Three of MSU's many outstanding students:
Student Body president, Board of Regents student representative, Miss Rodeo Montana
Student Body president
Blake Rasmussen
Black Rasmussen, president of the Montana State University student body, was one of 15 college and university presidents selected to travel to Israel recently as part of Project Interchange, a free, weeklong seminar in Israel sponsored by the nonprofit Institute of the American Jewish Committee.
"The trip definitely broadened my horizons," said Rasmussen, a senior majoring in industrial engineering. "It was an emotional trip for all (14) of us and one that made us all reflect on our lives."
Rasmussen said the trip included a full slate of speakers on intellectual topics ranging from politics, history, religion and government.
"It was like a semester-worth of classes packed into seven days," Rasmussen said.
"I think the thing that surprised all of us was the difference in values,"Rasmussen said. Americans care about being the biggest, fastest, strongest and richest. In Israel, people are very family oriented and not as materialistic. (Jerusalem) shuts down on Friday nights when everyone has dinner with family. In addition to such contemporary landmarks as the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the group also toured scores of biblical landmarks and spoke to Holocaust survivors.
"They told us before we went that we would return with more questions than answers," Rasmussen said of the deep impact of the trip. "And I think that was what happened for me."
One of Rasmussen's questions is what he will do after lobbying at the Montana Legislature this semester and completing his degree in industrial engineering. Like nearly every member of the Project Interchange, Rasmussen said he at least is considering a future in public service.
"We'll see what happens," said Rasmussen, who said he may also earn an MBA and work in the business world before returning to his family's farm. "I can definitely say that I now look differently on the world and news reports of that region." Rasmussen is the son of David, '76 AgBus, and Dannette (Lund) Rasmussen, '77 CE.
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Board of Regents student representative
Kala French
If the strength of one's character is inversely proportional to the size of one's handbag, then note what Kala French clutches in her left hand. No bigger than a paperback novel, the black bag holds two cell phones, keys, a Palm Pilot, business cards, a pen and some cash.
Too small, it seems, to carry everything a student regent, full-time scholar, Legislative intern and former lobbyist at the maelstrom of political controversy would seem to need.
French, of Kalispell, can make things happen without many props. A junior at Montana State University, French spent four months in Helena advocating on student issues with the Montana Legislature.
She publicly defended, then resigned, her position as a paid lobbyist for the Montana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association and for the Montana University System amid allegations that the positions conflicted with her role as a student representative to the Montana Board of Regents. She said she's tired of reading about herself in state newspapers and wants to move on.
She is a business and political science double major and has tacked on minors in international business and public administration. Twenty credits a semester, or more, are typical, even while in Helena.
She's a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. She skis, hikes and bikes. An ideal summer includes water skiing and boating on Flathead Lake.
In 10 years she hopes to come back to Montana with graduate degrees in hand to tackle some type of job that makes a difference in people's lives. Public service comes to mind, she said.

Miss Rodeo Montana
Brooke Lynn Vosen
Brooke Lynn Vosen, a senior in political science at Montana State University, is taking the year off to serve as Miss Rodeo Montana 2005.
Chosen in January, her schedule requires her to travel more than 25,000 miles throughout Montana and the Northwest, Vosen said. She will average 10 appearances and presentations a week, all while preparing for the Miss Rodeo America pageant in November. To do well there, she spends several hours a day memorizing rodeo facts, studying things like horse anatomy and riding horses she has never ridden before.
"It's like Miss Rodeo Montana to the millionth degree," Vosen commented.
Both pageants emphasize knowledge and riding over beauty, said Vosen, noting that contestants have to be prepared for anything. They might have to explain their opinions on the conflict between Israel and Palestine, for example. If they could be a piece of fruit, what fruit would they be?
Vosen meets many young girls who want to be like her, but she tells them it's important to discover their own uniqueness. The Miss Rodeo program is good for that, she said, adding, "Instead of a beauty pageant, it turns into a self-development program."
Vosen is the daughter of Mary Lynn Vosen, Õ90, Engl., of Fairfield.