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Student Success StoryKenzie Cummings

Anthropology graduate
Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer degree

The heartland of Romania holds a rural region called Transylvania — a hilly place of towering castles and ancient villages, roughly the size of Iceland, that famously served as the backdrop for Bram Stoker's "Dracula." It’s an area where medieval history feels very near at hand.

For COCC Anthropology graduate Mackenzie "Kenzie" Cummings, some of that history was quite literally in her hands. Following the attainment of her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Portland State University in 2025, Cummings participated in an ongoing research project to excavate several medieval church cemetery sites. 

"It’s focused on how major political and religious shifts, particularly the transition from Catholicism to Protestantism, influenced local burial practices and community health in medieval Transylvania," says Cummings. "The broader aim is to track demographic patterns, church architecture and Christian burial rites in response to social and political stressors." With trowels and small dustpans, the team slowly revealed remains from shallow-dug grids. 

"The broader aim is to track demographic patterns, church architecture and Christian burial rites in response to social and political stressors."

Within that study, Cummings is layering in her own independent research: analyzing skeletal asymmetry and biomechanical compensation as indicators of trauma and long-term care. "We presented our research at a local student colloquium on osteology and bioarcheology," says Cummings. (Osteology is the study of human bones; bioarcheology is the scientific study of human remains through the lenses of archeology and biological anthropology.) She plans to present the findings at the American Association of Biological Anthropologists 2026 meeting.

Up next for Cummings: either pursuing a field technician position or maybe an internship, especially one connected to paleoanthropology in Oregon. "I'm also beginning to consider potential graduate programs and taking time to reflect on what I want to focus on for my master’s thesis."

Student Success StorySteve Fisher

Investigative reporter/producer 
Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer degree

Long before he reported for the New York Times on how disposed American car batteries are sickening workers in Mexico or, while on assignment for USA Today, how he wrote of the Mexican drug cartels' expansion into the migrant smuggling trade, Steve Fisher was studying communities and cultures as an Anthropology student at COCC.

"I knew that I wanted to work with people and better understand other cultures," Fisher shares from his home base in Mexico City. "The professors were incredibly qualified in their fields and had an individualized approach to helping students succeed. They were always happy to sit down with me and guide me through everything, from a difficult calculus problem to overcoming a writing block."

"I knew that I wanted to work with people and better understand other cultures."

Raised in an ultraconservative Mennonite community in Pennsylvania, Fisher was also keen on examining his own culture — particularly the psychological boundaries that came with detaching from his upbringing at age 21. Anthropology professor Amy Harper helped him see how widely applicable the field of anthropology could be, to even encompass one’s own past. That self-examination — with ongoing faculty support — spurred Fisher to research and write a scholarly paper which was accepted for presentation at the Northwest Anthropological Conference; later, he shared those same findings with the American Anthropological Association.

"The experience was illuminating and empowering for me and helped me realize what I was capable of," he says. "That led me to become a journalist." Fisher earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Evergreen State College and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to reporting for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and other outlets — largely covering beats of organized crime and the environment — he has consulted and produced for filmmaking services like Netflix, HBO and National Geographic. Amazon MGM Studios is turning one of his news reports into a feature film.

Graduating from COCC with an Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer degree in 2008, Fisher received both the Avon F. Mayfield Award (for leadership and citizenship) and the Distinguished Student Service Award (for academic excellence and campus contributions).