A new year begins and with it, a new group of seniors preparing for the real world during their last year at St. Olaf. One of those seniors, Alicia Winsor, has been one of the many dimensions to the campus for the past three years.

The list of Alicia's interests and majors goes on. She is putting the final touches to her double major in history and social studies education and also American Racial Multicultural Studies (ARMS) along with the concentrations in coaching and teaching English as a second language.

Alicia has spent her last few years as a part of the St. Olaf volleyball team for three years and she was also a junior councilor. Her sophomore year, she took the trip to Cuba for interim, and will be heading out of the nation once more to visit Israel over the upcoming interim. "You can't go to Olaf and not go abroad," she commented on the college's opportunities to travel. In Cuba she "learned a lot about the culture and how isolated we are in our own little bubble."

But it has been FCA that has given her the most satisfaction here at Olaf. "It has been the most important thing in my life here," she stated. Her freshmen year, during spring break, the group did missionary work in the Appalachian mountains, and continued the next two years to Jackson, Mississippi and Chicago. "It has changed the way I see the world now. I never complain about my food anymore."

The Ytterboe resident has held down jobs at the Pause and in the Career Development center. She also coaches junior Olympic volleyball teams in Faribault and Northfield off campus. During the summer, Alicia was a camp councilor at Star Lake Camp in northern Minnesota and was also a cook at Bethel Horizons in the cities. Last summer she did research at the University of Minnesota to get her foot in the door as she looks for graduate schools. The University of Arizona has also caught Alicia's eye, with its strong multi-cultural program.

But for now, she has a year left to stroll the campus of St. Olaf. "Every day I'm so thankful that I'm here at this incredibly beautiful school," she said, "and the friendships I've made here will last forever."