The Maverick magazine is a great way to stay in touch with current events at your alma mater, old classmates and the bright future of Colorado Mesa University.
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28 Zach King, '05 Originally from Wiggins, Colorado, Zach's life changed when he moved to Grand Junction for school. His first week on campus he met two of his current best friends, Darrin Crow and Nick Melazzo, who were leading a campus ministry called Christian Challenge. Zach feels blessed to have had them to help him through his time at Mesa. After graduating with a kinesiology degree, he made the decision to stay in Grand Junction and stay involved with Christian Challenge. Currently serving as one of the assistant directors of Christian Challenge, he is able to continue to help students navigate the difficult decisions they must make. Zach and his wife, Jessica, stay busy raising two children, Elly and Owen. He has spent time as Dave has been on staff since 2008 and has served on numerous committees including the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and the CMU Hall of Honor selection committee. Dave coaches American Legion baseball during the summer and recently completed his 11th season with the local program. 2010s Alex Maher, '11 Alex is enjoying his career as a banker at Wells Fargo in Grand Junction. He is married to fellow CMU alum, Carley Maher. They have a one and a half year old boy named Emmett. In his free time, Alex loves to ski at Powderhorn and can't wait to get the little guy on skis. Alex remembers all of his fun a volunteer coach for the men's rugby team, helped a team of leaders reboot the FCA program, had his little brother and sister graduate from CMU, and have lunch every Friday with the university's oldest known alum Paul Foster. Zach is now privileged to serve as the assistant pastor at Heart of Junction Church. In his spare time, he is on the Board of Directors for a nonprofit organization called She Has a Name that works to provide education and basic needs for troubled teenage girls in Nairobi, Kenya. Dave Jahnke, '07 Dave is the Colorado Mesa University sports information director. His peers voted for Dave to receive the 2017-18 J.W. Campbell/Con Marshall Sports Information Director of the Year award. NEPALESE NURSING ALUMNA REDISCOVERS HER SINGING VOICE Samjhana Pandey, '05 By Sharon Sullivan As a child growing up in Nepal, Samjhana Pandey often sang for Radio Nepal — little songs with messages to raise awareness about the importance of educating girls in what she calls a male- dominated nation. By the time she was 12, her parents wanted her to focus on her own education and so singing on the radio came to an end. Twenty years later, the Mesa alumna has taken up singing again after experiencing serious complications from childbirth. "I told myself if I lived I'd go back to singing," she recalled. "It's been four years now." In 2014, six months after her traumatic postpartum experience, Pandey learned about a Hindi language singing competition. She was the first female ever to compete in the contest — she placed third, catching the attention of musicians who perform for Nepali, Pakistani and Indian audiences on the Front Range. Now a half-dozen times a year Pandey sings in Nepalese, Hindi or Urdu, performing with bands in the Denver area. her master's in nursing from the University of Northern Colorado in 2017, Pandey worked as a registered nurse in Wyoming, Texas and Colorado. In September, when her oldest son starts kindergarten and her youngest enters daycare she plans to continue her nursing career as a family nurse practitioner. Pandey first came to Colorado in 2001 on a student visa. In 2011, she and her husband, also from Nepal (though they met in Colorado) became dual citizens of the United States and Nepal. • The busy mother practices her singing while doing household chores. "I rehearse whenever I have the time from the convenience of my house," she said. When her youngest son was three months old, Pandey launched a YouTube video of her singing — a way to promote her talent while staying home with her children. As a child growing up in Nepal, Pandey said she knew she wanted to go to nursing school in the United States. Pandey graduated from Mesa in 2005 with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She said she liked the relatively small size of the school, where she found it easy to adjust to a new culture. Before earning