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Meet the Class of 2009

By Amy Gage
October 11, 2005

The 770 members of the St. Olaf Class of 2009 officially began their college careers on a cold, rainy day in early September. But the future looks bright for these young scholars.

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TOWNIES ON CAMPUS -- Twenty-three members of the incoming first-year class at St. Olaf are Northfield High School graduates, including these 11.
We are pleased to welcome 429 women and 341 men to campus -- and to the larger community of Northfield. Among the group are 40 National Merit Scholars, 45 National Merit Commended scholars and people with a host of strange and wonderful talents, from founding a knitting club and creating a language ("Battesh") to building a kayak and earning medals at more than 30 figure-skating competitions.

Thirty-nine states and five countries are represented in this incoming class (48 states and 18 foreign countries are represented in the student body as a whole). Included are 23 members of the Northfield High School graduating class, who decided that attending a nationally ranked liberal arts college in their own backyard was worth living so close to Mom and Dad.

Why stay in town at a time when most young people yearn to go away to college? The answers to that question show the strengths for which St. Olaf is known -- including the opportunity to study abroad, the beautiful campus, and the nationally ranked science and math programs.

"St. Olaf seems to attract the kind of people I want to be around," says Steven Johnson, whose grandfather is a graduate of St. Olaf and who hopes to study biology and Spanish.

Matthew Neuger's mother, Ruthie, is an admissions counselor and fastpitch coach at St. Olaf who works with students from Northfield High. His father, Dave, was senior director of communications at the college for four years. So Matthew knows a few things about the St. Olaf culture. "The campus, the sense of community and the architecture all combined to make this feel like a place where I'd like to spend the next four years," says Matthew, a fourth-generation Ole.

Solveig Hagen is another "legacy" student, with an aunt who graduated from St. Olaf and a sister who is currently a senior. "When I compared things to St. Olaf at every other school I went to, St. Olaf had everything better. It has a much fuller and richer package than other schools," she says.

Lest we appear to blow our horn too loudly, incoming first-year student Nate Caple will keep things in perspective. "Most of the Northfield High School graduates who are attending St. Olaf would say that they never expected to end up here," he explains. "But as I have discovered, this school kicks butt!"

He laughs. "You don't need to write that."

This piece is reprinted from the September 2005 issue of the St. Olaf Posten Newsletter that is distributed to the Northfield-area community.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.