Last October, Cathey Bloom Wise was 30 feet in the air, standing on the four-inch beam of a ropes course. Her knees shook. She was frightened to tears. She wondered why she had pushed herself into this.

The answer was simple, and she knew it. Wise is passionate, especially when it comes to a challenge.

“I guess that’s why I ran for Student Congress,” she said.

But like the ropes course, being in Student Congress turned out to be harder than she figured.

“It was the week before Thanksgiving (1985) that they announced Maverick football would end after the season,” she recalled. “Everyone looked for Student Congress to do something.”

Wise (’87 BA) still has a scrapbook filled with stories and pictures of rallies, sit-ins and petitions she helped organize.

“I believe that advocacy works, that each person is responsible for making a difference and in some way making the world a better place,” she said. “That’s why my career path has led me to nonprofit work.”

Today, Wise is the national programs director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Photographs of children killed by drunk drivers hang near her office in MADD’s Irving headquarters, providing constant motivation.

That motivation extended to the ropes course, which was part of her Leadership Arlington training. Wise pushed herself to the finish.

“That was probably one of the most difficult things I’ve done,” she said.

That is, until her next challenge comes along.

— Bob Wright