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Alumnae to appear on nationally televised game show

Susan Cole '03 with Jeopardy host Alex Trebek

Susan Cole ’03 with Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek

UPDATE: Susan Cole ’03 won $67,800 over three days; Lani Golstab Gonzalez ’04 won $50,600 over three days.

Two alumnae will appear on “America’s Favorite Quiz Show,” Jeopardy!, this month.

Susan Cole ’03 will be a contestant on the classic game show this Wednesday, October 12, and Lani Golstab Gonzalez ’04 will be on the show October 21. Both episodes air on CBS at 7:30 p.m. (Eastern Time). Filmed earlier this year, the alumnae had a surprise reunion when they arrived on the set in Los Angeles on the same day. Since the two were acquaintances, they were not allowed to compete on the same show.

Both alumnae admitted to being a bit star struck when meeting its longtime host, Alex Trebek.

“Being on the show was both really cool and intensely stressful,” Cole said. “The contestant producers are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met and made the whole experience as comfortable as possible.”

They also agreed that being on the show is much harder than it looks.

Lani Golstab Gonzalez '04 with Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek

Lani Golstab Gonzalez ’04 with Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek

“You have to do weird things like read without moving your eyes and walk to a point on the ground without looking at it,” Gonzalez said. “Some people think that the contestants get questions or categories in advance—we don’t. When you get up there to play, you have no idea what categories will come up, so you just hope you get topics that you know.”

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in classics, Cole earned her master’s degree from Simmons College’s Graduate School of Library Science and worked in Boston for 10 years. Last year, she moved back to her home state of Maryland, and now works in the library for the Maryland General Assembly.

An art major at R-MWC, Gonzalez now lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, A.J., and their two dogs. She worked as a marketing specialist for the City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Division for eight years, and in 2015 was part of the digital public art project, Hello Lamp Post: Austin, which received a national award from Americans for the Arts. This summer, she started a new job as managing director for the Blue Genie Art Bazaar, an annual holiday art fair featuring handmade gifts by local artists and artisans. She also volunteers for various art initiatives and committees in the Austin area, and is on the local host committee for the National Arts Marketing Project Conference that will be held in the city in November.

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