journalism and mass commu-
nication (known to students
simply as Denny), jokes that
the only reason he ended up
walked down a random set of stairs at
the University of Colorado Boulder.
my courses and they boil down to
three things: attention to detail; com-
mon sense; and disciplined, intelligent
effort."
Massachusetts after deciding to leave
the news industry he'd worked in for
years. The course concluded with a list
of the top 10 careers that best suited
Wilkins.
Wilkins. "My top two careers were
community college teacher and run-
ning an environmental group. It made
sense because I'd been covering all of
the environmental groups in New Eng-
land, so I was pretty sure I could have
N
2
2
dentials first."
The Evergreen State College with
a master's degree in environmen-
tal studies to complement the
bachelor's degree in geology he
earned from the University of
Massachusetts two decades ear-
lier.
England, but I stopped in Boul-
der, Colorado, to visit friends,"
Wilkins said. "I was showing my
master's thesis to a friend of
mine, and he told me that the
person I'd quoted extensively in
my research, named Lee Wilkins
(no relation), taught at University
of Colorado, so I drove down
from my friend's place to see if I
could talk to her."
searching for Lee Wilkins in the
directory during a mid-June after-
noon when the campus was a
ghost town. He looked all over
the building but could not find
her office. For a reason still un-
known to him, he decided to
walk down a random set of stairs
when, suddenly, double doors
opened and a man stuck his
head out of an office to see if he
needed help.
University of Colorado Boulder.
Wilkins recalled being inter-
viewed for two hours by the
dean before being told to apply
for the Ph.D. program.
he wanted to start a center for
environmental journalists, and
that's what I came in to do,"
Wilkins said. "I helped faculty
write the prospectus, and it's up
and running and still running