From Wyoming With Love – Part 4

Meet UW Trustees’ Scholars Award alumni living and working in Wyoming.

 

By Micaela Myers

 

The University of Wyoming Trustees’ Scholars Award is the premier scholarship for Wyoming’s top high school students. Hundreds of students have benefited from the award over the years, and in this issue, UWyo Magazine sat down with 20 former scholars living and working in Wyoming. These alumni are giving back to the state that supported them throughout their education. They represent a small sampling of alumni award winners living around the state and across the country. These scholars leveraged the support Wyoming gave them and turned it into big impacts in their industries, families, states and communities.

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Content Creator David Rule
Hometown: Pinedale
UW degrees: B.S. in physiology with a minor in neuroscience, 2018 

On any given day, you can find David Rule taking on a new adventure — swimming 9 miles across a glacial lake, building the world’s smallest house, skijoring or touring unique treehouses around the world. Wherever he is and whatever he’s doing, you can bet he’s filming it.

“I’m a full-time YouTube creator, which turned into my career after years of working in commercial video production,” says Rule, who is based in his hometown of Pinedale. Some of Rule’s videos have more than 7 million views. “I produce videos primarily centered on building and exploring unique living spaces around the world. It’s crazy how fast my audience has grown and how quickly YouTube turned into the main focus of my work. I love that I have full creative control over my videos, and I can make whatever my imagination can dream up. I also love the financial independence and freedom it’s created, as I can work on my videos from basically anywhere in the world. My goal is to keep growing the channel, keep creating bigger and bigger projects, and keep doing what I love.”

The self-discipline and networking he gained at UW proved useful as a business owner, and Rule is appreciative of earning the Trustees’ Scholars Award. 

“It’s an important offering because it shows that our only state university wants to invest in locals and help as many Wyoming-grown high school graduates as possible achieve their goals,” Rule says. “Financial stress is one of the biggest factors keeping students from pursuing an education, and it’s nice to make sure finances don’t stop kids with high potential.”

Earning the scholarship allowed Rule to focus completely on being a student, where he excelled playing trombone in the Western Thunder Marching Band and competing on the triathlon team. 

“I stayed in Wyoming after graduation for a variety of reasons, mainly because I absolutely love the peace, recreation opportunities and beautiful natural landscapes,” he says. “I also love the people of Wyoming and feel like it’s one of the states with the best values and kindest locals. As a cherry on top, Wyoming’s tax-friendliness made it much easier to run my own business out of than most other states.”

Whenever Rule’s latest adventure comes to an end, he looks forward to returning to the peace and quiet of his home state, where his family and friends live: “I always feel stressed and out of place in bigger cities but feel right at home here.”  

Rule’s Adventures

One of David Rule’s favorite adventures was building a three-story raft alongside a group of other creators to float 100 miles down the Missouri River. 

Another time, a member of the Discovery show “Alaska the Last Frontier” invited him to spend a month living in the wilderness of Alaska, learning to construct an old-fashioned log cabin while avoiding the local grizzlies.

For one of his latest videos, Rule spent a week stranded on a desert island in the South Pacific, where he had to spear fish for food, gather coconuts for water, start fire from nothing and build a primitive shelter. “It was one of the most brutal experiences of my life,” he says. Watch the video and more.

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Administrative Assistant Ashley (Bridges) Harris
Hometown: Cowley
UW degrees: B.S. in management and marketing, 2017; MBA, 2018

Tell us about your career: 
I am based in Green River and serve as the executive administrative assistant at Sweetwater County Child Developmental Center. We provide services to children ages birth to 5 as well as offering preschool programs for ages 3–5. I love that I get to use so many facets of my degrees. I help with marketing, tracking financials, organizing events, daily operations and anything else that comes up. No day looks the same, and that’s exciting. I also get to help out in our preschool classrooms every now and then. I love being able to get that reminder of why we do what we do here. The work we do is so vital for the children and families we serve, and it’s amazing to watch that happen.
 
What made you want to stay in Wyoming after graduation?
I was raised in this great state, and it will always be my home. The people are genuine, and we look out for one another. I met my husband, Eric, at the University of Wyoming, and he is from Wyoming as well, so we both knew we wanted to stay in-state after graduating. We also get to be closer to family, which is very important to us.
 
How did the Trustees’ Scholars Award help you as a student at UW, and why do you think it’s an important offering? 
The Trustees’ Scholars Award was huge for me during my undergraduate experience. It allowed me to be able to focus on my classes without worrying about how I would pay for tuition, room and board, et cetera. It provides an incentive: Do your best in high school, and you can receive what is basically an academic full-ride scholarship to UW. The cherry on top is that they can take on an internship or job with little or no pay that will help them achieve their long-term career goals.
 
What were your standout experiences at UW?
I was able to work for the men’s basketball program as a videographer during the time we won the Mountain West Championship in 2015 and went to the NCAA Tournament. It was very exciting! UW also helped prepare me for my career by providing a top-tier education. My College of Business instructors were very knowledgeable and genuinely cared about us as students. Many of my classes provided us with opportunities to consult with real business owners, which allowed me to gain real-world experience.
 
What do you like best about living and working in Wyoming?
First, I love the people. Second, raising my children here is something I could never give up. I know that they will receive a good education and they will have opportunities they wouldn’t get in a big city. Third, our outdoor spaces are the best of the best. Finally, there’s just a spirit here that other states and cities can’t replicate. No matter where you go, you’ll always see the brown and gold proudly displayed. Go Pokes!  

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Physical Therapist Tyler Graham
Hometown: Cheyenne 
UW degrees: B.S. in kinesiology with minors in psychology and honors, 2016

Tell us about your career:
I am a doctor of physical therapy and work for Fremont Therapy Group in Rawlins. I enjoy working with all different types of patients. Especially in a rural environment like Wyoming, physical therapists work with all types of injuries. Currently, I enjoy working with vestibular, dizziness and concussion patients because it is exciting to get someone back to doing what they were before something caused them that significant distress. In general, my main goal is to get people back to a high level of functioning and eventually to see them in the community instead of in the clinic.
 
What do you like best about living and working in Wyoming?
I like working in Wyoming because the majority of my patients are very nice, and we can talk about almost everything. I enjoy living in Wyoming because of the ability to drive in any direction and be in the wilderness pretty quickly. I also have friends and family in the state, and it keeps me close to them. I appreciate smaller towns and know that there is a need for providers in rural health care. I really just wanted to make a difference in the state that helped make me the person I am.
 
What were your standout experiences at UW, and how did your time here help prepare you for your career? 
Kinesiology labs were always very fun and allowed me to learn more about how to test the human body as well as different forms of exercise. I feel I learned a lot about listening to the people you are working with, and I learned to adjust my treatments to make exercise enjoyable.

One of my professors really helped me start thinking like a physical therapist as I began looking at movement and exercises through that scope. Overall, I felt like the kinesiology program prepared me very well to enter my physical therapy program.
 
Why do you think the Trustees’ Scholars Award is important to high-achieving Wyoming students, and how did it help you?
It is helpful to show support for Wyoming residents who have worked hard in their high school careers to allow for further education. I knew I was going to stay in Wyoming, and it’s beneficial to show residents opportunities within Wyoming. The scholarship allowed me to focus more on my studies with less worry about money. Being able to live in the dorms with a meal plan also helped me transition into college life more easily.