S t. Ol a f C ol l e g e

Transcription

1 St. Olaf College

2 Welcome! When you become an Ole, you are joining a community of thinkers and doers on a lifelong journey. You ll live and learn with smart and active students; you ll work with dedicated and inspiring teachers and mentors; and you ll connect to a network of alumni ready and willing to help you explore ways to use your St. Olaf education. The St. Olaf community will lift you up and carry you far. The following pages will introduce you to a few of your fellow Oles. Athletes and musicians, activists and entrepreneurs, and artists and scholars from across the U.S. and around the world. These are the kinds of people you ll meet at St. Olaf. We re happy you ve chosen to become a part of this great community!

3 Abbey Schnaith SENIOR RED WING, MINNESOTA CHEMISTRY AND ECONOMICS MAJORS There are as many paths through St. Olaf as there are students. Some sample broadly among the liberal arts, others are tightly focused. Abbey Schnaith is on the focused end of the spectrum: she s planning to be a primary care physician. The best thing about St. Olaf, she says, is that it s a place where there is a lot of support to help you reach your goal, but there s also encouragement to keep your life in balance and to do things that make you happy. For Abbey, that means balancing an unusual combination of majors chemistry for pre-med preparation, and economics to better understand the business of health care. It means balancing internships in a medical examiner s office with chemistry research, and a commitment to the varsity swimming team and the track and field team. And it means balancing an Interim study abroad program in Europe with volunteering in Honduras as part of the Global Medical Brigade. Even though I ve known I want to be a doctor for a very long time, my econ courses have really helped me better understand why. One of my favorite courses was Economic Development, where our challenge was to address the causes of poverty. It touched on everything national economies, social structures, political systems, education, health. Even though I want to work in health care, it is useful to understand how everything is connected. It s no surprise that by mid-october of her senior year, Abbey had already been accepted into two of the medical schools to which she applied. She ll find out about the others before the start of the spring semester. It takes some planning to chase your dreams, but it s definitely possible, she says. Abbey Schnaith in the St. Olaf pool where, as a first-year varsity swimmer, she was part of a school-record-setting relay team. 2

4 Bryce Kaleiokalaihai ia Sadarananda SENIOR KAILUA, HAWAII BIOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY MAJORS BIOMEDICAL STUDIES CONCENTRATION PRE-MED Kalei Sadarananda (center) photographed in a chemistry research lab with the student team for which he serves as a mentor: (L R) Liza Thompson, Yuhui Chen, and Yodit Aschemaki. Many people think of Hawaii as a place Minnesotans go to escape winter. Kalei Sadarananda went the other direction. I wanted something completely different, he says. Thanks to an influential high school English teacher, Kalei has a passion for raunchy Russian literature like Dostoevsky and Nabokov and medieval romance. Those interests attracted him to St. Olaf s Great Conversation program. I love literature, and we Conners nerd-out exploring big ideas across human history. While he d be happy reading all day, Kalei s long-term goal is medical school. When I was looking at colleges, St. Olaf s medical school admission statistics spoke for themselves. The faculty support through the Health Professions Committee is an incredible resource. There are so many people cheering you on towards your goals. Strength in science and a heart for service suits his vocation in health care, but serendipity sparked his passion for research with chemistry professor Dipannita Kalyani and lab partner, Yiming Liu, a senior from Duluth, Minnesota. Organic chemistry is like playing with Legos, he says. We take simple compounds and combine them in creative ways. You have to develop the tenacity to persist through lots of failures, but that s where the learning happens. As a peer mentor to new research students, Kalei discovered a love of teaching. I ve always felt a strong presence of mentor figures in my life, so I seek to mentor other students, extending to them the opportunities I received. I wanted to meet people from different backgrounds, with different experiences and perspectives. And that s what I ve found here on the Hill. KALEI SADARANANDA 3

5 Onyemauchechukw Justice Nwigwe SOPHOMORE LAGOS, NIGERIA ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE MAJORS MANAGEMENT STUDIES CONCENTRATION Justice Nwigwe has a plan to become the president of Nigeria. It starts with a fish farm. As a first-year student, Justice knew he would need to get through the required courses as efficiently as possible and take full advantage of the resources and experiences the college has to offer. Using grants he received from two entrepreneurship programs offered through the St. Olaf Piper Center for Vocation and Career the Finstad Entrepreneurial Grant and the 2015 Ole Cup Justice established Papa Theo s Fish Farm on the site of his grandfather s old fish farm in his family s village in Nigeria. The farm uses aquaculture practices to rear fish from eggs to market. By the end of the summer, I had worked with community chiefs and found partners to take stakes in the farm, he says. It is now producing two or three tons of fish per month, and we are planning to expand to more villages. Along the way, Justice drew the attention of a social entrepreneurship program at the Wharton School and connected with a St. Olaf graduate now working for Cargill. The institutional backing of St. Olaf has helped me connect to organizations I might not have been able to reach on my own, he says. I have contacts at the Clinton Global Initiative University, the African Leadership Program, the MasterCard Foundation, and other international development organizations. There s no predicting where this leads, but the doors are opening. 4 If you believe in yourself and in what you are doing, it s just a matter of communicating your ideas and inviting others to help make them happen. JUSTICE NWIGWE

6 Martine Appel SOPHOMORE PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY SOCIOLOGY/ANTHROPOLOGY MAJOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES CONCENTRATION Martine Appel (center) photographed in Boe Memorial Chapel with members of the Jewish Student Organization and the Interfaith Coalition for Peace and Justice. Left to right: Adam Weiss, Emery Rankin-Utevsky, Simon Zhan, Jacob Davidson, Tala Alraheb, Nora Ulrich, Caleb Weiss, Taylor De Napels, Sidney Rule, Kiki Sykes, and Alice Stevens. Martine Appel surprised her friends and family by choosing St. Olaf. Growing up Jewish in Princeton, there s a certain amount of cultural pressure to go to a school with a strong Jewish identity, like Brandeis, or to at least stay in the East. There s also an Ivy or die mentality, as if that was the only measure of success. Her college criteria included easy access to a city, a small campus community, approachable professors, and strong social sciences. St. Olaf checked all of the boxes. Community is important to Martine. As a first-year student in the Great Conversation, she found both intellectual challenges and a strong cohort of friends. This is a thoroughly collaborative place, she observes. The campus culture is very affirming. As a leader in both the Jewish Student Organization and the Interfaith Coalition a group that includes a diverse range of students from the world s major religions Martine has taken ownership of her religious identity. Religion here is as much a source of deep intellectual growth as it is a particular set of beliefs, she says. Sometimes I get a little frustrated when people don t know very much about my faith or when little attention is paid to Jewish holidays and observances, but that s balanced by being part of the Interfaith Coalition, where everyone shares the conviction that all religions are worth taking seriously. People here usually don t get my Yiddish jokes, she says with a laugh, but the bigger difference is living with Midwesterners. Sometimes that cultural divide is wider than religion. 5

7 Harrison Hintzsche SENIOR DEKALB, ILLINOIS VOCAL PERFORMANCE MAJOR Harrison Hintzsche has been singing as long as he can remember: in school choirs, in theater productions, singing in the shower. During high school, he attended a summer youth choral academy at the Oregon Bach Festival, where he first sang under St. Olaf Choir Conductor Anton Armstrong. He considered attending a music conservatory, but chose St. Olaf for the breadth of experiences it offers. There really isn t any trade-off, he says. The musical instruction here is incredible. Between the choirs, working with my voice teacher, singing with the Lyric Opera, I lead a very full musical life. And there s everything else Everything else includes literature, history, and political science subjects that inform and complement his vocal performance major. Technique is an important part of the musical training here, says Harrison. But studying broadly and learning to think has helped me find many different ways to tell a story. Everything else also includes SNATS (the St. Olaf chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing), an organization that promotes musical events for the campus community. And there s Krossmen, an a cappella quartet Harrison formed with three friends as first-year students. They all have their own connections to the Oregon Bach Festival. From the start of our first year, we ve been singing together, recording, performing, and making YouTube videos, Harrison says. It s been an amazing musical collaboration. Harrison Hintzsche (seated) with the Krossmen (L R: Nathaniel Hendrix, Aaron Kohrs, and Duncan Tuomi) in the Lion s Pause student club in Buntrock Commons. 6

8 Jiayun Hao FIRST-YEAR SHENYANG, CHINA MUSIC AND CHEMISTRY MAJORS Jiayun Hao (far right) in the lab for Structural Chemistry and Equilibrium with professor George Anquandah (standing). Jiayun Hao s eventual goal is to become a physician, but her path through college is equal parts science and music. Jiayun has studied the piano since childhood. She went to high school in Montana, where her music teacher taught many pieces from the St. Olaf Choral Series, so the St. Olaf music program had a strong appeal. She spent her first week on campus piano hunting. With a grand piano in every residence hall and several dozen more in practice rooms in the music buildings, there are plenty to choose from. Jiayun was looking for a keyboard with stiff keys and a mellow sound. She found an 1898 Steinway in a Christiansen Hall practice room. I really am more of a science person, and it comes out in the structure of my playing. It tends to be very precise, she says. [Piano instructor] Professor Atzinger is a perfect fit. I love working with him. He doesn t waste his words, and he gives me very clear direction. Studying piano and being part of the Manitou Singers were among the music attractions, but what made Jiayun choose St. Olaf was Regents Hall of Natural and Mathematical Sciences and the opportunities to do research with faculty members. Even as a first-year student you can approach faculty members about getting involved in their research programs, she says. She is looking forward to getting involved in a chemistry lab in her second semester just as soon as she returns from an Interim piano program abroad. 7

9 Amadou Gueye JUNIOR MEUDON LA FORET, FRANCE MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS MAJORS As a high school student in a suburb of Paris, Amadou Gueye earned the support of the Elite Athletes Agency, an organization dedicated to matching young athletes with academically challenging colleges. He left urban Paris for the calm of Northfield. The first thing I noticed is that people here smile a lot, he remembers. They say hello. They are happy. That makes it a nice place to be. Today, Amadou plays on the most international varsity soccer team in St. Olaf s history. Teammates come from around the world, bringing many styles of play to a shared passion for fútbol. The team is one of the close-knit communities to which Amadou belongs. He is also connected to the nearly 250 international students on campus, as well as the math and physics group with whom he studied number theory during St. Olaf s program in Hungary this past Interim. Budapest was really intense, he says. I learned entirely new relationships between numbers, new ways to look for patterns and decipher codes. It was really fun. It was also fun to be able to wander through Budapest to find places in which to watch European soccer matches in real time. What surprises Amadou most about St. Olaf is the close relationships that develop between faculty and students. I didn t expect professors to take such a genuine interest in us. They make time available to help when we have questions. They ll do almost anything to make sure we are learning what we should. And the soccer coaches are like that, too. Great people. Amadou Gueye (center) on the soccer practice field with other international students of the men s varsity soccer team, just before competing in the round of 16 in the NCAA Division III Men s National Soccer Tournament. Left to right: Claudio Barbosa (Venezuela), Danny Zalk (Norway), Brendan Johnson (Switzerland), Branden Phan (Vietnam), Carlos Torres (Mexico), and Rammah Shandaq (Yemen). 8

10 Nora Serres SENIOR DUXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS PSYCHOLOGY AND NORWEGIAN MAJORS LINGUISTIC STUDIES CONCENTRATION Nora Serres in the Fireside Lounge in Buntrock Commons with Andrew, a blind and developmentally disabled young adult from the nearby Laura Baker School, with whom Nora has worked as a volunteer during her entire time at St. Olaf. Nora Serres arrived at St. Olaf with a strong sense of vocation. During her first visit as a prospective student, she explored volunteer options in the local community. Once on campus, she committed to working with developmentally challenged kids at the nearby Laura Baker School. Nora eventually started a new St. Olaf student organization, Supporting Special Needs (SSN), to make it easier for other students to volunteer on an ad hoc basis. Volunteering in the community is a very fulfilling break from campus life, she says. SSN enables students to make useful contributions and work directly with great kids without having to make a big commitment. Nora s interest in working with people brought her to psychology professor Jeremy Loebach s Speech and Cognition Research Lab, where they study the use of cochlear implants. She won a Rand Scholarship to support a project that will compare the effects of pediatric implantation in Norway and the United States. The research questions cover a wide range of issues in both health and health care policy. Along the way, she found time to spend a semester abroad in Dunedin, New Zealand, where subjects like the psychology of language and cognition and neuropsychology were taught very differently. In New Zealand, students generally focus on a single track as undergraduates. This gave me the experience of working with peers coming from very different backgrounds who were intensely focused on medical science. It made me appreciate the breadth of the liberal arts at St. Olaf. A big factor that led me to choose New Zealand was the chance to have adventures that created deep connections to the people and the place. It was exactly what I needed. 9

11 Emma Lind JUNIOR WEST DES MOINES, IOWA PSYCHOLOGY MAJOR AND A SELF-DESIGNED MAJOR IN HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THROUGH THE CENTER FOR INTEGRATIVE STUDIES When it was time to declare a major at the end of her sophomore year, Emma Lind reviewed the courses she found most intriguing. They clustered in sociology/anthropology, psychology, and political science. Psychology was her primary interest, but the combination of courses added up to more than a single major. Tony Lott s International Relations course really helped me focus my interests in humanitarian issues, she recalls. The CIS major works really well when you follow a topic across several disciplines. Emma s study abroad programs have directly supported her long-term goals: an Interim program in Spain to strengthen her language skills, an International Politics course at the Oslo Summer School to gain perspective on global issues, and an upcoming Interim in Cuba for a close look at an evolving example of international relations. The course in Norway was similar to studying International Relations on campus, but the tone was quite different. I wanted to be challenged by different points of view, and this gave me a good taste of what life as a diplomat might be like. Emma s extracurriculars connect her to lots of different people. She sings in Chapel Choir and is involved in the Student Government Association, serving on the Student Activities Committee and in the Student Senate as the Inter-campus Liaison with Carleton College. There are so many people here who were the best at whatever they did in high school, or who spent those years really deeply immersed in something, she says. They get to St. Olaf and find there are lots of people just like them, and it makes a really interesting community of people who challenge and support each other. Emma Lind (right) with her friend Lauren Lussenhop in the Student Government Association office in Buntrock Commons. 10 People here are genuinely invested in helping others, and that s quite different from the competitive atmosphere at many other places. EMMA LIND

12 Andrew Atwood SOPHOMORE CORVALLIS, OREGON VOCAL MUSIC EDUCATION MAJOR Andrew Atwood has a very clear recollection of why he chose St. Olaf: he wanted to continue competitive swimming, sing in a choir, and pursue a degree in music. During his college search, he asked every school about the possibility of participating in varsity swimming and choir. The usual answer was, no, you can t do both, until he visited St. Olaf. It takes a lot of coordination, he says, but at St. Olaf it s not unusual for people to be in a choir or orchestra and still play a varsity sport. Coaches and conductors are all aware of the other commitments, and everyone bends a little to make it work. In terms of coursework, vocal music education is almost a double major. In some ways it is less stressful than two unconnected majors, because so many of my courses are required, he says. The real benefit is that I work closely with lots of great faculty. It s the swim team that provides the strongest community for Andrew. After morning and afternoon practices, the team men and women often eat together and unwind. They have a team culture of strong academic performance, and have claimed a spot in the library where they study together. There s a faint scent of chlorine in the air. Even though his future will be teaching and conducting music, Andrew is grateful for the chance to prolong his swimming career. Leaving high school I felt I could still improve. I really appreciate being at a college where I didn t have to give up one of my passions. Andrew Atwood (center) photographed in professor David Castro s music theory class in Christiansen Hall of Music. 11

13 Alexandra López SOPHOMORE MOORPARK, CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES MAJOR Alexandra López (bottom center) in Tostrud Fieldhouse with members of the women s varsity softball team during fall coaches practice. Alex López started piano lessons at age five and performed in piano competitions all through high school. She later took up softball, but the two activities are closely connected. She is a pitcher on the varsity softball team, and often runs through scales to limber up her fingers to make the various spins easier to control. Even as a recruited athlete with lots of talent, Alex didn t plan to play college softball at all. You expect that college-level athletics will be really demanding, and in some ways it is, she says. The coaches here are incredibly supportive and the team is a great group. We practice and play together, but we also eat, study, and hang out. We re really close. Academically, Alex is sharpening her focus on environmental studies, a topic that has captured her interest since childhood. Growing up in Los Angeles, she watched the green spaces near her home disappear as the neighborhood was developed. She is now in the arts and humanities track of the ES program, focusing on the ethical issues in environmentalism. Her first-year religion course with professor Jacob Erickson focused on the Bible and ecology. I didn t grow up in a particularly religious way, so the classes dig into really interesting readings and ideas that are new to me. 12 People sometimes ask how I handle the pressure of pitching, but I felt a lot more pressure as a pianist. When I performed, I was alone on stage. When I pitch, I have all of my teammates behind me. ALEX LÓPEZ

14 Annie Malcolm JUNIOR EDINA, MINNESOTA MATHEMATICS AND SPANISH MAJORS EDUCATIONAL STUDIES CONCENTRATION In another couple of years, Annie Malcom will be a bilingual math teacher. The double major and the teacher licensure track make for a tight academic schedule, but still leaves time to spend the spring semester of her junior year in Seville, Spain. My Spanish is pretty good, she says, but I chose the program in Seville because it includes a home stay that will really improve my fluency. There is a strong camaraderie among the education majors. They bond over demanding field experiences in local schools. Working in the schools is really an apprenticeship that provides real-world experience in the work I want to do, Annie says. I ve been in math classes at all levels elementary, middle school, and high school. The demands on teachers are so different across those age groups. It s very useful to see first-hand. Aside from learning to teach, if you ask what she finds most satisfying, it is the choir. I love singing with Cantorei, she says. Most of us aren t music majors, but three afternoons each week we get to be part of this amazing St. Olaf music program. After a full day of classes, to be able to take an hour and just sing is a great stress reliever. A highlight of the musical year is the annual St. Olaf Christmas Festival. Christmas Fest comes at a crazy busy time of the year, but to be part of a tradition that means so much to so many people is awesome. Annie Malcom photographed during a rehearsal of Cantorei in the choir room in Christiansen Hall of Music, with music professor James Bobb (left) conducting. 13

15 Emnet Shibre JUNIOR AURORA, COLORADO POLITICAL SCIENCE MAJOR 14 Emnet Shibre has always been interested in politics and political science. I m sure part of it is because as immigrants from Ethiopia, my family was very aware of how political systems affect people, she says. You learn that cultures and systems may be different, but people really aren t. We all have basic physical needs, but we also want a sense of purpose and connection to a community. Emnet has found several communities at St. Olaf. As part of a Great Conversation cohort during her first and sophomore years, she connected to a group of highly analytical, highly verbal students. One of the things I loved about Great Con is that we learned to argue with the texts, not with each other, she recalls. It was very demanding, but it helped me build a foundation and gave me a structure for learning. Aside from reading many of the classic works of Western civilization, we explored the context and circumstances that shaped great ideas. Another community formed in her first-year corridor with several of the women who became her closest friends and roommates. Three years later, they are still a closeknit group. Emnet is also an active member of Karibu, a student organization that promotes African culture. Meeting other students from Ethiopia and other parts of Africa is a great example of the global perspective at St. Olaf. We have international students from around the world, and it is especially good to have a chance to learn about the place my family came from. Emnet Shibre (bottom center) photographed with in the Larson Hall Coffeehouse, just before Halloween. Clockwise from the left: Liza Amaral, Abby Boyer, and Jeanette Byrnes.

16 Stuart Yurczyk JUNIOR ISANTI, MINNESOTA BIOLOGY AND ART MAJORS Stuart Yurczyk photographed during a demonstration by art professor John Saurer (left) in the Shoger Printmaking Studio in Dittmann Center. Art is my antidote to chemistry, says Stuart Yurczyk with a laugh. We all need creative outlets. Photography and printmaking fill that need for me. Art and science double-majors such as music and physics or, like Stuart s, art and biology draw on complimentary skills. They also offer similar opportunities for studentfaculty collaboration and mentorship. The majors and the faculty in the art department are very close, says Stuart. People spend a lot of time in the studios, which provides all kinds of ways to work together, critique each others work, and share ideas. Studio art involves lots of problem-solving. Biology and chemistry labs are like that, too. The double-major is Stuart s way of building a broad skill set. His long-term goal is to have a science-based career, perhaps in environmental consulting. A variety of courses have given him exposure to Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing, and other tools for understanding the environment. I didn t get a deep science background in high school, so a lot of it is new to me. My first chemistry course was a killer, but there was a lot of opportunity to work with my professor. That s true across the board: St. Olaf faculty are all really accessible. As a member of the Interhall Council, Stuart also builds his portfolio of artistic skills by creating posters for campus events. Every poster is a project with great creative possibilities, plus it s really fun to have people see your work on the wall. 15

17 Become an Ole, get a great education, build lifelong friendships, and see the world! CONFIRM Say Yes! I m an Ole. Confirm your place in the Class of 2020 by logging in to your St. Olaf account to make your enrollment deposit online. (See your letter of admission for login credentials.) Or go old-school by signing and returning the enclosed Admission Reply Card with your enrollment deposit. The envelope says it all: Um! Yah! Yah! CONNECT You ll find a site for admitted students at go.stolaf.edu/2020. You can also follow, like, and contribute to our pages on the wild, wild web. facebook.com/stolafadmissions twitter.com/stolaf instagram.com/stolafadmissions pages.stolaf.edu/admissionsblog facebook.com/stolafcollege VISIT Mark your calendar for one of our Admitted Student Day programs, April 9 or April 16, It s a great way to launch your St. Olaf career. What s Next? TALK WITH US Admission is just the start of a lifelong journey. The admissions team and the faculty who worked so hard to encourage you to apply to St. Olaf are still here to help. If you have any questions, just call, , or write. CELEBRATE Congratulations! You re going to love being an Ole.