Make Me A Thriver

Make Me A Thriver Nicole Helget “WORK HARD. PLAY FAIR.”

By HOLLY DODGE

Nicole Helget’s humbleness takes center stage. A busy mother of many, a grandmother, a teacher, a writer, and a community advocate. She’s hard not to admire. But she insists she is driven to thrive by her commitment to her community and future generations.

Helget grew up on a farm outside of Hanska. There, she spent her formative years working on the dairy farm and spending days in the field with her father. “I still love the rural life,” she reflects. One of her early and well-received memoirs, “The Summer of Ordinary Ways,” bittersweetly recalls her rural youth.

Her love for writing began as she attended Minnesota State University, Mankato, for her master’s in teaching. Although, she found herself drawn by the Creative Writing program and faculty and made the switch. “I was always interested in storytelling. I’ve usually been the quiet person who enjoys listening.” Growing up Catholic, she was captivated by the stories of martyrdom. Through the years, she wrote six adult and young adult books and dozens of early reader books.

Nowadays, she happily resides on a hobby farm outside of Saint Peter with her partner and traveling musician, Erik Koskinen. She has three adult children: Isabella, Mitchell and Phillip. This fall, she moved her daughter Violette to the University of Minnesota, Duluth for her freshmen year, and her boys Archie and Gordie are at Mankato West High School. She also has four grandchildren.

As her children age, she prepares for an empty nest by challenging herself to find good deeds and tasks to fill her time. Helget shares, “Start saying yes to things. You have to try different things and see what fits.”

Heeding her own advice, she began as a paraprofessional at Prairie Winds Middle School in 2020, which led her to teach Special Education at Dakota Meadows Middle School. “I absolutely love it. I have the best students.”

She views teaching as a community responsibility and strives to be the best teacher she can possibly be. “I do not take it for granted that parents entrust me with their children’s physical, emotional, and mental safety, security and growth for eight hours a day.”

Her writing has taken a break due to her role in education. “I might be of good use here,” she says. Her current novel still waits on the same page she left it three years ago, but she’s not worried, “I’ll get to it someday,” she says with a lighthearted laugh.

Her spirit of willingness and service reach far beyond the duties of a teacher, mother, and grandmother. Helget has charged ahead with her “say yes” mantra and is running for Nicollet County Commissioner. “I am really motivated to get to work,” she says.

Her passion for community service runs deep. After earning a graduate certificate in public policy and organizational leadership from the University of Minnesota, she realized she was interested in “policy” not “politics.” A county commissioner is a nonpartisan position which appeals to Helget because it focuses on the work.

“The way that we get a group of people together, to come to an agreement, to work together on an issue for a particular outcome is more important than politics,” Helget says.

Her motivation is hope and urgency. As a mother and grandmother, she is deeply invested in leaving a better world for our future generations to inherit, setting them up for success in the best way we can. “I honestly can’t wait for the younger people to come up and take these roles. These are the best generations that this planet has ever seen.”

She is also dedicated to issues that are particularly important for women and children in her county.

Helget thrives by spending time with her family. “Raising these wonderful human beings and witnessing what they choose to do with their lives and the impact that they have on their families and their communities, it’s awesome.”

“I have this hope in the future and this driving sense of responsibility and urgency to set these kids up for success,” she says.

And with her limitless motivation and commitment to hard work, there is no doubt she will change lives.