Greg Siems
An “out there”decision took career at Luther in unexpected directions Greg Siems has never been one to take the easy route. Needing to choose a course to fulfill his Luther language requirement, he could have signed up for Spanish, in which he excelled in high school. But, true to his nature, Siems opted for a different course—Russian, the “most out there” language he could find in the college’s catalog, he says. “It was always a challenge, and that’s what kept me coming back—just wanting to figure it out,” says Siems, a Russian studies and political science double major and the son of Sheryl (Luckow) ’82 and Jay Siems ’84 of North Liberty, Iowa. As it turned out, enrolling in Russian 101 shaped not only his academic path but much of his college experience beyond the classroom. “The whole community that surrounds the Russian program really appealed to me,” said Siems, a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Sigma Alpha (political science) honor societies. He soon became one of that community’s most active members, coordinating a Russian film series, tutoring Russian, and playing lead balalaika—a triangular, three-stringed Russian folk instrument—in the college’s Balalaika Ensemble. He also traveled to Russia twice—the first time as part of a January Term class that also stopped in Norway, the second on a prestigious Critical Language Scholarship that took him to Kazan, Russia, for two months in the summer of 2011. This summer Siems joined his girlfriend, Mandie Mickelson ’12, in Minneapolis, while he applied to graduate school in political science. In the meantime, he’s landed a paid research internship with the Minnesota Housing Partnership and a part-time sales position with Scheels. Although he’s unsure whether his knowledge of Russian “will be relevant” in the future, Siems says the Russian course he enrolled in his first year on campus—the class in which instructor Laurie Iudin-Nelson introduced him to the wonders of Russian folk music—remains a key experience. “Laurie brought out her accordion and tambourine and started singing. It was just so fun, and I was able to read the words even though I didn’t really know what they meant,” he says. “If you had told me when I arrived at Luther that I would major in Russian studies and study abroad in Russia, I wouldn’t have believed you, but that class took me in a direction that I hadn’t planned on or expected at all. Taking Russian was by far one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had.” — Sara Friedl-Putnam
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Luther Alumni Magazine