Where are they going?
English Majors - Class of 2006
St. Olaf College
Jenna Barke - I will be spending this summer in Knoxville, Tennessee, completing a clinical internship in Child Life at East Tennessee Children's Hospital. After becoming a certified child life specialist in the fall, I will start applying to children's hospitals in the Midwest like crazy!
Em Benjamin - I'll be perusing event management, mainly nonprofit fundraising and private wedding planning in Seattle, Washington.
Lauren Benson - Next year I'll be working at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, my hometown, as an Associate Editor.
Peter Bodurtha - Currently unknown.
Sarah Burgin - I'll be working as an AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer in Pittsburgh, PA.
Meghan Cieslik - I will be working at First English Lutheran Church in Appleton, WI as a Youth and Family Ministries Associate. In any spare time I find, I'd like to take some writing classes and get involved with Urban Planning for the city.
Catherine Diersen - My plans are still kind of up in the air, but I'm hoping to get a job working for an AmeriCorps program in the Twin Cities, which would be a great experience and it would also give me some time to figure out what I want to do in the long-term. Hopefully after that, I'll be ready for graduate school and any other adventures that come my way!
Jane Dudzinski - This summer, I will be attending the Denver Publishing Institute, a four-week graduate course at the University of Denver about book publishing. After that, I plan on living in Chicago and finding a job, hopefully in a publishing or journalism-related field.
Jake Erickson - After a grand amount of summer road trips and reading, Im attending Yale Divinity School in the fall to get my MDiv degree. What can I say, I like school...a lot.
Jen Ester - I will be returning to Camp Amnicon (an ELCA adventrue tripping camp - mostly canoeing, www.amnicon.org) near Superior, WI for my second summer as a guide before returning to Northfield to pursue an internship and eventual career in environmental advocacy.
Lesly Gamez - This summer I will travel to Mexico for a few weeks to relax and celebrate my graduation. During the remainder of the summer I plan to continue my job search, I am hoping to work in the St. Paul or Minneapolis public schools for a few years. After 1-3 years I hope to attend graduate school in the Twin Cities, and I am currently exploring programs in writing, literature, and education.
Andrea Goodall - I will be living in Minneapolis, working and paying education loans while hopefully enjoying a little more free time than I have now!
Niki Grangruth - I will be moving to Chicago to attend the MFA in Photography program at Columbia College. I would like to work towards a career in commerical or editorial photography. Although I have chosen to pursue a career in the visual arts, I plan to keep writing fiction and submitting my work to various literary magazines.
Cate Grochala - I will be an intern at Augsburg Fortress Press in Minneapolis in their marketing-communications department for the summer. Afterwards, I'll be hopefully teaching English in Andalucia, Spain for the 2006-2007 school year. If that doesn't work out/after my time in Spain, I hope to find a job related to journalism or communications.
Kristin Gutek - I will spend the summer in Bemidji working as a camp counselor, and then move to the Cities where I will hopefully find some sort of publishing-related job. Or work at Pottery Barn.
Meg Haley - I will be moving back to Austin, TX to continue working for Starbucks where I will live off of free coffee and "old" pastries while taking classes at AustinScriptWorks, writing, and waiting the generally accepted 10 years to see if I can make it as a playwright.
Katie Harris - This summer I will be on campus doing the elementary education program and then student teaching in the fall. After that, I will either try to get a long term sub job until something permanent pops up for the next fall. Ideally, I want to teach upper elementary, but will also be licensed to teach middle school English. If this doesn't work out I want to return to Ireland to sing in pubs and drink cider.
Meredith Johnson - I will be leaving at the end of August to spend a year in Argentina. I'm going to do volunteer work through the ELCA, probably teaching English or working with youth. I also plan to read and write a lot of poetry while I'm there. When I return to Minnesota I will apply to graduate schools and continue writing, writing, writing.
Joe Kempf - I am teaching English in Japan next year. After that, I'll effortlessly amass vast sums of wealth. Then maybe buy a robot.
Kristin Levanovich - I will be teaching English in Japan and applying to law school.
Ann Lindquist - Beginning in August, I will spend a year volunteering with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps. After that, I hope to attend graduate school in writing and get a cat.
Molly McGraw - Starting in June I will be teaching English for the Upward Bound program here at St. Olaf. That program is 6 weeks long and will get over at the end of July. After that I will have a couple of weeks off before I start my first real job, teaching at Cygnus Academy in Anoka, MN. It is a perfect fit for me as I will be able to use both my English and French teaching licensures. I'll have 2 sections of 6th and 7th grade English as well as a French class.
Emily Moen - I plan to spend a year with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps somewhre on the East Coast, and contemplate graduate school.
Katherine Montei - I plan on taking a year off to think about what I'd really like to do. Perhaps teaching is in my future, perhaps grad school, perhaps writing the next great American novel (I wish). We'll see where life takes me, I guess.
Karen Nelson - Working as a Buyer Analyst at the Best Buy Corporate Headquarters in Richfield, MN.
Noah Niermann - Off to Kazakhstan with the Peace Corps.
Meredith Norquest - I'm going to be a certified nurse's assistant for a year then hopefully start medical school in Texas (September 2007).
Lucas Paine - Travel to South America, organic farming in rural Italy, study music in Ireland.
Carolyn Pearson - I am looking into being a children's librarian or something of the sort. I want to help develop school curriculums, but also interact with the kids and organize activities/speakers, etc. I plan on going to grad school the fall of '07, but I have to decide if I will get a degree in library science or education and children's literature. I hope to continue creative writing and photography on the side.
Sarah Rendall - I will be moving to Chicago with my fiancee and looking for a job teaching in Chicago Public Schools. Yay urbania!
Matthew Schmidt - I will be living and working in Minneapolis while pursuing my entrepreneurial endeavors and enjoying life "off the hill".
Sybill Scott - I am in the cities next year, hopefully with a job in Arts Management with an organization like the SPCO or Minnesota Orchestra.
Nancy Simpson - I'm going to England for a year, and then for my master's/doctorate in Renaissance Lit at Madison.
Noah Sommers - After graduation, I plan on moving to Madion, Wisconsin to work as a software tester for Epic Systems Corporation.
Margie Thirlby - After graduation, I will be driving home to Seattle to work at a public relations firm in downtown Seattle over the summer. In the fall, I will hope to gain a full time position at the firm or somewhere else, in the areas of PR, Marketing, Advertising, Consulting, Publishing, and other communication-related fields. If all else fails, I hope to pursue teaching abroad in Ecuador.
Jared Wall - Teaching for Upward Bound this summer, and afterward I will be teaching English to adults in Istanbul, Turkey.
Amy Wicks - I'll be going to Slovakia for a year or so to teach English at a private Lutheran High School through the ELCA Global Mission Program.
Catherine Wing - This summer I will take classes in the St. Olaf elementary ed summer institute and then I'll student teach my ninth semester at a local elementary school. After living in Northfield for one more year, I plan on moving home to Colorado or another mountainous state. Or I might teach in some other country until the government makes me come home and pay off my St. Olaf education.
Derek Zobel - I plan on working near the cities for a year before heading off to graduate school to pursue an MFA in creative writing. Then maybe teach?
