent this. This skill of detection is one
of many that Mills’ students will learn
through his course.
Enrolled students surely have their
own individual reasons for taking the
course. Varied information will be of
fered to suit their special needs. Of all
the different reasons to raise bees,
though, Marcia Sinclair sums them up
best.
“Bees are absolutely fascinating to
watch,” she said.
The modular facilities near Randall Hall are served only
by this portable toilet, a sign of the turmoil created by
water intrusion problems in Clackamas buildings.