Alumni for Others
Alumni in Service
| Alumni Profile Spotlight Archives |
Winter 2009
Recently featured in the summer edition of Marquette Magazine, DeAnna Radaj, is an eco-friendly Marquette alumna. Radaj grew up in a family passionate about conservancy, and after graduating from Marquette, she worked with the World Wildlife Fund and Rainforest Alliance as director of operations for a chain of nature and science stores. When she decided to go into interior design, she knew she wanted to incorporate a healthy, environmental philosophy.
DeAnna is currently the owner of Bante Design LLC, an integrative lifestyle design company, which fuses Eastern and Western design/lifestyle philosophies. She is a nationally recognized speaker on healthy home design, color therapy/theory, psychology of clutter for adults and children, and a variety of business topics for the individual, small business owner and entrepreneur.
DeAnna has been featured in M Magazine, MKE, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Milwaukee Home magazine. She was part of the 2004 Wisconsin Breast Cancer Showhouse and was a featured presenter at the 2006 Snowmass Village Wellness Weekend, Milwaukee/NARI consumer shows, and the Midwest Home Expo in Chicago. She is the author of numerous articles and is the former editor of the Wisconsin ASID newsletter, which featured her column "The Business of Design.” She is the author of Designing the Life of Your Dreams from the Outside In and Feng Shui for Teens.
Her new venture, Eden Place Productions, is a multimedia company that produces short-film, documentary and TV shows. She is currently producing Explore Your World and Women Making a Difference, both of which can be seen on Channel 96 in Milwaukee. 3E Products (ENHANCING the ENERGY of your ENVIRONMENT) is proud to feature Feng Shui Chocolates, eco-friendly household cleaners and room sprays (specially formulated to correspond with the bagua board) and bamboo planters. Nine Life Area kits were introduced in 2008.
Radaj offers these tips for alumni:
- Become aware of what you're bringing into your home. Look at the label: Do you know what all the ingredients mean and what they do? Educate yourself and buy accordingly.
- Consider your flooring. Did you know that new carpet releases gasses into the air for up to five years or that wool carpeting is self-extinguishing in a fire? Consider natural flooring options such as paper fiber, sisal and agave plant. If you must have wall-to-wall carpeting, buy wool or another natural fiber with a rubber pad, which will extend the carpet's life.
- Don't buy things just “to fill up empty space.” Ask yourself: Do I love it? Will I use it? Do I need it? If you can’t answer “yes,” it needs to go. Remember the motto: reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose.
- Incorporate nature. This doesn’t mean you have to make your home a jungle, but try using greens in the color scheme, natural textures (brick, stone, clay or tile) or pictures of natural settings, landscapes or animals. You can also bring outdoor furniture and lighting inside to create a different ambience.
- Use plants to help detoxify air. You should have one live plant for every 100 square feet of living space. Plants that are fairly easy to keep are spider plants (especially by computers/copiers/fax machines), philodendrons and English ivy. Stay away from plastic and dried plants.
Fall 2008
Chris Strout, Comm '95
Chris Strout uses bicycles to save lives.
He knows bicycles can be more than toys. They can make the difference between life and death. Strout is communications manager for World Bicycle Relief, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing mobility to people in disaster and poverty relief situations. Through the financial backing of SRAM and TREK bikes, numerous partnerships and donors, the organization delivers bicycles to people who need them the most. Project Zambia, World Bicycle Relief’s current project, will provide 23,000 bicycles to community home-based volunteers, disease-prevention educators and vulnerable households affected by the HIV/AIDS virus. “The bicycles will provide transportation and allow important first-line care to reach patients promptly,” Strout says.
With World Bicycle Relief since January 2007, Strout traveled to Africa in November to distribute bicycles. The hardest part of the trip, he says, was “seeing the need and knowing we are making a difference, but knowing they need so much more.” He credits Marquette with preparing him for this job. “The commitment to service with the practical nature of my communications studies features heavily in what I do each day,” says Strout, a bike racer. “It’s the opportunity to take what I use as recreation and improve someone’s life.” Learn more at www.worldbicyclerelief.org.
Excerpt from an article published in Marquette Magazine, Spring 2008 edition written by Jacquelyn Kacala.
Please check back to catch our next Alumni Profile Spotllight on a very “Green” alumna, DeAnna Radaj, Bus Ad ‘86, owner of Bante Designs & 3E Products.
Spring-Summer 2008
Raymond S.E. Pushkar, Arts ’60, Law ’63
Raymond S.E. Pushkar, along with his law firm, McKenna, Long & Aldridge LLP, was formally presented with a Volunteer Recognition Award on May 15, at the Archdiocesan Legal Network Reception in Washington D.C., for his and his firm’s longstanding dedication to serving the legal needs of the less fortunate in the D.C. community.
The Archdiocesan Legal Network was established by His Eminence James Cardinal Hickey in 1989, with Pushkar playing an instrumental role in getting the Network started. To date 53 D.C.-area law firms and 300 attorneys are involved in the Network, working weekly for the intake of cases; counseling and representing the indigent; and sponsoring seminars to educate those less fortunate about legal rights and responsibilities. In 2004 and 2005, approximately 50,000 hours of pro bono time was spent on these endeavors.
Pushkar currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Network. His law firm’s D.C. office has over 20 volunteer lawyers and paralegals who serve the Network weekly. Pushkar’s firm also presented him with an award last December for his longstanding dedication to community service. According to Pushkar, “Success in any law firm, large or small, should and must include giving back to the communities in which we live.” He states that his Jesuit education at Marquette instilled in him that sense of service.
McKenna, Long & Aldridge LLP, established in D.C. in 1939 with offices in Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Philadelphia, New York City and Brussels, is fully committed to pro bono service to the poor and other types of community service to benefit good and important causes.
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