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J-School student
dies during Wintersession
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photo
by Thais Boise
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Katie
Aschim
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By Kristen Cates
Montana Kaimin
Family, friends
and professors use three words to describe Katie Aschim,
a journalism sophomore who died in her dorm room
early in the morning of Jan. 20: “bright,” “intelligent” and “inquisitive.”
Aschim, a design editor at the Montana Kaimin in the Fall 2003
semester, died in her sleep from complications of diabetes,
said Capt. Greg Hintz of the Missoula County Sheriff’s
Department.
Officers responded to a 911 call at about 1:45 p.m. that day,
said Capt. Jim Lemcke, assistant director of Public Safety
at UM.
Emergency crews were unable to revive her, Hintz said, adding
that she died of diabetic ketoacidosis — a coma-causing
condition that can arise in diabetics when blood-sugar levels
are high.
On the previous night, Aschim had taken in too much sugar,
Hintz said. A glucometer found in her room had last been used
Jan. 11, he said.
Aschim was the daughter of Philip and Mary Jo Aschim of Sunburst,
Mont. “I think of how smart she was and also how much
love she had,” said her mother.
Aschim had four glucometers and her mother finds it difficult
to believe she hadn’t checked her diabetes for nine days.“She
had been taking care of her diabetes,” she said. “When
I saw my daughter at Christmas she looked healthy and happy.”
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photo by Thais Boise |
| Katie
Aschim's last
story was a feature on World War II veteran
Bob McGiffert, a retired J-School
prof who served in the Pacific. |
Aschim
had returned to Missoula after Christmas to work on the Veterans
History Project, a Wintersession journalism course.
“She was so thoughtful and so bright,” said journalism professor
Sheri Venema, who taught the course. “She had such a great future ahead
of her.”
As a class
assignment, Aschim had completed a taped interview with World
War II veteran Robert McGiffert, a retired journalism professor.
She had written an article after the interview and was
scheduled to meet with Venema in the afternoon on Jan. 20
to design a Web page.
As a freshman, Aschim enrolled in Beginning Reporting, a class normally reserved
for sophomores. Her professor, Dennis Swibold, remembered her first assignment
in his class.
Students interviewed other classmates and then wrote profiles on each other.
In the profile about her, Swibold said, “She wanted to be a nationally
famous journalist with a statue in her hometown.”
At home, Aschim was a columnist for the Shelby Promoter, where she had worked
through high school and into college, her mother said.
She was also interested in history. She was awarded an undergraduate research
award and worked with Swibold to research information for his book on the Anaconda
Co.
“She was just really well-read,” he said. “I think she was
probably the type of person that people went to with all sorts of odd questions.”
Chris Rodkey, editor at the Montana Kaimin, described Aschim as a trivia
genius. “She was always very quick to do work,” he said. “She was a
virtual library for us.”
As a freshman, Aschim applied to work for the Kaimin. She was turned down at
first. But Rodkey said she came to work anyway, and by the end of last spring
she was on staff as a designer.
“Katie was key in making our paper look fresh and clean,” Rodkey
said. “She
embodied to me the spirit of the Kaimin. She knew exactly how to work here.”
Mary Jo Aschim said her daughter’s thirst for knowledge started at
an early age.
When Katie was 3, she used Scotch tape to stick her paintings all over the
house. One day while driving home from church, Mary Jo Aschim said, her daughter
looked up at her and asked why Jesus had been crucified with nails. She prepared
to launch into a lengthy speech when her daughter interrupted.
“She said, ‘No. They should have used Scotch tape,’ ” she
said. “She
was always so inquisitive. I got much smarter after I had Katie.”
(This story has been edited from the original
version that ran in the Montana Kaimin on Jan. 27, 2004.)
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