�鶹��ý

Why �鶹��ý?

In my college search, I wanted something smaller. My high school was a competitive suburban high school in Illinois. There was a lot of pressure to go to the “perfect” college, and I was excited to go somewhere more collaborative.

My big thing was community: I wanted to go somewhere where I felt I would belong, be happy, and thrive. I wanted individualized attention and to not be just a face in the crowd.

I visited �鶹��ý twice, and during my second visit, I realized, “Oh wow, this is it.” I was touring during a polar vortex with some admitted students and current students. It was freezing but we made it an enjoyable experience. Then, when I looked up and saw the stars, I thought, “Oh yeah, this is my place.”

I love it here; I still adore this community and this place. I feel so lucky to have the community I have here.

Community

First Year

Sometimes, community kind of just happens to you. Some part of it is going around and looking for it, but other parts aren’t as much.

I met my best friend during my first year before we started classes. At the time, she was two doors down from me, and she was also a fellow night owl. Now, she’s my ride-or-die.

Theatre’s “Frequent Flyer”

In high school, I did a lot of theatre. I did sketch comedy, I was heavily involved in my theatre group, and I worked as a counselor at a summer theatre camp.

And at �鶹��ý, I’ve done at least one show every semester. The theatre department even says that I’m a “frequent flyer,” which means I’m an honorary member of the theatre department even though I’m not technically a theatre major. For me, the big thing that theatre has done is build a community and an outlet for my creativity.

My Theatre Roles

Here are some of the roles I’ve had:

Lessons from Theatre

I don’t plan on working in the theatre industry, but thanks to theatre I’m good at public speaking, meeting new people, and being outgoing. I believe theatre teaches empathy and how to understand and connect with other people. Many of these are innate in me, but theatre helps curate that. The impact of how creativity can help people is something that I will take into my mental health profession. 

This spring semester, I’m a teaching assistant for theatre professor Karie Miller, who is new here. I will TA for her “Intro to Theatre” class as a part of the Liberal Arts in Prison program. I’m very excited; this TA position combines my love of theatre with my passion for working with marginalized populations.

Search For Balance

If I could give advice to my younger self, it would be: You don’t have to do it all. It’s okay to prioritize things you care about and not do everything all at once. It’s okay to try to look for balance. It’s okay if you don’t find that in your first semester. You’re figuring a lot of things out, and it’s okay if you’re feeling alone in the first semester. Be patient with yourself.

Service-Filled Gap Year

Online classes during my second semester of first year just didn’t work out for me, so I took a year off.

�鶹��ý made it really easy; my financial aid didn’t change, and I was still welcomed when I came back. And during my year off, I worked as a nanny with kids who were attending bilingual school online.

During this time, I also started volunteering with Crisis Text Line. This is a 24-hour texting hotline that people can use when they are going through any sort of crisis. I trained to be a volunteer there and have been doing that ever since.

After two years of volunteering there, I have put in over 200 hours on the platform and helped over 360 people. This has really reinforced to me that I want to help people in bad situations and support them with their mental health.

Back in Business

When I came back to �鶹��ý in 2021, I was in a new class year. I have no regrets about my time away, because I got to have my whole experience at �鶹��ý on campus, doing what I love here in person.

New Understandings

I arrived at �鶹��ý thinking I was straight and cisgender, but now I am leaving with the knowledge that I am queer and nonbinary.

The openness of the community and befriending more queer people has really helped me understand more of the forces at play and understand my experiences in a different way.

Research and New Knowledge

I’ve also been able to do related research in classes, thanks to the flexibility of �鶹��ý’s curriculum. In my “Social Psychology” class, my group partners and I researched how queer and straight couples publicly express their affection differently.

We presented our findings to the school, and the research — titled “Kissing at College: Public Displays of Affection in Straight- and Queer-Presenting Couples” — still lives on the walls of the Noyce Science Center.

Healing From All Angles

I’ve always been interested in people and the human brain, and I want to put that interest toward making the world a better place. 

Before I got to �鶹��ý, I was interested in my mental health. I’ve been in therapy for years, and I took AP Psychology before �鶹��ý. But at �鶹��ý, my desire to be a clinician arose.

Exploring and Widening Horizons

Thankfully, I didn’t have to only choose psychology or a solely therapy-oriented track. �鶹��ý’s open curriculum made it easy for me to study both psychology and Spanish, which were what I had always wanted to study.

Mental Health with an Open Curriculum

Because of the individually advised curriculum at �鶹��ý, I’ve been able to explore a lot of things and find a lot of connections between them.

To my surprise, a lot of Spanish teachers liked teaching topics that relate to mental health. And I’ve taken a “Religion, Healing, and Health” class that ended up being informative for my future practice. From that class, I learned many different ways we can approach people’s health from a spiritual perspective.

Two classes I took in religious studies really opened my mind and made me very accepting of other people. If we had a minor, I would have had one in religious studies and another in sociology to further enhance my knowledge of humans from either a more socially scientific or humanities-related perspective.

Mental Health with an Open Mind

People are dimensional: we have experiences that makes us who we are. If we want to know who someone else is, we have to look at the full picture and approach them from multiple different angles; it can’t just be through one method. Any client of mine is going to have to tell me everything, from multiple angles, and I will use my knowledge of the varied subjects I learned at �鶹��ý and beyond.

In my practice, I know I’ll have a holistic approach to healing as a result of the classes I’ve taken here. Not only will I be able to connect with people in two different languages, I’ve also gained a really well-rounded and holistic worldview.

Mental Health with an Open Community

My work in theatre has also related to creating healthy community here. Psychology is everywhere because humans are everywhere.

When I was younger, I thought that I needed to be some kind of hero and be a big deal, but �鶹��ý has taught me that you can change the world in little ways, working on a smaller scale. Even if you help one person, that improves and changes the world.

Off to Spain!

Part 1: Two weeks in Spain with Seminar Classmates

My first journey with Spain started in a �鶹��ý Spanish seminar class that involved travel in the curriculum, also known here as a course-embedded travel class.

The topic was “Contemporary Spanish Literature and Film,” taught by Professor Nick Phillips. During spring break, I explored Barcelona, Seville, and Madrid with my �鶹��ý classmates!

Part 2: Semester in Spain

I want to Salamanca, Spain for my off-campus study program to improve my Spanish. I was there in spring 2023, and it was amazing. Not only did �鶹��ý make study abroad so easy and affordable, I did a homestay with a family, and we were like a little family for those few months.

Prepping for the Future

I want to become a licensed social worker therapist/counselor. Then I will save up enough money to move out and get a masters degree in social work.

As a fourth year, I bothered our career center (Center for Careers, Life, and Service) pretty frequently; they’ve had some awesome info sessions about mental health professions where we can talk to alumni. That had given me some great insight about how I can fit into this world.

I also networked and reached out to �鶹��ýians who are doing some hard work out there. Some day, I will be a very kind alumni who anyone can reach out to and host them, perhaps in an apartment with my two cats.