ClaSS of 2023 C Volume 139, Senior Issue May 8, 2023 • Grinnell, Iowa thesandb.com CORNELIA DI GIOIA
Scarlet & Black the The Senior iSSue
By Oliver Wolfe wolfeoli@grinnell.edu
Emmie Smith `23 is a dedicated and active member of the Grinnell swim and dive team, to which many thanks are in order — it was their insistence and outreach that brought her to the Grinnell community.
“The coaches here were really, really recruiting me,” she remembered while chuckling and rolling her eyes. “And so I was kind of like, ‘what is the school?’ After, like, the 10th email, I was like, ‘fine, I’ll come visit.’” Smith came to visit, and she remembered being impressed by the team and the sense of community shared amongst its members. “And I really enjoyed the swim team. I like the coaches. I like the atmosphere. I like the students on the team. Also, the academic rigor here is something I was looking for — I wanted to go to a small liberal arts school, and I wanted to move far away from home,” she said.
As a first year, Smith immediately felt the positive effects of the swim team’s community. “Our team is really big. And so I think having been able to have such a large friend group immediately on campus, especially as a first year, was really encouraging. So I never felt alone, and I never have since. And even with such a big group of people, we all really support each other regardless of what’s going on, whether it’s in the pool, or in the classroom, or outside of the classroom or outside of the pool,” she said. “It’s like having a big-ass family.”
The swim team’s warm welcome to Grinnell markedly changed Smith’s outlook and experience. “I really didn’t think I would continue swimming in college until I came here and met these people. I also think that swimming really helped me schedule my college life. It made sure that I got all my work done and got exercise, so it was great for body [and] mind,” she said.
Smith’s warm smile and easygoing personality reached well beyond the swim team, and she became an important part of the Grinnell environment. “I am kind of a
person who I guess likes to talk and get to know everyone, so I’ve kind of made a lot of friends outside of the team as well,” she said. “What I love about the community at Grinnell is that it feels very supportive and welcoming. And I mean, that’s just another thing that drew me here.”
During the spring of her junior year, Smith studied abroad in Prague, Czech Republic as part of a prestigious film program at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and it was this
opportunity that made it possible for her to complete the film and media studies concentration. She had only taken one film class prior and described feeling behind the other students in the program at first, but in the end, she learned a lot.
“I was like, ‘man, I’m so behind filmwise’ because I went abroad with kids who were all in film programs at their colleges,” she said. “But I really learned a lot, and no one ever judged me for not knowing exactly what I should have known in the moment,
and that was very encouraging because of everything I had heard about the film industry. And I mean, being a woman in film is really hard.”
The study abroad culminated in a film project in which Smith and her group made a film called “Leviticus.”
“It’s basically a comedy slash social commentary on the church,” Smith said. “These two guys fall in love in seminary school, and one of them is battling internally with being queer in the church.”
This film reflects aspects of Smith’s journey before and throughout her time at Grinnell. “Grinnell has made me more comfortable in who I am. Before coming to college, I knew I was queer, but I never felt comfortable outwardly showing it. So Grinnell has made me comfortable in that sense.”
Smith also said that before she came to Grinnell, she was less independent. “I have a twin sister,” Smith said. “Growing up, we did everything together. We both swam. We were both in the IB program at our highschool, so we had all the same classes, all the same friends.” Smith’s time here apart from her twin sister allowed her to flourish while still keeping her golden personality. “I like to think that I’ve matured as a person, but my personality has never changed — kind of silly, and outgoing and not really afraid to speak my mind. And my mom will say that has carried with me since I could speak.”
At this point, Smith is not quite sure what her life will look like after graduation. “Right now, I work social media for the athletic department. So, I’ve been looking for social media marketing elsewhere — been applying to a lot and getting some interviews,” she said. “But I’m hoping that I can get on my feet for a year or two and then maybe consider going to graduate film school,” she continued.
While the Grinnell community will lose an outstanding person and swim team member in Smith when she graduates, she has been a great role model and will continue to leave a positive effect on the community for years to come.
2 Senior edition
LIV HAGE
PAUL HANSEN
By Claire Giannosa giannosa@grinnell.edu
Sam Reid `23, a chemistry major and neuroscience concentrator, said she hopes to finish the analysis for her chemistry simulation before she graduates. Having never
been to a block party, she hopes to accomplish that as well. Although college was not the best four years of her life, she said, “it was definitely very challenging and productive in a growth sense.”
In the summer between her second and third year, Reid started a chemistry research
Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) with Heriberto Hernandez, associate professor of chemistry. They worked with platinum nanoclusters, which Reid described as very small compounds made of platinum. Through computational analyses, they found that the nanoclusters displayed resonance, which indicates that they are very stable. The finding was groundbreaking.
Reid continued this research after the summer for two years, and the paper was accepted on April 17 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and the Journal of Physical Chemistry A this coming week. “I gained a lot of confidence that my ideas were good, and that I was capable of understanding things that were seemingly really, really complicated,” she said.
In addition to the research with Hernandez, Reid completed a summer internship at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with Dr. Grant Johnson between her junior and senior year. At Grinnell, her research was mostly computational, but at the internship, she was able to experience a wet lab where she handled the chemicals.
Recently, Reid started research with Mark Levandoski, professor of biological chemistry. She conducts molecular dynamic (MD) simulations, looking at proteins and their binding and trying to dock chemicals in a specific place on a protein.
In her first year, Reid thought she wanted to major in psychology. Coming from a high school where not a lot of kids went to college, she said it was hard to adjust to the competitive nature of Grinnell. When COVID hit during the second semester of her first year, Reid was taking courses for psychology and chemistry at the same time.
“I really liked chemistry lab,” Reid said. “It felt like it was always on your feet, always doing something. It’s really handson, and I wasn’t bored.”
Reid said she is interested in the combinations of neuroscience and chemistry. “I was way more interested in the most fundamental level. We’re all just chemistry and made up of things, and interactions and re-
actions.”
Although she loves curling up in the Kistle Science Library cubicles to study or perching in front of a computer screen displaying protein simulations, she also spends a lot of her time on the track field. During the pandemic, Reid started running, and she eventually joined the track team in her junior year. She said track is good for her mental state and helps build her endurance. Studying is mostly a solitary activity for Reid, but she has found some of her closest friends on the track.
“I wanted to broaden my horizon of people that I knew and try something a little scary,” she said. “It was the best. It really rescued a lot of my college experience.”
Reid typically runs the 800 meter, and occasionally the 400 meter. She described 400 as faster and more tiring, and the 800 as requiring more strategy and mental control.
A lot of Reid’s favorite memories at Grinnell are from her time on the track team and hanging out with teammates. Over spring break, the team traveled to Texas for a meet and got to explore San Antonio, Austin and New Braunfels during their free time.
The last big takeaway Reid got from her college experience was the value of not putting so much pressure on herself.
“My first year, I remember coming in and kids talking about taking 15 APs and having a 1600 on the SAT, and that was super scary,” she said. “Getting an A in every class doesn’t matter. I never pulled an all-nighter, and it was okay. I think it’s okay to just take it easy sometimes. You don’t have to be perfect.”
After graduation, Reid will be attending University of Wisconsin-Madison in the neuroscience training PhD program. She will research therapeutic development for neuropsychiatric neurodegenerative disorders.
Reid says she hopes to find her niche after grad school. “I want to do research forever. And I would preferably be in a lab forever.”
3
OWEN BARBATO
LIV HAGE
Senior edition
By Conrad Dahm dahmconr@grinnell.edu
If there is one thing to be said about Tomoyoshi “Tom” Sato `23 it is that he is determined. This Grinnell fourth-year has had many experiences at Grinnell and beyond, but one quality that encapsulates his determination is his experiences in working with others, especially helping found the Salsa and Bachata Club and volunteering for a refugee organization in Sweden.
Sato is from Japan and is about to graduate from Grinnell College with a degree in sociology. In his time here, he has helped build clubs, do research, travel and most of all, experienced what it means to be a Grinnell student. One club that Sato joined early on and loved was the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu club at Grinnell.
“I started Judo when I was eight,” Sato said. “Judo was a really big part of my identity.”
The club was small when Sato joined his first year, so he worked with the professors who run the club to help it grow. Now, judo practices regularly with over 20 attendees, which is something that Sato takes pride in. Another experience that he enjoyed was getting to represent Grinnell at competitions, including national tournaments.
“My second semester at Grinnell, I competed at collegiate nationals in New York and got third in the 73-kilo division. My coach was really proud of me.”
Sato said that recently he has taken a step back from judo, but he is still involved in the club. Yet recently, he helped form another club at Grinnell, the Salsa and Bachata club, which he co-founded with Nina Ranalli `26. The club was not an instant success, though.
“I organized a workshop once last semester, and nobody showed up. It was such an unfortunate turnout.” Sato did not give up though. He said further, “This semester when I organized a workshop with my partner and advertised it, there were 20-30 people there. It was so different from last
semester, so I was proud.”
Sato did not always dance salsa, however. He said that he first learned while he was in college, studying abroad in Stockholm, Sweden. He mentioned that while he was there, learning salsa and bachata was “really intense. I danced almost every day.”
While in Stockholm, Sato had an experience that changed the way he viewed
the world and inspired him to make social change.
“When I was there was the time when the Ukrainian war started. Over spring break, I flew to Warsaw, Poland and volunteered there for 10 days.” Sato went on to explain that over his spring break, he worked from 6 a.m. until noon every day helping serve food and drinks to Ukrainian
refugees who were arriving in Poland. After his spring break ended, he said the experience made him feel like he needed to help, so he started volunteering with the organization Refugees Welcome Stockholm.
For this organization, Sato worked at a distribution center where he helped coordinate the distribution of donated items to Ukrainian refugees. While he was there, he filmed a documentary which he presented on Friday, May 5 about Ukrainian refugees. The focus of the film, he said, is longevity. “Being a refugee is not a one-time thing, it is a long-term thing. I want to talk about the long-term experiences of being a refugee.”
Sato also said that his experiences in volunteering also shaped his future career plans and area of studies in sociology. Sato explained that Sweden has a right-wing party that is nationalist and gaining power in the Swedish government. His focus in sociology is studying right-wing anti-immigrant movements and why people support them.
He said that after spending time in Sweden, “it kind of struck me, like, why are people becoming more anti-immigrant in Europe?”
At Grinnell, he said that one of the most impactful classes he took was a class about immigration and why people oppose it. Using his experiences at Grinnell and beyond, Sato hopes to study further and pursue a career in public policy.
Sato gave two major pieces of advice — “Just be yourself. You don’t have to try really hard to be liked by everyone else.” He also said further that “Grinnell is not a place that just gives you opportunities. Grinnell is a place that supports students who create their own opportunities. You must speak up.” Sato applied this in his own life. He explained that during his first and second years, he tried to be liked by everyone, but during a gap year during the COVID-19 Pandemic, he realized that he should just be himself. He also explained that you must create opportunities for yourself and want to achieve your goals.
Senior edition 4
LIV HAGE
EVAN HEIN
By Ashley Baek baekashl@grinnell.edu
Greta Schmidt `23 initially did not consider applying to Grinnell. Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, she said she heard about Grinnell after her mom attended a financial aid session at their local library. Two weeks later, she attended a junior day about Grinnell College, and afterwards she immediately said, “Yes.” Before the visit, Schmidt said she got inspiration from a Grinnell alum, Claire Tseng `14, who worked as a yoga teacher in Madison and whom she talked to when considering applying to Grinnell. “She’s the reason I’m here. She always seemed so happy, and she really loved her experience at Grinnell,” Schmidt said.
During her time at the College, Schmidt has been involved in a variety of activities. Passersby may have seen her throwing a frisbee around on Mac Field — she is part of the women’s frisbee team, the Grinnelleanor Roosevelts or the Svelts. She said she has been a part of the frisbee world since her first year, but she really fell in love with the sport her second year during her seven weeks on campus in the 2021-22 school year.
“It was so much fun to be with other people and be outside together,” she said. Last year, Schmidt was the Student Athlete Mentor (SAM) for the frisbee team. Now, she is one of the captains.
One of Schmidt’s favorite things to do with the team are mixed mini frisbee tournaments — mixed minis — she said. The frisbee team is split between a women’s team and an open team, and Schdmit said she loves mixing the teams to scrimmage together.
On top of frisbee, Schmidt finished a triathlon. Last year, Schmidt took a class taught by Erin Hurley in which the students did an entire triathlon at the end of the spring semester. They swam in the pool, biked to Rock Creek State Park and ran.
On the academic side of things, Schmidt is a biochemistry major with a dual concentration in neuroscience and science, medicine and society (SMS). She said that SMS-150, the introductory course for the SMS concen-
tration, caused her to reflect and think about how she wants to be as a scientist, how she conducts herself in the lab and what values she wants to embrace within science.
While she came into Grinnell thinking that she would be pre-med, Schmidt said she has now decided to pursue a Ph.D. Schmidt said that a Ph.D. would give her more versatility in terms of understanding in the scientific community, asking questions and being able to poke holes into things.
Schmidt is also a science communi-
ty leader (SCL) and leads skill sessions in chemistry. She said she enjoys being an upperclassman mentor to students and helping them through various experiences, from being a SCL mentor, a SAM and a captain of the frisbee team.
Last summer, Schmidt did a research experience for undergraduates (REU) at Worcester Polytechnic Institute on thermal stability of cation-induced phosphoinositide domain formation. In other words, she added heat to stabilize phospholipids under differ-
ent conditions of calcium and magnesium. “The lab environment was really good, and the research was also interesting to me. The techniques we used were very engaging,” she said.
Schmidt said that she will miss her friends the most after she graduates from the College.
“I became best friends with my friends right away,” she said. “We just clicked instantly.”
Schmidt and her friends all lived together during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that is where they really bonded, she said.
“We all took classes from the house, we cooked together, we played a game called Werewolf together, we went on walks together,” she said. “It was just really happy times in a bleak period.”
She recalled her and her friends’ first Dari Barn venture together during the first couple days of school in her first year, and she said that her friends are all a constant source of support and kindness. Schmidt said that spending time with her friends was a highlight of her college experience.
In her leftover free time, Schmidt enjoys spending time in the downtown ceramics studio at the STEW Makerspace. She said she has made plates, planters and bowls in a variety of vibrant prints and colors. Her favorite — a large plate with black, green, white, purple and blue stripes running across it.
After graduation, Schmidt will move to Massachusetts to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
6
Senior edition
We all took classes from the house, we played a game called Werewolf together, we went on walks together. It was just a really happy time in a bleak period.
Greta Schmidt `23
LIV HAGE
EVAN HEIN
Senior edition
By Krista Spies spieskri@grinnell.edu
Skye Ryan `23.5 shredded her way into my heart since the first time I saw her play electric guitar live with the student band Bādphakák. After being chosen for the 2023 Scarlet & Black Senior Issue, she said, “I was thinking it would probably have something to do with music.” For me, that is an understatement.
Ryan came to Grinnell College anticipating she woud become a computer science major, though she now will graduate with a double major in music as well. However, Ryan said the COVID-19 pandemic that caused the College to shift to predominately online learning for over a year led Ryan to practice guitar for four to six hours a day due to the absence of campus activities.
As she returned for the 2021-2022 school year, Ryan participated in Jazz Ensemble, which she said then led to her getting involved with Bādphakák. The music scene at Grinnell did not only become a stronger element in Ryan’s life, she said, it also became what the student population associated with her.
“I do a lot of computer science stuff, but that’s not really stuff that usually gets shared out there beyond just my classes, whereas I like to do as much music as I can to collaborate with people,” she said. “I wish I could do more. But evidently, I’ve done some amount that people enjoy.”
Ryan began learning the guitar when she was about six years old, inspired by her dad’s playing of ‘80s rock and metal music. She said she began to take the instrument seriously when she was around 15. So Ryan has been playing for over a decade in different genres including electronic, progressive metal, heavy metal, jazz and more.
Because Ryan’s parents teach internationally, she grew up in several countries, including Macedonia, China and Armenia, and arrived at the College as an international student. During summer in high school, she said she visited Grinnell and realized that the culture of the people here made it worth
attending.
“I had an interview with John Edwards and Karen Edwards ... and I ended up just going to their attic studio and playing music,” she said. “It was my first time coming here, and that was a really great experience just meeting somebody who likes music a lot and playing music with them.”
Music professors John Rommereim and Putu Hiranmayena have especially impacted Ryan, she said. While Rommereim specializes in Ryan’s interest, composition, she said Hiranmayena brings Ryan’s musical interests of heavy metal and Balinese Gamelan together through his classes.
“I have a lot of interests when it comes to music,” Ryan said. “My biggest ones have to do with composition and sound design. Sound design and computer science kind of go hand-in-hand, especially with the fact that now, most music production is done digitally on DAWs [Digital Audio Workstations].” Ryan said that she has been interested in the intersection of these two fields for a long time, and hopes to work on both sound design and software development after graduation.
Ryan listed a previous special topics course called CSC 395: Advanced Operating Systems as one of her most memorable classes during her time at the College. Though she said it was not her “favorite time while taking it,” she added that she ended up having a group project for the course that involved doing programming that she did not realize she could do when the group created a paint program they designed themselves.
“I think the biggest thing that I’m going to take away from Grinnell is being able to work in groups a lot better and being able to work in groups in a lot of different contexts,” she said. “In the CS department, there’s a lot of mandatory group work — which, some of it’s nice, some of it’s not so nice — but along the way, I feel like even though it hasn’t always been the most enjoyable experience, I have definitely gotten better at actually working with people to make things.”
Yet, making music with other people comes much easier than any other kind of
group project, she said. As for her favorite part of Grinnell, Ryan said, “This sounds cheesy — the friends that I’ve made,” including her two partners, great professors and other friends.
“I’ve got my band. I love my band. Occasionally, we drive each other a little crazy, especially during concert prep, but it’s the best time after shows just getting to hang out with all my friends in the audience and all my friends on stage.”
Ryan said Bādphakák, being the first band she practices with that holds live concerts regularly, helped her realize that she loves to play live music. Though a full-time band might not be in her future, Ryan said
that after graduation she will definitely continue to play live. “So if you like progressive metal or jazz, be on the lookout.”
Ryan said her least favorite part about Grinnell was the stress that comes with going to the College. However, she also said would have involved herself more if she could do it all over again. “Try to do as much cool stuff as you can,” she said she would tell her first-year self.
“I kind of hope that I’ve done my part to revive some student music stuff on campus because I’ve been trying to involve myself a little bit more,” she said. “And hopefully, that kind of helps to revitalize the concerts that come after COVID.”
5 EVAN HEIN
LIV HAGE
By Kailee Shermak shermakk@grinnell.edu
A mathematics and computer science double major with a statistics concentration, Huandong Chang `23 has led a life at Grinnell full of athletic activities with friends, academic exploration in a wide array of subjects and exposure to new countries and languages.
Chang, originally from China, found Grinnell College through the U.S. News and World Report college rankings. Upon visiting various universities and colleges to which he was admitted, he said he realized Grinnell was the best place for him.
“I didn’t feel super pressured here, and I liked the atmosphere a lot. I talked to many students and faculty, and everyone was really nice. I believed this was a place that could give me success, and I believe it has,” Chang said about his decision to leave his home country and attend the College.
At the beginning of his first year, Chang participated in the International Pre-Orientation Program (IPOP) meant for international students to help get their bearings in a new country and campus. He said that the program introduced him to many of his friends and helped ease his anxieties surrounding the logistics of life in America like the English language barrier and how to set up a credit card.
After his first year, Chang maintained his involvement with IPOP by becoming a mentor, and he has been involved with acclimating new international students to campus.
“I felt that the mentees had the same concerns I had coming in. I always took time to think about what they’re missing and how I can help them have the same, or an even better experience than I had,” he said.
Along with continued participation in IPOP, Chang was the president of the Chinese Student Association (CSA) before the pandemic. He explained his role in planning programming for students and fostering a sense of community while balancing the stress of a leadership position.
“The goal was to do a lot of events and create a fun experience. I didn’t want it to
become a burden for me or anyone else, but for it to become a good memory together,” he said.
Chang has also been involved in athletic and recreational programs at Grinnell. One of the more influential activities was a canoe trip he participated in through the Grinnell Outdoor Recreation Program (GORP) over fall break of his second year. The group trained in a lake near campus leading up to the experience, and then it traveled to Arkansas for a 5-day, 20-mile canoe trip.
“Yeah, we didn’t have fresh water. We used a water filter to get all of our water. It was just a very cool experience,” he said, also noting the lack of internet access which provided a refreshing break.
In addition to the GORP canoe trip, Chang enjoys athletic activities at the Charles
Benson Bear `39 Recreation and Athletic Center. He said that he either swims, plays soccer or tennis or participates in some other athletic activity every day. Specifically, the International Soccer Club has been an influential part of his time here.
“I get super excited about it and forget all the homework and pressure,” he said.
Chang explored much within the academic realm. He said he came into college leaning towards physics and biology, but he quickly found the math and programming within computer science fascinating.
“Every math course I’ve taken is a good experience. There’s nearly no exceptions, which is unbelievable. They’ve all been so impressive to me,” Chang said.
During the spring of his third year, Chang went abroad to Budapest, Hungary to contin-
ue his studies in computer science. He said he thoroughly enjoyed his coursework and the applied nature of the curriculum, but the most memorable part of his abroad experience was learning bits and pieces of the Hungarian language.
A specific interaction at a Hungarian street market stuck out to him as a moment he was proud of. While trying to buy strawberries, a vendor tried to overcharge him. With his basic knowledge of Hungarian, he was able to communicate with the vendor and successfully negotiate the strawberries back down to the normal price.
“I think it only saved me several dollars, but it’s not about the money. It was just about the principle, and it’s a very impressive moment,” he said.
Chang’s timeline at Grinnell was slightly unconventional. After completing his first two years, he decided to take a gap year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It [the gap year] was to prevent myself from the risk of wasting my year doing online classes just to get things done to get the credits. That’s not my goal,” he said, adding that his decision came from his desire to truly engage with the academic content.
During his gap year, Chang explored data science internships with Integrated Computer Solutions, a computer software company where he focused on consulting, and TikTok, where he focused on algorithm development.
“Reflecting back, it was the perfect decision because otherwise, I wouldn’t have found my interest in data science,” he said.
A statistics concentration fits perfectly into his pre-existing passion for math and computer science. Specifically, graph theory — MAT-218 — with Christopher French, professor of mathematics and statistics, paired with his network science summer research with Nicole Eikmeier, professor of computer science, on which he published an academic paper, combined his academic passions well.
The next stop on his academic journey is a data science master’s program at Harvard this coming fall where he will focus on machine learning.
Senior edition 7
OHANA SARVOTHAM
LIV HAGE
By Cadence Chen chencade@grinnell.edu
Saulė Keliauskaitė `23, an economics major and international student from Lithuania, has been creating her own narrative.
Although she is in her second full year of being on campus due to COVID-19 disruptions and studying abroad, she has been able to heavily intertwine herself with the campus community and take on many leadership roles. Currently, she is a co-manager for the debate union, an investment portfolio co-manager for Pioneer Capital Investments group (PCI) and a multi-hyphenate for the Donald and Winifred Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership (Wilson Center).
Keliauskaitė started a debate club in high school where she won 1st place in a national competition in 11th grade. She said this helped her gain her public speaking skills.
Keliauskaitė said she wanted to study in the U.S. due to the prevalence of a liberal arts education, an area that is lacking in many European countries. When she came to the College, she joined the Grinnell Debate Union and had the opportunity to travel around the U.S. for tournaments. Here, she began debating with native English speakers, and she served as co-manager in her second year. In her third year, she studied abroad in London at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Where debate has been a continuous part of her life, Keliauskaitė did not enter the investments sphere until she joined PCI, known to be a male-dominated space, during her first year at the College.
“Instead of being, ‘oh no, I don’t belong here,’ I wanted to lean into that feeling that I want to explore this and maybe it’s going to be interesting,” she said.
She said PCI teaches their members to apply reasoning to their financial decisions and not give into the herd mentality of any current economic event. The club sparked her interest in financial literacy. At the end of her first year, the board of PCI encour-
aged her to lead the club the following year, an encouragement she describes as “very fulfilling.”
“You need to have people that believe in you. Then you can also carry that forward,” said Keliauskaitė. “This then puts you in a position to help others and make it more inclusive going forward.”
While she said that the areas of business, entrepreneurship and investing can have an “evil” connotation and narrative to it, Keliauskaitė promotes understanding businesses and companies beyond the flowery language, independent thinking and circle of competence. This way, support for social causes and impact-oriented spaces can
be achieved.
“If you leave the decision-making to people that will utilize them in not the best ways, I think their narrative is gonna continue,” she said. “But if you come in with your own goals and your own narrative of how things can be better improved and take up that space, I think that can improve.”
With the Wilson Center, she was the host and on the speaker-relations committee for TEDxGrinnell, is a research assistant and student leader for the Elkes Airport Project — a feasibility study of chartering direct flights to and from Grinnell — and is leading the establishment for an upcoming entrepreneurial incubator.
This semester, she was the emcee for TEDxGrinnellCollege, themed “Food for Thought,” and she continues to use her “Food for Thought” water bottle. Here, Keliauskaitė punctuated the speeches with personal stories about how food tied her and revealed a surprising tie to her — discovering her third cousin at the College.
She came to the U.S. without knowing anyone, and although very few students at the College come from Eastern European countries, even fewer come from Lithuania, making her a “rare bird” as the office of international student affairs calls it.
For Middle of Everywhere, a program where students give presentations on their home countries, members of the Global Kitchen made her favorite Lithuanian dessert called tinginys, otherwise known as lazy cake. Todd Amstrong, professor of Russian, also greets her in Lithuanian whenever he sees her.
“They’re small things, but they really light up my day,” she said.
At the brink of the formation of new narratives for the world of economics and her personal life, Keliauskaitė is looking to gain hands-on experience in the fields of investing, finance and entrepreneurship. She especially values furthering financial literacy to help regular people invest in a way that is good for them and not based on fear. She wants to go back and forth between the U.S. and Europe, including Lithuania and London.
Senior edition 8
OHANA SARVOTHAM
LIV HAGE
You need to have people that believe in you. Then you can also carry that forward. This then puts you in a position to help others and make it more inclusive going forward.
Saulė Keliauskaitė `23
By Sarah Evans evanssar@grinnell.edu
Maya Gardner `23 likes getting her hands dirty. Originally intending to major in psychology, her plans changed after she took an intro-level biology course called “Sexy Beast,” where she and her classmates examined reproductive mating behaviors of various animals — specifically crickets and bean beetles.
“I don’t really like bugs, but it did convince me that bio was what I really wanted to do,” Gardner said. She said the nature of “Sexy Beast” showed her how fulfilling fieldwork could be — specifically, the hands-on aspect of it.
Her experience in the biology department convinced her to become a biology major with a statistics concentration, and she has continued to pursue her passion for the field. She has a photo of herself knee-deep in water at a recent biology lab field trip.
In addition to classes on Grinnell’s campus, Gardner also studied abroad in South Africa during her sixth semester. One of her favorite memories was seeing all sorts of animals while doing fieldwork, particularly baby elephants. “My friends would always be like, ‘Maya, there’s a baby elephant!’ and, you know, my phone was out immediately,” Gardner said.
The coolest part, according to Gardner, was being able to perform biodiversity surveys in areas of the park that others were not allowed to enter. “It was just a really, really incredible experience,” she said.
During her study abroad experience, Gardner had the chance to complete a final project on the lilac-breasted roller, a bird native to the area. She said she spent up to eight hours a day completing photographic surveys of the bird, and her group’s work has been published in the University of Cape Town Biodiversity Observations journal.
On campus, Gardner is a senior interviewer for the office of admissions, and she was previously a tour guide. Part of what makes that job fun for her is being able to help prospective students better understand campus
culture. She said she enjoys learning about prospective students and “telling them what we value and who we are.”
In her second year, she also volunteered for the Liberal Arts in Prison Program, which provides opportunities for people who are incarcerated to further their education. Gardner tutored students in math as a part of this program and she said she found the work very fulfilling.
“I think that program makes it accessible
vation biology, and she is applying for jobs in the field.
After her second year on campus, Gardner took a gap year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed her to postpone her plan to study abroad until restrictions loosened. Part of her gap year was spent at home in New York City where she stayed in her apartment most of the time. She spent the rest in Grinnell, where she enjoyed being able to walk a few blocks without running into someone — quite
and it’s okay to not know what you’re gonna do with your life,” Gardner said. “I think that’s something that maybe high school Maya would freak out about, but I’m very okay with it.”
Some of Gardner’s fondest memories from before the pandemic include the Winter Waltz, Pub Quiz and Harris Center events. She recalled the Waltz held her first year, featuring string lights hanging from the Main Hall quad ceiling and elaborately dressed attendees. Gardner also referenced Disco Harris, calling it her “favorite Harris” because of the live music aspect. When it was canceled at the end of her second year due to the pandemic, she and her friends held their own version titled “Disco Langan.” “We all dressed up in full-out disco outfits, and we were playing disco music and it was really, really fun,” Gardner said. “I just remember Harrises being really, really prominent my first and second year, and I do miss it a little.”
While these campus traditions are important to Gardner, she said that she values the campus community just as much, if not more. Ultimately, it was the students that drew Gardner to Grinnell in the first place. Her college choice was a difficult one, and in the end, the prospective and current students she spoke to while visiting campus convinced her to commit.
“It was kind of just a gut feeling that I liked the people here,” Gardner said about her choice to attend Grinnell. She said she has yet to regret that decision.
for people who have not had the ability to be taught math in that way before,” Gardner said, referring to the one-on-one support the program provides.
One aspect of the program she enjoyed was being able to tutor students who were “actually interested in math.” Gardner said that some of the students were working towards their GED, and others were learning just for fun.
“Access to education is something that I have been thinking about, especially as I think about where I want to go next,” she said. After graduation, Gardner plans to work in conser-
the contrast from being cooped up in a city apartment amidst the pandemic. “It was really nice having that space again, and also just being with my friends after such a long time,” she said.
Gardner spent the year applying to summer internships and working at Jimmy John’s. She also spent lots of time with friends, many of whom were also on gap years, watching movies and making some really great food. She said taking a year off was a decision she is proud of.
“I think the one thing my gap year has kind of taught me was it’s okay to take a breather,
She acknowledged that campus culture is different post-pandemic, referencing a recent conversation she had with a second-year student who did not know what Titular Head was. However, she said that changing traditions — and reminiscing fourth-years who miss aspects of their experience — have actually always been around.
“When I came here, they were like, ‘you don’t even know what self-gov is,’ and so it’s always gonna be changing, and I think that’s just the nature of it all. But I think the students care, and that’s maybe the most important thing,” Gardner said.
Senior edition
9
OHANA SARVOTHAM
LIV HAGE
By Molly Wilcoxson wilcoxso@grinnell.edu
Throughout her time at Grinnell, Tino Tazvitya `23 has worn many hats, including International Pre-Orientation Program (IPOP) mentor, concert crew member, basketball team manager and Dining Hall worker. However, after returning to campus post-COVID shutdown, she took on a new, unexpected role — intramural archer.
“I had never shot an arrow, at all,” said Tazvitya. However, during her time as an intramurals leader coaching non-competitive sports, her supervisor wanted her to explore coaching sports that adhered to COVID guidelines, and Tazvitya quickly learned how to use a bow and arrow.
That is the thing Tazvitya says she loves
the most about Grinnell — the ability to explore new interests, both in her work and in her personal life. Despite being a computer science and mathematics double major, Tazvitya said that her favorite class was PHE 202: Coaching Methods, offered by the physical education department.
Originally from Zimbabwe, Tazvitya learned about her passion for computer science through teaching herself coding languages in high school. She said she imagined herself creating apps in the future, a passion she still wants to explore.
“Those apps would potentially help people,” she said, “and do good in the world.”
Tazvitya chose to come to Grinnell because of its high-quality computer science program as well as the school’s smaller community. However, shortly after her arrival at
Grinnell, COVID hit, causing most of the students to return to their homes. Tazvitya was one of the few to remain on Grinnell’s campus throughout the pandemic.
During a moment of isolation from the rest of the world, Tazvitya formed connections with her fellow students staying on campus. At the time, she worked in the Dining Hall, and she said that the pandemic allowed her to form connections with her supervisors that otherwise would not exist.
“We really had no reason to be friends, right?” asked Tazvitya. “But we still talked. It was a really good, really nice relationship.”
Other unexpected locations where Tazvitya has found connections include a certain set of tables on the south side of the Humanities and Social Studies Center atrium, which she likes to refer to as the “grind tables” due to the
focused environment present there. Although she originally went to the tables to complete her work, Tazvitya ended up bonding with the people around her due to their shared devotion to the spot.
Academically, Tazvitya named Nicole Eikmeier, assistant professor of computer science, as one of her most influential professors, and who she had for her very first computer science class. “She gave me some tips on how to navigate the CS world as a woman,” she said. “She was kind of an inspiration to me.”
In addition to connecting with her professors, Tazvitya said she appreciated the connection she held with the international student community at Grinnell throughout her time on campus, particularly in her roles on the International Student Organization (ISO) cabinet and also as an IPOP mentor.
In fact, she said that her favorite campus event of all time is the annual ISO Cultural Evening.
Tazvitya reminisced about the time Cultural Evening was held immediately after the College’s first in-person sessions following the pandemic, remembering the significance it held to the international student body. At this past year’s event, she served as one of the two emcees.
“This year, I was just like, ‘What if I signed up to be an emcee?’ And I didn’t think it was going to happen, but it happened. [The event] really came together.”
Next year, Tazvitya will be accepting a position as a software engineer for investment banking company Goldman Sachs, based out of its Salt Lake City, Utah office, an opportunity she said she’s excited about. Still, Tazvitya said she’ll remember college best for the people she met during her four years at Grinnell.
“I just love talking to people and meeting new people,” said Tazvitya. “I’m grateful I was able to do that in every aspect of things.”
Her advice to current Grinnell students is simple — if you are interested in an event, go to it, even if it does not seem relevant to academics. “You never know what you’ll learn from it,” she said. “Even if you don’t think it will benefit you as much, it will help you out socially.”
Senior edition 10
LIV HAGE
PAUL HANSEN
By Marcy Cassidy-Mapp cassidym@grinnell.edu
When Andrew Thompson `23 left the suburbs of Oklahoma to visit the Grinnell College campus in Iowa for the first time, he was not sure what to expect. But despite the cold winters and cornfields, Thompson has found himself making more of a mark on campus than he anticipated.
The older brother to three sisters, Thompson has found his passion in the arts, particularly printmaking and tattooing. His proficiency in various art styles recently earned him the College’s Fourth-Year Art Prize at the annual Bachelor of Arts Exhibition based on a portfolio of submissions from his previous exhibits.
However, printmaking is where Thompson has truly found his niche. He mainly focuses on relief printmaking, but he has experience with engraving and etching as well. Thompson plans to specialize in lithography, an older form of printmaking where the artist chemically alters stone and draws on it with oil crayons before chemically treating the entire surface.
“For a long time, I did mostly painting and drawing, and I started to get into filmmaking and digital art because of that. But then in my first semester back [on campus], I took a printmaking course and then fell in love with it, and have been doing printmaking now for, like, 14 months.”
Thompson has also undertaken a project to renovate an antique letterpress from the early 20th century with help from Jillian Bhuyan `23. After a lengthy process of cleaning, repairs and preliminary typesetting, the pair plans to eventually print a zine composed of their friends’ poetry and a few linoleum prints.
Despite the pandemic, Thompson had the opportunity to study abroad in Germany during his second year through the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES). Thompson never physically attended Humboldt University in Berlin, as the professors from Humboldt came to teach at the IES study center. In fact, after the program, Thompson managed to end up 12 credits short
of a completed German studies major and officially declared.
“It’s funny to have a fourth-year interview because honestly, yes, I am ready to leave, but also, I’ve had one more quarter of Grinnell time on campus versus off campus,” Thompson said.
Thompson’s most beloved relief piece is titled “Berlin,” representing his time abroad through a mix of static and moving elements as well as improvisational and planned mark-making. He explained that he did not want the piece to be only about his study abroad experience, but he could not help but be inspired by the train stations in Berlin.
If you catch a glimpse of Thompson or
his girlfriend Anna Wilson `23, then you are sure to see more of Thompson’s inspired artwork since he is also an avid local tattoo artist. Starting as a first year, Thompson’s close friends were the first canvases he practiced on before eventually tattooing strangers and acquaintances. He notably uses a pay-as-youcan system which allows patrons to defer payment until their earliest convenience.
“I’m not recommending other people do this, but I did a lot of research on how to do it safely,” Thompson said. “I also happened to have a lot of friends that were either gracious or dumb enough to let me practice on them.”
Thompson is also involved in student advocacy and labor organizing on campus,
serving as a member of both the Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers organizing and bargaining teams. He said he believes that student organizing can be a powerful force on campus, and he is committed to making it more accessible. Thompson said he believes that Grinnell’s history of advocacy is recent, and he said there is a need for more student involvement to create a more equitable campus community.
“I want to see people at Grinnell feeling empowered to start their own things, not feeling like they need permission from SGA or administration to start organizations,” Thompson said. “There’s so much power in student organizing.”
Senior edition 11
LIV HAGE LIV HAGE
By Zach Spindler-Krage spindler@grinnell.edu
If you were tasked with finding Theo Prineas `23 in a campus-wide game of hide-andseek, there are a few key spots you could start with. Perhaps begin in Kistle Science Library, where he works the 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. shift for 10 hours per week. If you cannot find him there, check to see if he is reading in Burling Library. If he is not in either library, chances are he is taking a nap on the lush, green grass of the soccer fields.
If all else fails, organize a book club for “Fairy Tale” by Stephen King — he will certainly come out of hiding to discuss his favorite book. You will know you have the right guy if he’s wearing a t-shirt that reads, “What’s More Punk Than The Public Library?” If you ask about the shirt, be prepared for an enthusiastic monologue about the importance of public libraries. He may want to tell you that the only thing more “punk” than libraries is politics, but he is worried that would make him a nihilist.
Prineas grew up in Solon, a town of 3,000 people located 10 miles north of Iowa City. As a teenager, Prineas had eight goats, four chickens, bees and an aviary. He enjoyed the solitude of the small town, but he was excitedly awaiting an opportunity to move to a Democratic city with a popular public library.
After he graduated from Iowa City High School in 2018, Prineas took a gap year and moved into an apartment in Iowa City to work at the Iowa City Public Library. Prineas was not new to the library as he had volunteered there since he was 13 years old and was employed part-time since age 16. The full year of focused work, however, gave Prineas an even greater appreciation and passion for public libraries.
“Libraries are one of the few places that you can gather in without paying,” said Prineas. “One of our biggest clientele at Iowa City Public Library was homeless people, but we’d also get people like University of Iowa professors. You get to interact with a wide variety of people, which is a good civic value that is not present in a lot of other American institutions.”
Prineas then attended the University of Iowa for the 2019-2020 school year before transferring to Grinnell to intensely focus on political science and English for his remaining three years. This year, Prineas served as president of Grinnell College Campus Democrats, a role that allowed him to share an abundance
because I was in charge of the whole campaign,” Prineas said. “It was probably the biggest emotional high I’ve ever had. It was such an honor to be able to do it.”
Prineas said he thinks that local and state government is often undervalued by students, and as a result, he wants to leave a legacy as
interned at the Julien J. Studley School of International Affairs in New York City. Prineas completed baseline research about the food crisis induced by the war in Ukraine. His research contributed to a memo that was circulated in the General Assembly of the United Nations.
As he considers his next steps, Prineas is pained to say that many Democratic candidates may no longer have consistent success in Iowa’s increasingly Republican-controlled offices. However, Prineas said he is intrigued by the idea of assisting with state and federal elections in potential swing states like Michigan or Minnesota. Yet, he is hesitant about a long-term career in politics.
“I think I will go to grad school eventually, but I would consider going for English instead of political science,” Prineas said regarding his future plans. “All the signals in my life are telling me to do English, but the market is telling me not to.”
Prineas said that his sibling, Maud Prineas, who is five years older, has played a significant role in shaping his thought process. “They are always somebody I look up to, and I put their advice before anybody else’s,” said Prineas. “They have really helped me figure out my direction.”
However, Prineas does not need help figuring out that he will get a cat as soon as finances allow. He also feels confident about his desire to eventually live in a secluded part of Colorado where he can spend time outside hiking and skateboarding.
of political experience and advice with fellow students.
Prineas has worked on four prominent city council and state legislature campaigns in Iowa, but he is most proud of his time spent as campaign manager for Christina Bohannan. In 2020, Bohannan defeated her Iowa House opponent by 30 percentage points in the primary, going on to win the uncontested general election.
“I think that’s where my life peaked
an advocate for students’ participation in local elections.
“We are a part of the Grinnell community, and that means we need to have a voice in it,” Prineas said. “The attempted book bannings are a frightening example of the marriage of politics and libraries. If Grinnell students made sure to vote, we may not have a school board that tries to ban books.”
In the summer of 2022, Prineas took a brief break from domestic politics when he
When he reflected on his time at Grinnell, Prineas said he is grateful that he was able to focus almost exclusively on his passions for politics, English and libraries. He also said he appreciates the support of his advisors, Danielle Lussier, political science, and Paula Smith, English, and his particularly memorable time with professors Sherif Abdelkarim, English, and Sheahan Virgin `08, political science.
Whatever comes next, Prineas is prepared to make plenty of time for reading and frequent trips to the local public library. Equally as important, he will always make sure to find a sunny field to nap in.
Senior edition 12
LIV HAGE
SOFIIA ZARUCHENKO
By Oliver Palmer palmerol@grinnell.edu
Koffi Amegble `23 is a graduating first-generation, low-income student and biology major. At Grinnell, Amegble developed himself personally and academically with the help of close friends and professors. Over his four years at Grinnell, Amegble had a plethora of experiences ranging from COVID-19 and online classes to learning how to lift weights and ask others for help.
Amegble was born in Togo and emigrated with his parents to the United States when he was three years old. Since arriving in the United States, Amegble and his family have moved several times, never staying in one location for more than three to four years at a time. He is the first of his family to attend college.
When Amegble arrived in Grinnell, he said that his low-income background played a role in how he felt he fit in amongst his peers.
“I can say at times, things feel uncomfortable given that you’re not always working with the same starting hand as a lot of people. So in
some ways, you kind of feel like an outsider because you can’t always have the fanciest or the best resources,” Amegble said.
Amegble said that the Charles Benson Bear `39 Recreation and Athletic Center (Bear), specifically the weight room, is the space on campus that best reflects his time at Grinnell, in part because it is one of the first places where he felt “seen.”
Amegble had worked out a few times in his first year, but according to him, he “did not know what the heck” he was doing.
With the pandemic occurring during the second semester of his first year, and the personal protective equipment requirements, Amegble said that it was hard to work out consistently during that time.
“I remember after the pandemic we came back to campus and I was really struggling with self-image and just my overall health” Amegble said, “A few upperclassmen took me under their wing and got me into going [to the gym] consistently. “
Amegble became close friends with Seif Abdelaziz Emam `22 in his third year after
he asked Emam for beginner exercises that he could do.
“I was really inspired by his physique and his work ethic. I noticed that despite having a stressful schedule and everything, he still managed to display peace within himself and also make time for priorities like lifting, and staying in shape and everything just for his own personal sanity,” Amegble said.
With Emam, Amegble began going consistently and making progress in his lifting form and self- confidence.
It was also at the Bear where Amegble said he learned to see failure in a different light than before.
“The Bear was the first place where I was like failure was kind of a good thing in a way, and so once I realized, ‘hey, I failed, the world didn’t explode,’ it wasn’t game over. I started realizing that meant, academically, it was kind of the same,” Amegble said.
Aside from the Bear, Amegble also had several professors and faculty who helped him throughout his time at Grinnell.
In his first year, Amegble said that he was struggling with personal issues and being able to keep up with coursework, which led to him being connected with Belinda Backous, assistant dean for academic success.
“Ever since then, I gradually started escaping from the emotions of that day and started living in the present again, and to this day, she and I are best friends,” Amegble said.
Also in his first year, Amegble joined the Minority Association of Premedical Students, a national organization that provides underrepresented groups with the experience they need to succeed in the professional medical field. He is currently a co-leader of this group at Grinnell, and he is also a part of the Black Students in Stem club and the Black Student Union.
In the second semester of his first year, the COVID pandemic led to Amegble going back home with his family. Amegble said that he speaks English better than his mother, so he would take on the responsibility of contacting the landlord for maintenance and other things.
“I wasn’t allowed to just be a student, I
had to do tenant duties and stuff, too,” Amegble said.
Online classes also presented another challenge for Amegble — he never experienced in-person labs for his biology classes.
Amegble said that this led to him feeling uneasy about lab work in his third-year classes, but Charvann Bailey, assistant professor of biology, gave him space to learn and develop his lab skills while he was in her class.
“She was the one that kind of inspired me to continue staying in the biological sciences,” Amegble said.
Amegble has also collaborated with Bailey on cancer research for the last two summers through a Grinnell Mentored Advanced Project (MAP). Amegble said that Bailey also helped him get into a cancer research position at the University of Iowa during his summer MAP.
Upon graduation, Amegble will be returning to the University of Iowa to work with the research team he was a part of last summer.
When reflecting on his time at Grinnell, Amegble said, “I’m gonna really miss just that personalized, you know, relationships you can have with professors, and staff and students here at the College.”
Amegble said he is most proud of the fact that he did not give up even when he was not getting the grades he wanted and was stressed out.
“And so I took that [not getting the grades I wanted] as a sign of, like, maybe I wasn’t cut out for this place. But at the same time, I felt like because I was a first-gen, low-income I had to think about the image I’m setting for my sister.”
Amegble said that in his first two years, he would prioritize his grades over his health in an attempt to maintain a high GPA for grad school. His advice for underclassmen stems from his experience of this and the impact it had on his health.
“Never stop putting your health first. Design your schedule around a guaranteed time for [your] gym/wellness as opposed to seeing when you can fit in your wellness inside of your Grinnell schedule,” he said.
Senior edition 13
LIV HAGE
PAUL HANSEN
By Allison Moore mooreall2@grinnell.edu
Letícia Monteiro `23 always knew that she wanted to act and perform. “Oh my God, I knew ever since I was, like, a baby,” she said.
An international student from Brazil, Monteiro always had lofty goals. As the first person in her family to attend college in the U.S., Monteiro said that she sacrificed a lot for her education. “I came here without ever having stepped foot on American soil, without having visited the College,” she said.
Monteiro started acting lessons at seven years old, but said that theater and acting are not taken as seriously in Brazil. Thus, she knew she wanted more opportunities to find a community that recognized the validity and value of acting as a profession.
When searching for schools in the U.S., Monteiro said she had little guidance, but she eventually decided that a liberal arts education would allow her to explore all theatrical areas and become a more well-rounded artist. She said all the schools that accepted her were liberal arts institutions. “I guess I fit the profile,” she joked.
But why Grinnell in particular? “I had a gut
feeling that this [Grinnell] is where I should go, and I don’t really know how to explain that. The women in my family are very intuitive — all of us — and I think we were all feeling like … maybe that’s the right place,” Monteiro said.
During her first semester at the College, Monteiro said she was disheartened that both students and faculty in the Grinnell theatre, dance and performance studies (TDPS) department were primarily white and American. “I felt that I was missing something here,” she said.
Additionally, Monteiro said her Tutorial advisor insisted that she take a Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) course in her second semester. When she told this to John Garrison, professor of English, he offered to be Monteiro’s advisor instead, so she declared an English major during her first year. Monteiro said she will proudly graduate without ever taking a STEM class.
However, after taking Introduction to Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies (GWSS) with assistant professor Leah Allen, GWSS, Monteiro broke the news to Garrison that she wanted to switch to a double major in TDPS and GWSS.
For Monteiro, this combination of majors al-
lowed her to “draw upon this ancestral, cultural knowledge that I got from my grandma and my mom. All the women in my family, my mom says that they are magical women ahead of their time.” She continued, “I’ve always been super interested in social change and how to do it through art … I’ve always had that instinct of telling the invisible, forgotten stories of my peoples.”
After being sent home to Brazil in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, Monteiro took the opportunity to spend time with her family and focus on her craft. She found various online courses from graduate students from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, New York University and The Juilliard School that for the first time provided her with a BIPOC-exclusive space that made her feel more recognized and valued.
During the spring of her second year, Monteiro studied at the National Theatre Institute (NTI) in Waterford, Connecticut. “I decided to study off campus, but I also knew I wanted to stay in the U.S. I think I came here for a reason, like artistically, and I wanted to pursue that,” said Monteiro.
While at NTI, Monteiro said she had classes 7 days a week for 10-12 hours each day. “It’s a place with a lot of energy, you feel it in the ground,” she said. “It was so intense. It was hard. I was like, ‘okay, as an artist, I need rest.’ So I learned that for sure.” Nevertheless, Monteiro said she was excited to be in a place that solely focused on theater — “the practice and not necessarily the theory,” she said.
One day, the artistic director at NTI approached Monteiro at lunch and informed her that her scholarship came from Lin-Manuel Miranda, an actor, director, songwriter and playwright famous for his work on “Hamilton,” “In the Heights” and “Moana,” to name a few. “I started laughing, and she was like, ‘no, I’m serious,’” Monteiro said.
The director explained that Miranda saw Monteiro’s application materials and not only donated money towards her education, but also offered her a place in the Miranda Family Fellowship for the next two years. After she graduates, Monteiro said that she will take a year to focus on the fellowship, where she will receive artistic
and professional mentorship and will be able to audition for Miranda’s various artistic projects.
“I’m one of the only international artists [in the fellowship] which is always so much fun to see everything that I’m accomplishing,” Monteiro said. “Especially after everything I went through as a queer artist of color, as a Latina, as a Brazilian … sometimes feeling like I had to work twice as hard as other people in the [Grinnell TDPS] department”
Not ready to return to Grinnell after her semester at NTI, Garrison informed Monteiro that she could in fact do a full year abroad. “Nobody told me this!” she said.
Monteiro found a program at The Second City, a Chicago theater famous for improv and celebrity alums like Tina Fey and Steve Carrell. “I really wanted to go back to this place of joy when performing,” Monteiro said.
Although she emailed the program late, Monteiro said that The Second City program for college students must have been impressed with her passion, and she was accepted. There, Monteiro performed on The Second City stage for the public and had “a wonderful time filled with joy and comedy.”
Now in her last semester back on campus, Monteiro said, “There’s something special here, and I think people are cherishing each other and being very genuine, and loving and joyful.”
After graduation, Monteiro looks forward to returning to Brazil to spend more time with her family, especially her grandmother. “[She is] the most important person in my life. There is no other way to describe our relationship. She is the sweetest, most kind person I’ve ever met,” Monteiro said. “I saw her as a mentor throughout my entire life and really learned how to share space with other people by watching her and how she treated people, how she collaborated with people.”
If Monteiro were to offer advice to her firstyear self, she has two simple words — “Persist and resist.” She continued, “Remember, you do have a place here even when you feel that you don’t, when people make you believe that you don’t … Your humanity has so much value. You are enough. Remember to bring that beauty, wisdom, Brazilianness, Latinidad.”
Senior edition 14
LIV HAGE
MADDI SHINALL
By Taylor Nunley nunleyta@grinnell.edu
When Morell Old `23 was in elementary school, they told their mother their favorite day was test day because “everyone was quiet.” On Grinnell College’s campus, Old continued to find respite from the bustle of student life in Burling Library’s books and tranquility.
For Old’s four years at Grinnell, they have had a toe dipped in a little bit of everything — double majoring in classics and biology, leading as co-president of the Fiber Arts Club and a two-year stint at the S&B are all just a small fraction of what Old has filled their time with. But one of their defining traits is their hate for competition.
“I do not like competition really in anything, especially games. I will avoid playing board games to the best of my ability because I’m a really sore loser, but I’m also a sore winner,” Old said.
Old said they see the biology field as filled with competition and, despite their love for the subject, if they were to pursue their specific interest in ecology, it would feel like “competing for grant proposals my whole life.”
However, Old found a different passion while at Grinnell — librarianship. Old has worked at Burling Library since the summer of 2021. Burling was where their passion for librarianship was first fostered, and Old will be pursuing a Master of Arts in Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this upcoming fall. To them, a future job environment of a library would curb the competitiveness that comes with academia.
With Old’s choice of their majors growing out of the childhood love they had for the disciplines, Old’s pursuit of librarianship only seemed natural.
“I was the little kid who knew all the facts about animals,” Old said. “And also my particular biology interest is taxonomy, which is like organizing everything … it reminds me of classics in a way of making sure everything is organized in its place and understanding the world.”
In the summer of 2021, when Old began their job as a cataloging and processing student assistant at Burling, they had a number of academic opportunities taken from them because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Near the end of their first year in 2020, before the pandemic sent students home, Old had applied not only to the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, a study abroad program in Greece, but also to a number of Research Experiences for Undergraduates. But in March 2020, these opportunities were pushed back to 2021 and, eventually, outright canceled.
“I was like, ‘it’s not meant to be,’” Old said. “So I’ve actually not studied abroad or done research in my entire time at Grinnell basically … That never happened, but it’s okay. I move on, and I find sources of joy in my life.”
Old found solace between the pages of
Burling’s books and from their roommate’s cat, Butterscotch, in the summer break between their second and third years.
One of Old’s favorite parts about their job at Burling is their chance to be a “tastemaker and an influencer.” As part of their job, Old is one of the people who choose what books go on the library’s current and popular shelf, and they also design the monthly themed display in front of this shelf.
“The other thing I do that is influencer-y that I make jokes about with my supervisor is that whenever I would put up a display, they would take a picture of me with the display and put it on the Grinnell College Libraries Instagram. That is the joke that I make. That I’m basically an Instagram model,” Old said.
Old found subjective fame in the classics sphere, too. In a Latin seminar on Vergil, an ancient Roman poet, Old recalled their profes-
sor saying it was near impossible to keep the integrity of the original Latin of the epic poem the “Aeneid” when translating it into English. Old, who greatly enjoys creative writing, took this as a personal challenge.
In the spring of 2022, they composed a translation of an excerpt of Vergil’s “Aeneid” for a final project in the class. A friend and former mentee of theirs — Old is also a Latin tutor — then encouraged them to submit it to “Animus,” the University of Chicago’s undergraduate classics journal.
Old said they were “not really expecting anything” when submitting their translation to “Animus.” Old’s translation was accepted and published at the beginning of 2023.
“It feels very validating to be published,” they said.
Old’s translation is not the only work they have published. They have also been published in the Grinnell Review and the Grinnell Underground Magazine. They said writing is their “hobby outside of school.”
“I feel like words and written language have become natural to me in a way because I’ve written and read so much that I sort of know how words fit together on the page,” Old said.
Despite common beliefs that English translations of classical works often are not faithful to the original texts and are instead boringly dense, Old still sees the beauty in translating their ancient Greek and Latin class readings over the years.
“In class, I don’t like the ambiguity, but when you’re translating a poem for yourself, you can choose the meaning. Like with the ablative, you can translate it as causal or instrumental … It makes it interesting to translate, and you can make choices,” Old said.
The ablative case, a noun case in the Latin language, often can be translated in a variety of ways, sometimes functioning as an adverbial phrase or even as a phrase denoting place.
In a fitting Burling Library student worker fashion, Old recommended their top two favorite books in Burling — Sharma Shields’ “The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac: A Novel” and Ian McGuire’s “The North Water.”
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LIV HAGE
PAUL HANSEN
