Vol. 140, Senior Issue 2024

Scarlet & Black the

Volume 140, Senior Issue

May 6, 2024 • Grinnell, Iowa

thesandb.com

THE 2024 SENIOR ISSUE

HENRY LOOMIS

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Senior Edition

By Scarlett Saldaña saldanas@grinnell.edu Caleb Hoereth `24, fondly known as Leb, is the kind of person you can find on campus chatting with everyone he runs into. His outgoing personality has helped him create connections with his peers, and because of this, he says the Grinnell community has contributed to his growth in all aspects of his soccer, academic and personal identity.

Hoereth’s interest in getting recruited for college soccer brought him to Grinnell on Junior Visit Day, where he said he came to see head men’s soccer coach Brian Jaworksi with his high school best friend. Although Grinnell’s “middle of nowhere” location put him off, he decided to do another visit on his own.

“I happened to stay the night with some previous teammates. I got to kind of experience like the whole Dining Hall, what they do for fun, kind of a little bit more of the social aspects,” Hoereth said.

Although Grinnell’s individualized curriculum, as well as the close-knit community between professors and peers, drew Hoereth in, he decided to commit to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I think it was April 30th. I chose them, and I slept at night and woke up May 1st thinking I made the wrong decision,” he said. “And here I am. I think, ‘Would I do it again?’ I think so. One of the main things I was looking for was a top-tier education while still being able to play soccer that I got recruited for, and I’d say I achieved that.”

Though Hoereth was able to meet other freshmen on the soccer team during the second semester of his first year, he didn’t meet the rest of the soccer team until he was back on campus as a sophomore. However he said that academically and athletically, it was difficult to adjust.

“We already have this whole new class of kids asking me, ‘Hey, how do I do this?’” he said. “I wasn’t here, so I was honestly in the same boat as all the first years.”

Once he was back on campus, Hoereth continued to fulfill his biology major, having his eyes set on becoming an orthopedic surgeon. He said that when he started struggling in organic chemistry, however, he withdrew from the class and decided to make a change.

Karla Erickson, professor and department chair of sociology, helped him realize his in-

MEILYNN SMITH

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terest in public health, and he switched to a sociology major because of the absence of a public health major at Grinnell.

To learn more about the field, Hoereth said he participated in summer internships at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health and the University of Chicago Crime Lab, all of which are public healthbased. Even though he loved meeting new people at each internship, he said he realized that he wasn’t enjoying his experience as much as he thought he would.

“I was kind of like, ‘Dang, this was great, and there needs to be people doing this work because it’s important. But it’s not fun.’ I didn’t enjoy doing it. As much as I loved everyone who worked there … I kind of sat and thought like, ‘’what am I good at? What have I done in the last four years that could kind of contribute to a new interest and a new career change?’” he said.

At that moment, Hoereth thought of his leadership and mentorship roles. In the past two years, he has not only been a Student

Athlete Mentor (SAM) –– most recently co-president of the SAMs organization –– he was also the 2023-2024 men’s soccer team captain. “The skills that I’ve gained through SAM and my leadership role on the men’s soccer team is something I like and am good at … It’s fun. I like helping people,” he said.

“It helps build connections with them when you help people through different issues and things like that. So I said, ‘alright, so sports psychology.’”

His leadership and love for connecting with people also led to his decision to revive the Men of Color Empowered and Engaged organization with Jordon Ryan `24, a Black student on the men’s basketball team. Hoereth said that since it was their last year, they wanted to ensure the group could consistently meet and be a lasting space for Black students.

“It’s been nice being able to continue to talk about life, not only in Grinnell as a Black student, but also living in Iowa. We’ve been able to kind of relate to our different race struggles and issues that we’ve all experienced,” Hoereth said.

After reflecting on his last four years, Hoereth believes he has had a stressful and nonlinear journey, but he said he’s glad he changed his mind to be happy with his current path. He said that though he sometimes wishes he had come to a quicker realization with his major during his freshman year, he is content with how interesting his journey has been.

“I was able to meet a lot of different people, kind of increase my knowledge in different fields and areas that probably wouldn’t have happened if I was able to just do straight sociology and psychology,” he said. “I think that’s one of the things that I don’t think I could have done if I wasn’t at a place like Grinnell.”

After Grinnell, Hoereth will be attending the University of Michigan School of Social Work to pursue sports psychology in the fall.

He said that he is excited to start a new chapter, but has been trying to soak up his last couple of weeks in Grinnell.

“Here I am, about to graduate. I feel like these things always come quicker than you hope or want them to. But focusing on my studies and hanging out with my people as much as I can is my goal before I walk that stage.”

Senior Edition

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By Zoe Zappas zappaszo@grinnell.edu For Harvey Wilhelm `24, community is at the center of everything he has done in his time at Grinnell. From the Natatorium, to the anthropology commons to East Street, Wilhelm has found his place wherever he has gone.

Wilhelm grew up in Minneapolis, Minn.

Before he came to Grinnell, he said he knew he wanted to go to a small liberal arts college and somewhere he could swim. He had two overnight visits, one for a tour and one for admitted students’ day. He said he was drawn to the people in Grinnell, and after meeting the swim team, he knew he would find his place on campus.

Wilhelm originally thought he was going to be a biology major, but after he took ANT 104: Anthropological Inquiries, he was hooked. That spring, he took one of his most memorable classes to date, ANT 252: Culture and Agriculture.

After his first year on campus in 20192020, Wilhelm took a gap year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and he returned to Minneapolis. He and a few of his friends from high school lived together in an apartment downtown while he worked as a mechanic and service manager at a local bike shop. “A lot of it was spent just biking around, hanging out and cooking a lot. It was awesome, honestly,” he said.

Wilhelm came back to campus rejuvenated in the fall of 2021. “I never had the COVID scurries. I feel like that’s the biggest thing some of my class has that I don’t have.

I’ve heard very mixed reviews about online Grinnell, so I’m not very envious of that, honestly,” he said.

During his second year, Wilhelm was “on the grind.” He was the community advisor of Langan Hall’s second floor. “There was so much energy coming back to campus.

Everyone was so hyped to be back. It reminded me of what Grinnell’s all about,” he said.

2022 was also Wilhelm’s big year in swimming. He was the Midwest Conference champion in the 100-yard breaststroke and broke the school record in the 200-medley relay. “After that season ended, though, I was deflated like a balloon,” said Wilhelm. In the off-season, he spent his time discovering new passions. “That spring, I picked up guitar les-

States. “We did a project on urban gentrification and these evictions that happened in Siem Reap due to the tourism market. It’s important to be mindful of the limited impact our research had, but it was incredible to communicate with some of the local people,” he said.

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It’s always those little random things you end up getting involved with where you get to meet people that are outside of your operating circles most of the time. I love that kind of stuff.

Harvey Wilhelm `24

MEILYNN SMITH

sons and had a lot of fun just jamming out in my friend’s dorm postseason.”

“Swimming is my comfort zone, but it also can bring so much discomfort at the same time. There are a lot of times when you just want to quit. You always have so many obligations. At the end of the day, it’s what I love, it’s fun,” he said.

Starting in his second year, Wilhelm also got involved with the Block Party committee after one of his friends encouraged him to join. “It’s events like Block Party that remind us of our residential culture, and why we came here in the first place. I’m proud to be a part of these efforts as co-chair,” he said.

Wilhelm has ventured beyond Grinnell in

hands-on experiences. Wilhelm’s family has a sheep farm in eastern Iowa, and they are currently in the middle of “lambing” season in which female sheep give birth to lambs.

The summer before his third year, Wilhelm interned through AmeriCorps at Matthew 25, a non-profit dedicated to serving the food, housing and educational needs of Cedar Rapids communities in a cohort with six other people around his age. He split his time between leading a project on exterior work on the urban farm and working at his family’s farm.

During the fall semester of his third year, Wilhelm traveled to Cambodia with nine other students from colleges across the United

Upon his return in the spring, he joined the concert events crew, a step outside of his typical realm. “It’s always those little random things you end up getting involved with where you get to meet people that are outside of your operating circles most of the time. I love that kind of stuff,” he said.

This year, Wilhelm and his fellow senior swimmer friends live at 1018 East St., also known as Fairgrounds, an important relic of the Grinnell swim team through the years.

He said, “We’re very close. We play D&D, throw parties and we just hang out. We have a good vibe, no house drama.”

Wilhelm’s D&D character is named Toffin –– “like coffin with a T” –– a deep gnome rogue. As he puts it, “He’s a stealthy little thief with cool daggers and a cool sword.”

He said that he’s going to miss their weekly campaigns. “That’s one of my favorite parts about Grinnell, how we have to make our own fun,” Wilhelm said.

For his senior thesis in anthropology, Wilhelm’s project focused on substance-use care providers in Iowa and the stigma surrounding healthcare. Wilhelm was determined to study a locally-relevant issue that he could make an impact on.

Wilhelm plans on visiting his mom, who lives in Vietnam, this summer. Wherever Wilhelm goes, he said he wants to make a positive social change. “I’m just trying to live life, enjoy it and make things better for the world,” he said. “We’re all just ants on a rock. I don’t know what the future holds, but good things, I hope.”

Senior Edition

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By Alice Parker parkeral@grinnell.edu Herb seed starters and tomato plants grown from the seeds of store-bought tomatoes currently take up space in Jada Fife `24’s apartment. Meanwhile, a summer garden on her farm, which was significantly damaged by tornadoes two weeks ago, holds onions, carrots, cabbage, kale, radishes, cauliflower, broccoli and winter squashes.

Fife was born and raised in Washington, D.C., but her grandparents stayed on the family farm in Afton, Iowa. She loved her time spent there as a kid and during COVID and decided to go to Grinnell “to be in a more rural space.”

Through her almost four years at Grinnell College, she found inspiration in peers, community in extracurricular activities and passion in returning to her interest in farming and sustainable agriculture, solidified by experiences afforded by opportunities available at Grinnell.

on an organic farm and do your own thing, and live in a way that you find not only financially sustainable but also something that aligns with your own values.”

In her third year, Fife engaged in a seven-week study abroad program on a rural dairy farm in Costa Rica with plenty of bugs and bats, no hot water and long hours of working in sweltering heat. Despite the difficulty of this experience, it was “the final thing I needed to do to prove to myself that this is what I wanted to do with my life,” Fife said. “I like being around animals, around greenery, working outside, even in pretty terrible conditions.”

Encouraged by these opportunities, Fife began to seek out support for agriculture at Grinnell, including getting to know Tommy Hexter `21 and the Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI). “Through these four years, I’ve slowly built up the self-confidence to get there, and even though Grinnell’s Ag [agriculture] contacts are pretty small, it’s such a tight group of people,” she said.

After being told at a PFI conference that within the field of agriculture, “in 10 to 15 years you can stop having your in-town job and earn an income solely off of your farm,” she said of her after-college plans, “I want to be home because if this is going to take forever, I want to start now.”

She has already begun her job as the administrative farm coordinator for Sustainable Iowa Land Trust (SILT) which works to get conservation easements for landowners. She hopes to stick with the job beyond graduation and, one day, start her own business where her major in economics will come in handy.

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Working with students, working with the administration, trying to better the place is the best way to get to know a place.

Jada Fife `24 Despite her background, this wasn’t something originally in the cards for her. “One thing that Grinnell really forced me to do … the people inspired me to work hard at whatever I’m passionate about, even if what I’m passionate about is not something that was the set path,” said Fife.

Coming out of a first year online at Grinnell, Fife began to embrace the atypical in her college experience, moving off campus quickly. “I enjoyed having my own space, the ability to cook for myself and find a little bit of quiet at the end of the day,” said Fife.

In her second year, Fife joined the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) club. Over the years, she achieved a blue belt and now serves as club president. “I’m very biased, but I think it is one of the coolest things that is here at Grinnell,” she said.

Fife says this extra-curricular side of Grinnell has been the best part of her experience here, connecting her more closely to the College. She also joined leadership for Grinnell

We really have our entire lives in front of us.

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EVAN HEIN

Advocates in her third year, which has included running the 24-hour Crisis Intervention Services hotline as well as engaging in education and Title IX work. “Working with students, working with the administration, trying to better the place is the best way to get to know a place,” she said.

Fife said that an externship opportunity living with an organic vegetable farmer during spring break of her second year “planted the seed” of her solidified passion for sustainable architecture. “I’m trying to not bring in all the stupid plant allegories,” she said. Nonetheless, this experience showed her that “you can work

Jada Fife `24 Despite a “rough experience” in college, without Grinnell, Fife says, “I would have never gotten the job that I got.” Nevertheless, she looks forward to beginning her life on the farm after college, experimenting with “dirt-cheap” methods and seeing what grows well. She said, “We really have our entire lives in front of us … All my breaks I’m working on the farm.

Now knowing that I don’t have to take these big pauses anymore and keep on slowly chipping away at it is really exciting.”

Senior Edition

By Claire Giannosa giannosa@grinnell.edu Aiyana Rockwell `24 has participated in many things at Grinnell. Not only is she an economics major, policy studies and education double-concentrator and an athlete for the women’s basketball and track teams, she has also served as a research assistant, admissions tour guide, and co-president of Student Athletes for Social Change (SALSC). Despite her many involvements, Rockwell said she still has a couple more items on her bucket list, hoping to attend an improv show and Bob’s Underground open mic night before she graduates.

Originally coming to Grinnell as a physics major, Rockwell said she ended up finding her niche in economics.

“Economics is a very interdisciplinary field, and I think it has a lot to offer in terms of job prospects down the line,” she said. “My advisor is Professor McGavock and I love her, she’s great.

She’s just been super supportive and has led me down this path of humanistic economic research.”

She said she found the policy studies and education concentrations complemented her major well, and helped to balance out her economics and math classes. Taking an introductory-level class with associate education professor Stephanie Jones, Rockwell said her final project propelled her towards an education policy pathway.

In her second year at Grinnell, Rockwell worked with associate education professor Cori Jakubiak to serve

as a pedagogical partner.

Rockwell said that in other pedagogical partner programs in liberal arts colleges in the United States, students serve as consultants for faculty for course development or to observe their teaching styles in the classroom to evaluate if it is effective. However, with Jakubiak, Rockwell said she served as a research assistant and a course assistant, both giving feedback and researching how pedagogical partners operate in other institutions.

She has also worked with religious studies professor Caleb Elfenbein to implement a pedagogical partners program in Grinnell, and is currently working on a grant proposal for funding.

“It is cool to see all of my work since second year kind of coming to a head and hopefully being able to get this grant accepted and start this program here,” Rockwell said.

In addition to researching educational tools, Rockwell spent the summer after her second year as an AmeriCorps member at Davis Elementary school in the town of Grinnell. There, she helped rising third graders with their reading comprehension and interviewed educators to inform her policy research.

“I think my favorite summer was probably two summers ago. It was just a lot of fun,” she said. “I think it cemented my passion for education policy.”

That following summer, Rockwell spent five weeks in Milwaukee helping with a research project. There, she said she interviewed residents of a culturally rich area and mapped the floor plans of

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5 Rockwell came to Grinnell on the basketball team, and said one of her favorite memories was when the team beat Ripon College, a previously undefeated team that season, in her second year.

Additionally, “those little moments,” like studying together or eating meals in the Dining Hall, which the team calls “long d,” are the memories Rockwell said she will remember off the court.

In her second year, she decided to join track for sprints and discus. “I think the track team has been incredibly supportive and welcoming of this group of women’s basketball players—there’s a few of us that transition into track in the outdoor season—and I love the track team, they’re great and a really good time,” she said.

sault and Awareness Walk.

“What I always tell first years, and when I gave tours, is that it’s really important to understand the context you’re in,” Rockwell said. “I think there’s something to be said for people going out and getting involved and understanding where they’re going, because even in my second year I was like yeah, I go to school in Iowa, but I’m not indebted to this place.”

But with programs like SALSC, she said, “when you’re collaborating with community stakeholders, you’re showing that students want to be involved.”

After graduation, Rockwell will be attending graduate school at Carnegie Mellon in their Master of Science Public Policy and Management program with a yearlong fellowship in D.C..

When you’re collaborating with community stakeholders, you’re showing that students want to be involved.

Aiyana Rockwell `24

MEILYNN SMITH

their houses, eventually creating a website to track the stories they found about the people and places.

Approaching the research with an open mind and no preconceived research questions, Rockwell said she “let what these people were saying sort of mold the story that we were going to tell of them.”

“The biggest takeaway

from that experience is just the humanistic approaches to research,” she said. “Because of my academic background with economics and policy studies, you go in with a question or this idea in mind or hypothesis, and that’s not what that was.”

Outside of academics, Rockwell has dedicated much of her time to the women’s basketball and track teams.

Complementing her involvement in sports teams, Rockwell is the current president of SALSC this semester — as her other co-president graduated early — and has also served as the social media and outreach coordinator for the group.

“The mission of SALSC is to make getting involved in the Grinnell community a lot more accessible,” she said, especially for athletes who dedicate a lot of their time to their sport. Over the course of the year, the group facilitates outreach opportunities and hosts events such as a student-admin forum and a Sexual As-

“At the end of the day, education involves everything,” Rockwell said. “So many things intersect with education policy, so at any point if I’m working for a nonprofit or a think tank in D.C., it’s going to involve some sort of education policy.”

Although she said she is very invested in education policy, she has room to explore other areas in her program such as law and justice, urban policy and housing policy.

“I’m totally open to exploring and seeing where it takes me,” she said.

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Senior Edition

By Natalie Ng ngnatali@grinnell.edu “There’s those interviews with R&B artists where they’re like, ‘Are you the king of R&B?’ and the artist’s like, ‘Yeah,’” said Jordon Ryan `24. “Then, everyone starts debating –– ‘Is this person actually the King of R&B?’” For Ryan, however, “comparison is the thief of joy.” The self-made artist, who has released seven singles and performed at several Grinnell events, simply wishes to be known as the King of Love.

Ryan, an English and music major, has worn many hats throughout his time at Grinnell. Aside from his music career, he is often known as a member of the men’s basketball team. However, he has also held leadership roles within the College’s Black community, and in the summers, he hosts his own shows with TV stations back home in St. Louis, Mo..

In the beginning, Ryan said, he knew he had many passions –– but he did not know what to do with them. He valued a college education, but mainly came to Grinnell for basketball –– the sport he played since he was five, and his “home away from home.”

At Grinnell, Ryan said he was able to find “brothers” in his team members, who he was able to relate to in many ways, and with whom he could have many conversations with, despite, he noted, the difference in skin color. Some of Ryan’s best memories of Grinnell have to do with basketball, such as when the team made it to the Midwest Conference Championships this year, or the 3-on-3 tournaments that took place during last year’s Working Differently Days. On his bad days, one might find him in the Darby Gymnasium practicing his shots and dribbles.

Outside basketball, however, Ryan mentioned a memory he would hold on to “forever.” In spring 2022, he had to perform a particularly challenging song at a recital –– “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” However, with consistent training, Ryan said he “was able to sing the best I’ve ever sung.”

If there’s one thing both basketball and music have taught Ryan, it’s consistency. “I had to consistently work on my game to become a better player,” he said. “I had to consistently be writing songs and working on my voice to get better at music.”

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MEILYNN SMITH

To Ryan, education should not just be about academics. “I gained passions through interacting with people around me,” he said.

“Even if I weren’t here, I would have come to discover that within myself … It’s always good to have education, but sometimes you can thrive through just natural gifts.”

Ryan credited his mother, whose main line of work helps communities, with influencing his passions. Now, Ryan wants to help people through forming connections and cre-

ate a better future by “helping them understand who they are,” so as to do his “gift” with connecting with people, and the world, justice.

To that end, he worked at the Black Cultural Center (BCC) for two years as staff and communications coordinator, joined the Young, Gifted and Black Gospel Choir and is currently co-leader of Men of Color Empowered and Engaged. He warmly reminisced about the cookouts he had helped organize

at the BCC, which reminded him of the soul food he ate at home, as well as the times he sang to the church and partook in fellowship with fellow religious Black Grinnellians.

“I’m African-American. I understand the struggles endured … I’ve had things happen to me,” he said. “Sometimes, we don’t feel like we can talk to people that don’t look like us about those things. I want to be part of building a safe space where people can talk about how they’ve experienced oppression, but also about good things about Black culture.”

Ryan added that Grinnell’s liberal arts education, such as the English courses that gave him the opportunity to read about societal and worldly issues within and beyond America, exposed him to multiple perspectives. One particular course, a seminar on postcolonial literature that he had gotten into as a first year, taught him he could “find joy” even in tougher courses, “because you’re learning and writing about something interesting.”

Currently, Ryan is applying for jobs. But he said he hopes he will be able to focus more on building his TV show and music career after college.

“A lot of people don’t know this about me, but I’m a news guy –– I had three internships in news,” he said. Two years ago, he also started his own podcast with another St. Louis network to talk about sports and daily news.

“It’s not really fully in motion because I wanted to make sure I had all my ideas ready for after college. But I’m gonna get that rolling this summer.”

In the end, however, Ryan’s biggest passion is still his music. “The future’s also going to be me being on the Billboard one day,” he said.

For him, everything starts with love, which he tries to convey through song. “I want people to be singing good things,” he said. “When you hear my song I want you to be singing something that will positively impact your life.”

“I had the luxury of being loved by my mom, my dad, my grandmother, my close friends,” said Ryan. “But a lot of people don’t have that, and sometimes you have to introduce them to it.”

“I think that is my real purpose in life,” he said. “To show people what love is.”

Senior Edition

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By Eliza Cline clineeli@grinnell.edu Hazal Zenger `24 is a third-year physics major who will be graduating early before heading off to Stanford in the fall. Zenger will be starting a physics PhD program with a focus on the experimental aspect of the discipline. Zenger said that despite having to live on a college campus for the foreseeable future, the Palo Alto weather is worth it.

Applying to graduate school as a thirdyear was a “daunting task,” said Zenger. Despite the challenges of missing classes and applying to fewer schools than recommended, Zenger’s unwavering determination and hard work paid off, with a bright future in sunny California on the horizon.

At Grinnell, Zenger has been part of the physics student educational policy committee (SEPC) and worked as a grader and teaching assistant in the department. She avidly believes in the value of the liberal arts and advocates for humanities and social science majors to make the often-avoided choice to take a course in Noyce.

Zenger has also enjoyed participating in events hosted by the International Student Organization (ISO). Her favorite ISO event is the annual Food Bazaar, and she said she begins planning her next dish as soon as each year’s event is over. This semester, she also participated in the Cultural Evening event for the first time.

The summer after her first year, Zenger secured a prestigious research position at the University of Iowa with the Gravitational Radiation and Projective Geometry group under Dr. Vincent Rodgers. She helped to find mathematical solutions for the diffeomorphism field, presented her research at

the university’s Summer Undergraduate Research Conference and gave a lecture on campus. She also received a stipend through the Center for Careers, Life and Service, for which she said she is very grateful, as it made the opportunity possible.

In the fall, she continued interning at the University of Iowa, this time with the High Energy Physics group under Dr. Jane Nachtman, where she still works. Her research focuses on particle physics and simulations, her primary area of interest. Although this position is unpaid, she said she is very grateful to have had an opportunity to do such complex undergraduate research, especially as she is graduating early.

Zenger said she has taken at least one class that she has absolutely hated every semester, but she regrets none of them and finds value in each subject. However, one of her favorite courses was MAT 321: Foundations of Abstract Algebra, which she found particularly interesting as an avid sudoku player and puzzle lover.

Originally intending to double major in physics and philosophy, Zenger dropped her second major to graduate early. She explained that she did not always want to skip her fourth year, but financial situations made the decision for her.

“I was still not sure if I had made the right decision until they released the tuition for next year,” Zenger said, referencing the 5% increase in tuition and mandatory meal plans.

Hailing from Turkey, Zenger has also experienced additional financial burdens with a significant currency crash occurring in her first semester, which she said has only worsened during her three years at Grinnell.

Despite this, Zenger said that being at

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Grinnell has strengthened her connection with her home country, something she is very grateful for. She attributes her previous distance from her cultural identity to growing up in Istanbul and going to an American school.

“Being abroad makes you get closer to your home country –– at least, that was my experience. I wasn’t super aware of my national identity. But when I got here, my differences were emphasized,” she said.

However, she said being away from Turkey has sometimes been very difficult.

During the International Pre-Orientation Program her first semester, devastating wildfires blazed nationwide. This was a difficult start to her college experience, but it would not be the only tragedy she would have to witness from afar.

On Feb. 6, 2023, during Zenger’s fourth semester on campus, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed nearly 54,000 people in Turkey.

Zenger said it was challenging to see this happen from across the ocean. In a proactive effort to help raise awareness of the situation, she gave a “Middle of Everywhere” presentation focusing on the earthquake. At the same time, she and the three other Turkish students collected donations.

Two significant Turkish elections have

taken place during her time at Grinnell. Zenger explained that Turkish students were impassioned to vote, especially after the earthquake. The Wilson Center funded their trip to Chicago so they could vote at the embassy, something Zenger has said she is exceptionally grateful for.

Despite all this, Zenger has been able to go home all three of her winter breaks and at the end of each summer. However, she said that something unfortunate always happens on her way back to campus. Last semester, she got bedbugs after visiting Europe during the Paris bedbug infestation. This semester, she got food poisoning on her flight to Chicago and could not attend the first week of classes. Her biggest advice to her fellow international students is to “make sure you get your wisdom teeth out when you are home!”

As graduation approaches, Zenger says she is filled with nostalgia and immense gratitude. She deeply appreciates the support she has received from her professors, academic advising, mentors and friends. Zenger said she is particularly thankful to her host family, whose impactful role in her time at Grinnell she cherishes.

“I have a family in Grinnell now. I have roots here, but I need to grow.”

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Senior Edition

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By Taylor Nunley nunleyta@grinnell.edu Meghna Adhikari `24 was born in Kathmandu, Nepal, the capital of a country at the height of a decade-long civil war in 2002. At six years old, her home country overturned its 240-year-long monarchy in favor of a new democracy.

Adhikari recalls little of her own experience during the Nepali Civil War. Most of her memories come later, in the political aftermath of the war. She remembers being sent home from school in the city when she was young on account of nationwide strikes. She remembers grappling with the complete political shift Nepal experienced after establishing its constitution. She remembers the narrow framing of the war she heard from those around her — the framing of the Maoists, Nepal’s Communist Party who led the uprisal against the country’s monarchy, simply as “terrorists who had messed up the country.”

And she calls these experiences more “privileged” than what other Nepali citizens faced in rural areas.

She admits she didn’t really understand much of what she was living through. At least, not until the summer of 2021, after her first year at Grinnell.

In those languid, hot summer months, Adhikari, surrounded by the pink walls of her childhood bedroom, started research on a project that would consume her for the first three years at Grinnell. Continually, she would return to this project on love’s role in social movements, revising and adding to it with the new theory and concepts she learned in her sociology classes until it eventually became a published paper in February 2023.

“That research project, it just allowed me

of over one million.

“I’ve always grown up in the city,” Adhikari said. “In a way, not having the option to run away, to have to sit with this community, to spend time with them, it’s such a crazy experience, but it’s worked out very positively.”

By the start of her third year, Adhikari co-founded the Nepali Student Organization with another student, Sneha Lohani `23, giving her another avenue to connect with her community and culture.

“It’s very useful to have these broader labels, such as Asian, but you also need space for the specific,” Adhikari said. “It’s also nice

line and added her second major, English, and her concentration in peace and conflict studies after.

I came in, I tried things out, and whatever felt right, I did that.

Meghna Adhikari `24

“I came in, I tried things out, and whatever felt right, I did that,” Adhikari said. She jokingly added she kept her majors a secret from her parents until deciding on going to

to understand, it allowed me to remove myself from the topic and just to understand it as it was,” Adhikari said, particularly referencing the Nepali Civil War, one of the case studies in her paper. “Before that, I was living in Nepal, I lived through it, and only saw it from the perspective of someone there.”

Adhikari spent that summer and her entire first year at Grinnell in Nepal, working and studying remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While some international students at Grinnell could return early during the 202021 academic year, Nepal’s U.S. Embassy remained closed throughout Adhikari’s first year. It wasn’t until August of 2021 that she finally stepped foot on campus and U.S. soil.

It was a very weird dissonance there where I was like, ‘I’m a second year, but I feel like a first year.’

Meghna Adhikari `24

“It just felt weird to be a second year and not have an existing, proper fit or even people I was close to,” Adhikari said. “It was a very weird dissonance there where I was like, ‘I’m a second year, but I feel like a first year.’”

Adhikari is soft-spoken and a self-proclaimed introvert — it takes her a while to warm up and feel comfortable in class. Yet, she found community in Grinnell’s smalltown population of 10,000, a stark contrast from her hometown metro area’s population

MARC DUEBENER

to have a smaller word that caters specifically to your identity. … It’s nice to just have events where we’re able to talk in Nepali, eat Nepali food.”

It’s nice to just have events where we’re able to talk in Nepali, eat Nepali food.

Meghna Adhikari `24

Adhikari was drawn to Grinnell by the College’s open curriculum. She largely only took science classes at her high school in Nepal, due to her parents’ urging. After enrolling at Grinnell, it was strictly “no STEM for a while.” She declared her first major in sociology long before the major declaration dead-

law school. She’ll be attending Harvard Law School for her first year this upcoming August.

At Harvard, her idea is to approach her studies in the same way she did at Grinnell — trying things out.

Adhikari looked to Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, professor of gender, women’s and sexuality studies, and to John Garrison, former English professor at Grinnell and Adhikari’s mentor for her research project that first summer, as impactful professors during her time at Grinnell.

Before heading off to Harvard, Adhikari said her plans this summer are simple. She intends to travel and renew her visa back home in Nepal. As for every introvert’s fear of the infamous law school cold call — “I’m sure I’ll figure it out.”

Senior Edition

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By Evelyn Wilber wilberev@grinnell.edu Ekta Shaikh `24 said that the first memory she has of Grinnell is of snow. Originally hailing from Karachi, Pakistan, she said, “It was a bit unreal because I was coming from Karachi, and the first thing I see is snow, just sheets of snow, like white, thick snow everywhere. And that’s how I remember Iowa.”

She came to Grinnell because she liked the liberal arts model, specifically its open curriculum.

year after that. I mean, the transition was still transitioning, because I was like, ‘Okay what year am I? What am I doing here? Like, what the fuck is happening?’” Shaikh said that her second semester, which featured in-person classes, was when she started to make friends and settle into campus life.

Shaikh is an anthropology and gender, women’s, and sexuality studies (GWSS) major. She said that she came in knowing she wanted to study anthropology, but after taking

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her favorite professors. She said, “[Kapila] always makes me think a little bit harder.”

Shaikh worked with Kapila as a research assistant in fall 2022, transcribing interviews and reviewing chapters for Kapila’s most recent book, Postmemory and the Partition of India: Learning to Remember. Of her own relationship to the work, Shaikh said, “Both my mom and my dad, our families migrated from India into Pakistan, so there is this kind of relationship to the self. I’ve always been interested in partition studies as a whole.”

She has also worked extensively with Caleb Elfenbein, professor of history and religious studies. Elfenbein is her advisor for her Studies in Africa, Middle East, and South Asia concentration. Shaikh said, “I met [him] in my first semester, and then I’ve worked with him ever since.”

Shaikh has been a Vivero Fellow since 2022, an experience she highly recommends.

Through this program, she does peer mentoring and worked on a project with Professor Elfenbein titled “Mapping Islamophobia.”

Additionally, Shaikh studied abroad in Serbia in the summer of 2022, where she said she studied “transitional justice, human

I was coming from Karachi, and the first thing I see is snow, just sheets of snow, like white, thick snow everywhere.

And that’s how I remember Iowa.

Ekta Shaikh `24

Shaikh, who took a semester off before attending college, came to campus in the spring 2021 semester, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, all her classes were online, and not every student was living on campus. She said that this affected her attitude towards college, which she had come into wanting to make friends and have a classic college experience. “I just got so used to studying in my room, working in my room, doing everything in my room,” she said.

However, things normalized during her second semester at the College, in fall 2022.

“I did go home that summer, and then I came back, and it honestly felt like a normal school

MARC DUEBENER

an introduction GWSS class she immediately knew it was right. “I was like, this is what I was meant to do my entire life,” she said.

One of Shaikh’s favorite classes at Grinnell was ENG 273: Transnational and Postcolonial Feminisms with Shuchi Kapila, professor of English, who she deems one of

rights and memory activism.” The experience was two months, she said, with one month of classes on the break of Yugoslavia and the next month of an internship with a legal nonprofit in Serbia working with undocumented migrants. “Mostly, I was working with Pakistani and Afghani migrants as a translator, and

then also I would go to the field to document illegal pushback,” she said.

Shaikh also worked with Brigittine French, professor of anthropology, for the past year to design a class titled ANT-295: Feminist Anthropology as a pedagogy partnership.

“What a great experience to have in terms of feeling agency in your education.” she said. “I could bring my gender studies and anthro major together in such an interdisciplinary and cumulative kind of way, and also be able to center topics that are of interest to me — so like transnationality, centering more readings from the Global South, for example.”

What a great experience to have in terms of feeling agency in your education.

Ekta Shaikh `24

Last summer, Shaikh was granted the Fischlowitz Travel Fellowship, which she used to travel to five different U.S. cities to visit museums with South Asian exhibitions and collections.

Shaikh will be graduating in just seven semesters after taking extra credits throughout most of her semesters at Grinnell. “Honestly, it didn’t feel painful at all because I just love to study,” she said. However, she also admitted that this penchant for schoolwork sometimes came at the cost of going out with her friends.

After graduation, Shaikh plans to return to Karachi to work with a nonprofit called Gender Interactive Alliance to work with the transgender community in the city for two months, made possible through a grant from Davis Projects for Peace. She cites Sara Ahmed’s book Living a Feminist Life as her inspiration for this work, saying “I’m wholly inspired about what she has to say about bringing feminist theory home, so this project is my attempt at that.” After that, she said her current plan is to get a job in the U.S. and eventually go to graduate school.

When asked what she’ll miss about Grinnell, she said, “I’ll miss the access that I have to people when I want to have a conversation.

I know if I like someone’s idea, I could just be like, ‘Hey, we should chat about this over coffee,’ or ‘Hey, tell me more.’”

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By Allison Moore mooreall2@grinnell.edu Feven Getachew `24 did not prepare for the Iowa cold. When she arrived at the Des Moines Airport from Ethiopia in January 2021, she said, “I thought, ‘Okay, I will just wear a hoodie and something underneath, and that will be good enough.’”

Luckily, she said John Edwards, director of international admission, brought her plenty of extra winter gear. “I had no idea the cold would be this cold,” said Getachew.

Before Grinnell, Getachew attended high school at United World College Costa Rica and spent her summers at home.

Edwards visited her school and put Getachew in contact with Leslie Gregg-Jolly, professor of biology. Interested in biomedical research, Getachew said she asked Gregg-Jolly “a silly, probably easy question” and she responded quickly.

“I thought, this is amazing. I would love to be somewhere my professors actually have time to answer me,” said Getachew.

Despite applying early decision to Grinnell, she decided to take a gap semester during the fall due to COVID restrictions. In 2021, the College permitted international students to remain on campus for the full spring semester, and Getachew jumped at the chance.

“It was cool to see the snow, but it was empty and kind of scary” on campus, said Getachew. During her first semester, Getachew worked in the Dining Hall and lived in Clark Hall where she met some of her closest friends. Together, they went sledding and built snowmen on MacEachron Field.

After graduating, Getachew said she will miss their “late night conversations, staying up making ramen at midnight just talking

about anything.”

At the end of her first year, Getachew said she worried about returning home for the summer due to the escalating civil war in Ethiopia. Learning this, Getachew’s FirstYear Tutorial professor, Dr. Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, department chair of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies, offered her a position as a research assistant.

That summer, Beauboeuf-Lafontant and Getachew conducted archival research on Edith Renfrow Smith, the first Black woman to graduate Grinnell College in 1937. They also organized the rededication of the Smith Gallery in the Joe Rosenfield `25 Campus Center.

“I was honestly disappointed that I didn’t know [about Smith]. I wished the school did more making sure that people know about her because it’s very inspiring,” said Getachew.

Throughout her research, Getachew said she kept wondering, “How could a place be home for you when it’s resisting against you?” Smith was the only Black student at Grinnell and it would be another 10 years after her graduation before any other Black students attended.

“Now there’s so many Black people, Black students here who work through that, and we have the support of each other.” After meeting with Smith, 107 at the time, Getachew said, “I think now I understand that she made Grinnell home because she worked towards it.”

Getachew now serves on the planning committee for the dedication of Renfrow Hall. She said she hopes she will be able to return to Grinnell for the ceremony next year.

Apart from research, Getachew is a sociology and biochemistry major, a member of Black Student Union and a former co-leader of the African Caribbean Student Union. This

year, she and Simon Taye `24 founded the Habesha Student Organization which she said is “a space for Ethiopians and Eritreans to just get together in community.”

“The name itself is a name that doesn’t have an ethnic attachment to it, so it makes it more inclusive,” said Getachew. She and Taye hoped to incorporate international and domestic Habesha students into the organization. “I kind of wish we had done it sooner, but we started something and I think that’s really awesome, and hopefully it will keep going.”

Getachew said she especially loves the International Student Organization’s Cultural Evening. “It’s one of my favorite times of the year, just seeing everyone dressed up, because we don’t get a chance to dress up all the time with our own cultural attire.” All in all, she

said, “I just like any avenues where I can talk about Ethiopia and my experiences because you learn so much from it.”

After graduation, Getachew plans to work for two years at Boston Children’s Hospital conducting immunology research regarding allergy and asthma development. She hopes to eventually attend graduate school but said, “I’m also hoping I can have that time to reflect and think more about what I want to do.”

The highlight of Getachew’s Grinnell experience might be yet to come, though. For the first time ever, her family will visit the College. “I’m trying to pack everything in, like every hour we’ll have something to do,” she said. Getachew said she calls her family nearly twice a day, “so I’m just very excited and very grateful.”

MARC DUEBENER

Senior Edition

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BRISA ZIELINA

By Nina Baker giannosa@grinnell.edu Michael Lozada `24, the son of two anthropology professors, grew up “literally” up the hill from Davidson College in Davidson, NC. As a child, he attended Davidson events and often heard his parents discuss anthropology. When Lozada applied to colleges and universities, he knew two things –– he did not want to go to Davidson, and he did not want to study anthropology.

“I was raised on it,” Lozada said about anthropology. “So I got enough.”

Lozada will graduate from Grinnell

College with a psychology and Chinese double major. In his four years, Lozada has performed for Grinnell Singers, Neverland Players, Infinite Confidence (IC) improv and in Sophia Schott’s `21 musical “I Dig You.” Lozada also works in the Marcus Family Global Kitchen as a Global Kitchen peer mentor, a job he describes as “a really sweet gig.”

Lozada said he began each year by participating in as many student activities as possible, and then departing activities when they cease sparking joy.

Lozada joined IC, the College’s longform improv group, on a whim in the begin-

ning of his second year. This year, Lozada is the president.

Lozada’s first IC show was one of his most memorable moments at the College.

Lozada, who said he was very nervous, was one of the first performers on stage in his first show.

“He was a farmer polishing a shotgun on his porch. And I was a werewolf that was stalking him from afar,” he said.

Lozada said he was invited to the Grinnell Discord channel for furries after performing as the werewolf.

“This was a great compliment, I think,” Lozada said. “Something that really speaks to my improv chops.”

This fall, Lozada joined the Grinnell Singers. He said John Rommereim, director of the Singers and professor of music, was searching for tenors. Lozada, who had been told he had a “vague-ish tenor range,” auditioned and received a spot.

Lozada also performed with the Neverland Players, a student group that adapts stories written by children in Grinnell into live shows for the public. This March, Lozada played the Kraken in a tale about a kraken chasing a documentary crew composed of pirates.

In March, Singers traveled to Chicago, Ill., Grand Rapids, Mich., Ann Arbor, Mich., Pittsburgh, Penn. and Washington, D.C. as part of an annual tour.

Apart from one IC trip to Chicago, Lozado said the Singers tour was the only time he traveled outside Iowa through a Grinnell program. Lozada described the trip as an amazing, life-changing experience.

“I’m only sad that I didn’t do it earlier, and that I can’t do it again,” he said.

Lozada said if hadn’t chosen psychology, he would have majored in philosophy.

Lozada said his third-year courses with Professor Julian Rios Acuña reignited his love of philosophy.

“When I took a class with Acuña, philosophy changed for me,” Lozada said. Before Lozada enrolled in Acuña’s courses, Lozada’s experience with philosophy involved logic and metaphysics. In Acuña’s classes, Lozada said he learned about colonialism and social structures in ways that he felt were practically useful.

“A lot of it spoke to really real experiences and how society is actually structured,” he said. “I would give that man a tenure-track position in a heartbeat.”

I’m always ready to stop and smell the flowers.

Michael Lozada `24

Looking forward towards graduation, he said he tries to avoid the stress-ridden mentality he has seen other students fall into when thinking over future plans. Lozada described his personality as a laidback “Type B” personality.

“I’m always ready to stop and smell the flowers,” he said.

After graduation, Lozada, who is Quaker, will move to Boston, Mass. where he will work with the Massachusetts Bail Fund to advocate for individuals on bail through a fellowship he received with Quaker Voluntary Service.

“It’ll be an opportunity to build on my faith,” he said. “I’ll live with other people that are also doing similar passionate social work in a really meaningful, intentional environment.”

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By Nora Kohnhorst kohnhors@grinnell.edu Krishna Mysore `24 was obsessed with film before he arrived at Grinnell College.

His obsession only intensified while at home in the Philadelphia suburbs during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When he began taking classes at Grinnell, however, there was no formal department or program for those who wanted to study film. Over the next four years, that changed significantly.

“My time here basically has been the emergence of the concentration, even though Nicky [Tavares] and professors have been putting in work for years,” he said. During his second year at the College, Grinnell faculty approved the creation of a film and media studies concentration.

After the concentration was formally created, Mysore was hired as its first student employee in 2022. As the film studies technical assistant, he organizes, manages and oversees checkouts and returns of film equipment, also providing support to department events like Wednesday night screenings of visiting filmmakers’ work.

As we spoke, Ethan Nelson, digital media equipment manager, ducked into the Bucksbaum classroom. “Thanks for your help today,” he said to Mysore. “You definitely saved the class production.”

After Mysore was hired, Nicky Tavares, assistant professor of studio art and department chair of film and media studies, soon approached him to revive the College’s film club after a COVID-induced hiatus. Along with Kate Guiney `23, Mysore worked to organize weekly screenings, collaborating with the film studies faculty to host film-

makers on campus. He remembers the 2023 visit of Violet du Feng, realized through a partnership with the Chinese, Japanese and East Asian studies Student Educational Policy Committee, as a particularly proud moment. “It was really cool to do that as a club, to bring a real filmmaker and have a Q & A afterwards,” he said.

As film studies and Film Club programming have increased, Mysore said he believes that the number of interested students has grown. “There’s a community to engage with now, as compared to three or four years ago,” he said. “Being involved with the rise of more film culture on campus has been very important to me, I do take pride in that I helped that.”

“I’m not much else,” Mysore laughed.

“Films are like my whole life. I guess I’m a math major. I love math.” Mysore’s decision to study abroad at the Prague Film School in the fall of 2023 helped clarify his interest in both film studies and mathematics.

“Study abroad at Grinnell is what made me realize I like film more than math, or I didn’t want to pursue math in a research way,” he said. Mysore had originally applied to a mathematics-focused program in Budapest, Hungary before realizing that he was more interested in the Prague Film School. “It was so much more built-up, the infrastructure and the support –– it’s very historic,” he said.

On the overlap between film studies and mathematics, Mysore said, “I really like avant-garde, experimental film, shorter film, like stuff you’d see in a gallery.”

He added, “In that realm, math has a ton of historical influence. A generation of experimental filmmakers studied math in school, and the concern with formal structures and

abstraction ties in there.”

He added that the processes of film analysis and pure mathematical analysis are not dissimilar. “I really like pure math,” he said. “Writing proofs, you get to come up with this argument that’s for certain, and in the humanities, obviously, you can’t know for certain, but it is about writing arguments.”

Mysore’s involvement in film and media studies has even influenced his personal life. Mysore met his girlfriend, Lucia Finkelstein `24, in an film course, GWS 395: Studies in Film Theory, and said that some of his best memories of his time at Grinnell have resulted from film-driven road trips. “Around spring every year, usually it just happens that it’s in spring, me and Lucia or a couple of friends drive to Minneapolis or Chicago to watch

some rare screening of a movie,” he said.

“There and back in one night, it’s always a fun time.”

Outside of film studies and mathematics, the men’s tennis team also served as an influence on Mysore’s Grinnell experience –– despite the fact that he is not a tennis player. “I was never on the tennis team,” he said. He explained, “In spring one, when the first years came to campus, I lived in the same dorm, Kershaw, as the men’s tennis team of my year, and I became friends with them.” This unexpected connection to the tennis team provided more of Mysore’s favorite memories, including frequent die-playing in his second year. “Die League can be a fun way to meet people and bond with them,” he said. “I think that my greatest takeaways have definitely been the people that I’ve met.”

BRISA ZIELINA

Senior Edition

By Natalie Ng ngnatali@grinnell.edu Kyung-mi “Katie” Paek `24 was surprised to hear she had been chosen for the 2024 Scarlet & Black Senior Issue.

“I don’t do anything … I just study,” she said. “And I’m always inside.”

Paek’s self-description, however, belies the list of writing, research and art she has contributed to the College community over her years at Grinnell. The English major is also a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellow, writing mentor, Sequence media head and multiple-time winner of awards in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and critical essay-writing.

Paek was born in Seoul, South Korea and moved to San Diego, Cal. in third grade. She

said her identities of being ethnically Korean and also Asian-American have been what she tries to “hang on” to in her pursuits, both within and beyond the classroom. In her second year, she was an Asian-American Association cabinet member, and last year, she published a zine with the Grinnell Press called “This Clover Is My Clover, This Air My Air,” a collection of poetry, prose and comics that dealt with themes of diasporic identity and what home and belonging meant.

“I didn’t anticipate I would do this when I first came to Grinnell,” said Paek. “I was interested in writing, but I don’t think I really felt confident in myself as a writer creatively.”

Paek described her high school as very focused on the sciences and her younger self as “quiet” and “inactive.” She said a comment from a teacher about her accent gave her a fear of participating in classes for many years. According to her, she decided to attend Grinnell because she wanted to be pushed in terms of engaging in scholarly conversation.

Paek said the small, discussion-based classes forced her to find confidence in her voice and engage with her identity in the written form. “Anytime I bring up how I was in high school, professors and friends would say they’d never have guessed and that it was hard to imagine it.”

Paek said she had been initially interested in teaching. She has worked as a writing mentor for three years and is certified for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). She ended up earning the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship in 2022, a program that aims to increase miEVAN HEIN nority representation in

research, where she said she had the opportunity to engage with her identity through her own interests — food, class and the ocean.

“Food is the primary way I connect with my culture,” she explained. “It’s a huge way my mom expressed her affection for us.”

“I’m from San Diego. It’s pretty self-explanatory that there is comfort with water,” she added. “But … there is also a stark class divide, like who gets to access the ocean. And it’s also a place where we had to reckon with our sense of belonging as diaspora — people speaking in English all around us and eating hot dogs, as we’re having Korean barbecue.”

For her Mellon Mays project, Paek went on to complete an investigation on food and labor as portrayed by Jane Austen’s writing, and produced a lyric essay that juxtaposed Austen’s writing with her own interpretations of the two themes. Although her career interests have since diverged from professorship, she said she valued the sustained community of peers and mentors for their support.

Now, Paek is looking at publishing jobs, particularly in educational publishing. It is a profession she is not unfamiliar with, having worked at the Sequence Magazine for three years, first as a contributor, and then as media head.

“My coworker said [Sequence] was like my baby,” she laughed, adding that it had been a very rewarding experience to work with artists and curate their works in a way that could best show off their talents.

“Sequence has been a really warm way for me to engage with the Grinnell community, especially because I feel like our class year has been particularly affected by COVID,” she said. “It’s been really nice to look back

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on previous editions. It’s a fascinating way to have access to institutional memory and to be a part of it as I graduate.”

For Paek, print has power. “I can just post my pieces on Instagram, but that’s different from seeing it as part of a whole,” she said.

“These submissions work in conjunction with each other ­— print provides that kind of collaboration.”

Outside the literary arts, Paek studied off campus with Grinnell-in-London where she learned more about the city’s rich history of labor unions and engaged critically with concepts of ethnic nationalism relevant to her Korean identity.

Paek also lived in Food House for three semesters, where she fully embraced the sense of community she found in her cooking and eating with fellow students whom she called her “found family.”

“I’ll miss the intensity, the desire to learn and the relationships I’ve created here,” said Paek, adding that something unique about Grinnell had been how easy it was to form relationships — not just with students, but also with professors and advising staff who “clearly cared.”

Now, Paek draws light-hearted comics on her iPad, looks to comic artist Sam Nakahira `19 and food and culture writer Soleil Ho `09 for inspiration and is simply “trying to finish the rest of my time in Grinnell in a way that feels right.”

“I stayed in town the summer before my third year and have a fondness for it — the water tower, the Strand, the wildflowers at Uhlenhopp Arboretum,” said Paek.

“I’ll miss the night sky and clear stars.

I’ll be nostalgic when I leave.”

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Senior Edition

LEVI MAGILL

By Claire Giannosa giannosa@grinnell.edu Evelyn Dziekan `24, a biological chemistry major, spends most of her time at Grinnell in the lab or, as she call its, “her home place.”

When she’s not researching protein mutants or understanding the gut microbiome of preterm infants, she said she works for the Mayflower, drives to Highway 6 to watch the sunset and supports her international friends by performing in the International Student Organization’s cultural night.

For the past three semesters, Dziekan said she has been working on a Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) with Professor Elaine Marzluff, biochemistry. Originally starting as an independent project in her third year, Dziekan said her project focuses on the protein MTHFR to trace mutants in the amino acid sequence.

“It’s kind of bittersweet, though. Because I’ve been working on the project for so long.

I just really love spending my time in the lab because it’s kind of my home place,” she said.

“But in the end, I feel like I’ve really complet-

ed a project.”

This past spring break, she presented her research at the American Chemical Society conference in New Orleans.

“What I really appreciate about Grinnell is that professors really do care, and they really want to make sure you’re learning and able to succeed as much as you can. So when they push you to conferences like this, I feel like it just makes me a lot more confident in myself,” she said.

Dziekan also said she thought presenting her own work on “mass spec” — or mass spectrometry, a tool that can help measure ions — was really cool. “I think the mass spec is like the coolest machine.”

In addition to her MAP research, Dziekan said she spent two summers interning at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

In 2022, she worked in the immunology department, researching novel ways to prevent preterm birth.

The next summer, she sequenced infant and preterm infants’ poop in order to understand their gut microbiome and to determine

if the immune component, IGA, was found in their samples.

“From that first summer experience, I knew how to work in a lab, but honestly, I would find myself being really happy to always talk about it and keep going to the lab,” she said. “There were so many experiments that failed that summer, and I just felt like I was never unmotivated.”

These experiences, she said, “solidified that I want to go into research.”

Dziekan has also served as a SCL, or Science Community Leader, a mentor who attends class and hosts homework sessions, for some biology and chemistry classes.

“I love it because something I really want to do in my future is stay within academia,” she said.

In the future, she said she hopes to be a professor at a large university so that she can combine her passion for research and teaching. As a mentor, “being able to help students especially when they are struggling and then you say something and that light bulb goes off like, ‘Oh, I finally got it,’ — that’s my favorite moment at skill sessions and something I really like doing.”

After graduation, Dziekan will be attending The Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in its immunology department.

“The immune system is absolutely fascinating. You’re telling me you’re born with everything you need from the beginning of your life, and then it helps you survive? It’s really cool,” she said.

In addition to her classes, Dziekan said she

has loved taking classes with Professor Maria Tapias, anthropology, as well as her current class, HIS 295: Historical Landscapes of Grinnell, with Professor Albert Lacson, history, and Professor Cori Jakubiak, education. The class discusses how the town of Grinnell has changed over time.

Dziekan also started volunteering at the Mayflower Community, a retirement home in the town of Grinnell, in the spring of her second year.

Now, she works with the community to host volunteer events that students can join.

This April, she said she hosted events such as rock painting, “which was a blast.”

“I love working there. It brings me so much joy,” she said. “It’s been one of the most rewarding jobs at Grinnell.”

Back home in Chicago, Dziekan works at a nursing home, so she said the Mayflower was a familiar community.

Her parents immigrated from Poland, and she said she is the first in her family to engage in the sciences and attend college.

She remembers visiting Grinnell for the first time with her dad, and the two of them ended up loving the school.

Applying early decision for Grinnell “was probably the best decision I’ve ever made,” she said.

Looking back on her four years, Dziekan said, “I think coming to a liberal arts school has given me a lot more perspectives than I used to have, and meeting a lot of people that think very differently than me has also really shaped who I am today, and [is] something I’ll forever be grateful for.”

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BRISA ZIELINA

By Addie Persian persiana@grinnell.edu If you are looking for Juli Vajda `24 on campus, you will likely find her setting volleyballs in the Darby Gymnasium or watching the flowers bloom while she studies in the Burling Library. She finds comfort in these places and the people within them. Vajda has also expanded her network with off-campus work and research in the Grinnell community and abroad.

Through athletics, academics and community outreach, place has played a central role in Vajda’s experience at Grinnell.

Hailing from Boca Raton, Flor., volleyball was the reason Vajda pursued an education 1,500 miles away from her hometown.

She found out about Grinnell through her club coach and traveled to tour the College before she was an official student.

“I had lunch with the volleyball team, and it was awesome. I felt really comfortable,” Va-

jda said.

She also watched a Grinnell volleyball game, during which she appreciated the trust that the coaches displayed in the players.

Despite her anticipation to join the team, Vajda’s first-year volleyball season was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic. She was also sidelined from an in-person academic experience, instead learning from virtual professors even while she lived on campus.

Bored by virtual learning, Vajda decided to apply for the Grinnell-in-London program “as an opportunity to get out” of Iowa. She was accepted into the program as a second year. Vajda took classes on the politics of border-making and multiculturalism while also doing ethnographic research. Aside from academics, Vajda learned how to cook for herself. She described this as a “pivotal experience.”

“I haven’t stepped away from food since,” Vajda added.

During a summer trip to Peru, she inde-

pendently researched the intersection between food and ancient Incan identity. Her interest in food and culture solidified her decision to major in anthropology. She initially intended to major in psychology but realized that the discipline “was completely removed of the cultural aspect” that she enjoyed studying within anthropology courses.

Returning to Grinnell for her third year, Vajda was voted one of the captains of the volleyball team. As a captain, she aspired to be someone that she and others could look up to.

“Volleyball has made me tap into my leadership potential,” Vajda said.

She also tapped into her leadership potential through her work in the community.

Vajda coached a traveling club volleyball team of middle and high schoolers within the community. She took online classes to become a certified substitute teacher. At the same time, Vajda taught Sunday school at Grinnell United Church of Christ.

“I learned so much from them,” Vajda said of her Sunday school students. “They made me laugh so much.”

She has enjoyed being seen as a community member, saying that she appreciates when people recognize her as “their daughter’s volleyball coach or their son’s Sunday school teacher” rather than just a college student.

Her work with children in the community prompted her to pursue a concentration in education. She was also a research assistant to Paul Hutchinson, professor of education.

“It was cool to see how the writing process works on a high level and that he trusted me with his data,” Vajda said.

She became most involved in the Grinnell

community through her work with the Grinnell Farm to Table and Local Foods Connection nonprofit. Vajda learned of Tommy Hexter `21 and his nonprofit through his parents, whom she attended a Bible study with.

“We offer an online farmer’s market which is making a sustainable economy with local foods. We also bring surplus food to local food insecure families,” Vajda said.

She explained that the non-profit’s operations got her to “see a different side of Grinnell.” She initially thought that she would use her anthropological education to spark change across the globe, but soon realized that “the issues were literally right here, I just had to cross Sixth Avenue.”

Currently, Vajda is focused on finishing her senior thesis. She said she would consider this to be her biggest success at Grinnell once she completes it. Vajda explained that she is studying “the production of locality in the Global Kitchen and subsequent global living room.”

Vajda plans to work as an administratorfor a summer camp in Colorado and then start full-time work as a science teacher at the Pali Institute, an outdoor education program in California.

“I had this urge, I think my soul needed to be in the mountains,” Vajda said.

She sees this position and her anthropology major as similar since they both foster communication and connectivity between her and others.

In the next five years, she hopes to be “as self-sufficient as possible” and plans to grow her own food. She aspires to go to graduate school for anthropology once her “soul is fed.”

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By Henry Horn hornhenr@grinnell.edu Nathan Hoffman `24 might be graduating in the spring like many others, but he possesses a memory that is shared by few in his year. He remembers what it was like to walk through Grinnell’s campus before the COVID-19 pandemic shut Grinnell College down. He took a gap year and returned to his family home in Cedar Falls, roughly an hour and a half drive away, visiting the school occasionally when it reopened in the spring of 2021.

Hoffman said he had some early connections with Grinnell Duels and Games (DAG), a live action role-playing club, and later with his housemates in GAME House.

His main community, though, is the Stew Makerspace, a workshop run by the College’s Wilson Center and the Grinnell Area Arts Council.When he returned in the fall of 2021, Hoffman firmly established himself as a recognizable face in the Makerspace.

Hoffman had worked there before the pandemic, and once he returned, he seemed to never leave.

“If I’m not [at the Makerspace], and I’m not doing something that’s academic, I’m probably thinking about the place,” he said.

I asked Hoffman what part of campus embodies his time at Grinnell best. “The first place that comes to mind for me is the Makerspace,” he wrote in an email. Hoffman showed his love for the shop when he gave S&B photographer Evan Hein and me a tour. He first showed us the ceramics studio, which he seemed to know everything about, despite advertising it as the section that he knows the least about. After telling us about the two kilns, named Thelma and

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Louise, he took us into the computer numerical control (CNC) router room. “The current configuration of the CNC room was something that I redesigned,” Hoffman said.

When he’s not working on projects, Hoffman is organizing the Makerspace.

“Some of my favorite things that I’ve done in the Makerspace have been improving the space,” he said.

As he stood in the CNC room that he had improved, Hoffman told us about the machines in front of him. On one side of the room is a router, which will cut whatever the user designs. This machine, however, is not Hoffman’s biggest pride. There is a bigger router, he said, that he calls his “baby.”

It wasn’t upstairs when we toured because it is too big, so we were unable to see it, but his parent-like love for the machine was clear nonetheless.

On the other side of the room is a laser engraver. On the wall next to it is a list of instructions, which actually has more dos than don’ts. One such instruction tells the prospective user that they can indeed engrave full bottles of wine and liquor. Hoffman told us that the machine can cut stone, glass, leather, acrylic and of course wood.

After Hein told both of us about a project he himself had worked on where he cut wooden movie tickets for a date of his — she agreed to go — Hoffman took us both into the wood shop. “This is probably the space that I spend the most time in,” he said.

To wrap up our tour, Hoffman showed us the new dust collection system — another project of his. Hoffman also told us about a lamp he had made, where the bulb was housed in a self-made miniature TARDIS, the iconic phone booth from “Doctor Who,” which airport security were slightly baffled

EVAN HEIN

by.

As Hoffman said, his time in Grinnell is mostly split into two categories — academics and the Makerspace. The former, however, is very important to him. Hoffman is a political science major with a concentration in policy studies. He told us about his infatuation with professor Peter Hanson’s course POL 195: Political Polling: Analyzing the Grinnell College National Poll. “I actually

haven’t had a final project for a class go down as easy as that just because it was so enjoyable. I got done like, ‘I’m disappointed that we finished.’”

Still, the Makerspace, which he called “a home away from my dorm room or GAME House,” is his main focus. “I probably wouldn’t like to know how many hours I’ve actually spent in the Makerspace because it’s probably way too many,” he said.

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GABRIELA ROŻNAWSKA

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Nick El Hajj

Editor in Chief

I didn’t join The S&B out of a deep-seated passion for journalism –– it was more of a whim, a break from the monotony of typical campus jobs. Up until then, I hadn’t written even one article for the press.

I was a biology major on track to become a doctor, or perhaps a veterinarian, though I was never really enthusiastic about that path either.

Becoming a journalist was the last thing I could’ve imagined.

After all, I was a Lebanese international student who had learned most of his English watching countless hours of Animal Planet.

My writing experience was limited to crafting speeches for Model U.N. conferences and editing college admission essays for inspiring Lebanese and Palestinian students at Education USA. My life has changed since being assigned my first article on Afghan refugees in Iowa by now S&B sports editor Mo Igbaria `24 –– I am now a full-time journalist.

My work here at The S&B has propelled me to further life-changing stints at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Associated Press.

I dropped biology, and am now a political science and economics double major.

I served as a staff writer and news editor until my potential was recognized by former Co-Editors-in-Chief Allison Moore `24 and Nadia Langley `23, who gave me the opportunity to fill their roles this year alongside Eleanor Corbin `24.

20 issues of the newspaper, over a hundred articles, a sprinkle of crisis and budget meetings, an Iowa College Newspaper of the Year award and 7 a.m. paper distribution runs with the milkmen and FedEx drivers –– it’s been an incredibly wild ride building upon the work of 130 years of S&B staffers who came before us.

As I bid adieu to the place where I’ve done so much of my college growth, I do so with a heart swelling with pride and gratitude for

Eleanor Corbin

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everyone who supported me throughout this journey.

I wish the incoming team the best of success. May your stories be bold, your deadlines met and your coffee cups never empty. May you write with audacity, dream with vigor and

guide our dear S&B to new heights — perhaps with a little less gray in your hair than I managed.

Embrace this magical chaos for it has been, and will always be, one of the best experiences of my life.

Editor in Chief

Every Monday morning for the past year, I have had the chance to see Grinnell in a new light. As I walk my paper route, hands stained with ink from the editions I carry, I get to see the campus as it slowly opens its eyes and comes awake.

Every Thursday night for the past two and a half years, I have had the chance to see Grinnell as it drifts to sleep. The task of laying out the weekly paper is one that takes The S&B editing team into the late hours of the night and occasionally into the early morning. By the time co-Editor in Chief Nick El Hajj `24 and I have sent our pages to the printer and begun our walk from the Joe Rosenfield Center (JRC) to our homes on High Street, the campus has mostly turned off its lights and closed its doors.

It’s in these moments that The S&B has provided for me that I appreciate not only the many facets of Grinnell, but the immense amount of work that goes into producing each and every paper.

I’m not sure I knew it when I first came to work at The S&B as a second year, but the three years I would come to spend as a student journalist would expose me to the nooks and crannies of Grinnell.

From the Iowa Caucuses to college COVID protocols to new restaurants in town, every story has given me insight into an entirely new issue or community.

I have also gotten the opportunity to get to know the wonderful team that makes up The S&B staff.

In addition to being the most talented group of writers, photographers,

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graphic designers and editors that I have ever met, many of them have been my closest friends at Grinnell through our years together at the paper.

Taking on the position of editor in chief as a fourth year has been a learning experience through and through, and one that I know will shape my life and career going

forward. I hope that wherever journalism takes me throughout my life, it helps me engage with the world around me in the way that The S&B has.

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Marcy Cassidy-Mapp Features Editor

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Even though the Dining Hall seems to be most people’s first choice for work, I initially gravitated towards The Scarlet & Black because of the people. Something was to be said about how much I saw The S&B journalists … enjoyed their work

despite the frustration, the hours and the will to live it seemed to drain out of people.

So, I chose The S&B a little impulsively and a little curiously, and I’ll admit upfront that I really regretted it at first. I’m

unironically shyer than a snail, so tackling a Cribz home tour on my first assignment was beyond anxiety-inducing. To avoid burying the lede, I’ll admit that between covering that first Cribz, hanging out at karaoke and investigating campus crows, I’ve still managed to outlast my own expectations.

It took a long time to become comfortable interviewing people. It took even longer to learn to write good stories and even longer than that to feel incredibly confident doing either. I wasn’t always the perfect writer, perfect editor or the perfect journalist at any point in my time at Grinnell, and I think that when people talk about finding community, that’s something they overlook. It’s kind of impossible to be perfect as a student, but I always had someone in the newsroom to stay late with me, reread my features page an extra time or even hype up my ideas.

I don’t mean to sound cringy or sentimental, but I’ll shout out Sarah Evans `26, my beloved layout neighbor and devoted extra set of eyes. Shout-out to Sam Bates `24 for a lot of much-needed “water breaks” with me and for being such a vital part of the team along the way. Shout-out to all of the editors who have made me feel like a part of a bit of a mini-family and to all the writers who have lent your voices to the paper like absolute legends. It’s going to be hard to find bosses as encouraging as Nick El Hajj `24 and Eleanor Corbin `24 to take a chance on someone like me, who admittedly always felt underqualified for the editor position.

Even though I’ve changed a lot working for the paper — no, seriously, my first four stories are under a different name — I hope I can at least stay as someone who cherishes The S&B as the curious experience it was.

Sam Bates

Copy Editor

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After two long years sitting in the proverbial copy-editor-cockpit, I can’t find the right words to describe my time and how I feel looking back.

After all, how could my experience,

with all of its joys and struggles, be summed up in a neat, few-hundredword article? But I think that’s the beauty of journalism, and is what brought me back every semester to

fill out an application.

Journalism is difficult, and granted, I have had headaches and late nights much of my time while working for the paper, but I am proud

to have worked for The S&B. Reading every article since the start of my time, I have seen firsthand the dedication and care put into the paper by every level of worker, from writer to editor. Despite constant setbacks — the loss of and return of The S&B website, budget setbacks and decreased staff, interpersonal conflicts — the paper persists. The growth I have seen in the staff is amazing, and I am legitimately in awe of how far we have come in such a short time.

Honestly, being a copy editor can be thankless. Regardless, I am so grateful for the time I have had, and even more so that I have been able to leave something behind, a part of myself that will always be with the paper. I’ve gotten to heavily update and organize our style guide, partic-

ipate in and help cover the caucus elections and pitch and publish articles including a film review column.

I have searched every name, every group, every location. Every story, every achievement or tragedy, I have been there to read and edit, and I will never be able to express the privilege it has been to learn about and support this community.

With graduation so close, I really don’t have much more time with Grinnell, let alone The S&B, but I take all of my mistakes and successes with me. No matter where I go, no matter what I do, I know that my time working for a small, liberal arts college newspaper in middle-of-nowhere Iowa will stay with me. So without further ado, thank you very OWEN BARBATO much Grinnell, and goodbye for now.

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Nina Baker Staff Writer

I am not a skilled enough writer to express how The Scarlet & Black impacted my livelihood without resorting to platitudes.

I worked at The S&B because I cherished our staff and the mission of our newspaper.

Even the most monumental S&B members are forgotten as this campus grows and changes. I want to highlight three alumni who impacted my work as I witnessed them devote themselves to our newspaper.

I learned my first journalistic skills from Eva Hill `22, a 2021-22 co-editor-in-chief and 2020-21 news editor. She exemplified the thoughtfulness behind every ethical decision a newspaper makes. She showed me how to think like a journalist. I recall hoping I would someday have the care to manage editorial challenges as she did.

I realized from her that journalism appeals to me because it is a methodological attempt to decode ambiguity and determine the truth. Reporters use rigorous interviews and

systemic fact checks to explain the world that many people, including myself, sometimes find indecipherable.

I am indebted to 2020-21 S&B co-editors-in-chief Zoe Fructer `21 and Seth Taylor `21. They hired me as a copy editor with no experience amid a pool of competitive applicants. It was the first time in years, they told me, that a first year was hired to an editorial position.

That fall, I worked remotely from California. Every week I joined Zoom calls, listening as they reminisced about a campus I had never seen. They kept me smiling, even as I watched my family break apart from pandemic turmoil. I am forever grateful for their leadership and kindness.

In one of these Zoom calls, I first met Lyle Muller, The S&B’s professional advisor.

He mentored me when I thought mentorship was impossible. I will never be able to express my gratitude towards him.

Krista Spies

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I left The S&B briefly to report for The Des Moines Register. It was the first time, but not the last, that I was responsible for reporting on the death of a child, and nothing will

ever wipe that feeling from my memory.

I learned journalism is a profession awash in fallibility, but that journalists constantly push themselves to be better.

Arts Editor

I’m a first-generation, low-income student, and when I came to Grinnell, I assumed the only job I could have here would be a position in the Dining Hall — which, to be fair, I loved. However, my passion lies more in arts writing and editing than washing pots and pans. Because of my assumptions, I found my opportunity at The S&B a little late in my time at Grinnell, in my third year. Once I applied and began as staff writer, I fell in love with covering campus culture.

In my time writing articles, I’m proud to say I’ve contributed to each section except sports — sorry, Mo! Within those contributions, though, I’ve stuck with arts-centered coverage because, at the heart of it, that is what I want to do. I feel lucky to have figured that out, and

The S&B was more than a big part of that.

This past semester was my first as editor of the arts section, and it has grown to be something challenging and exciting to me. Ultimately, editing has taught me more about the importance of community coverage. In researching what to pitch, I reached out to more professors, students and staff members than I had ever talked to before.

Seeing those same people reading articles about them made me think about that importance.

My favorite part of working at the paper has been collaborating with other people on the staff — writers, editors and the visuals team. This job is an essential one to the community and has some of the roughest deadlines that I’ve dealt

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with. However, my fellow students not only work hard in preparation and during our meetings, they also really make me smile, and laugh

and learn.

I can honestly say that I will miss this job. In my bio on The S&B website, I always joke that I

want to turn going to concerts into a career, and I’ve been able to do that here alongside some wonderful people.

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Mohammad Igbaria Sports Editor

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When I first joined The S&B three years ago, I didn’t know what I was getting into.

To say joining the paper as one of the news

editors was a shock would be an understatement. But that shock wore off, and as I acclimated to my new role, I found a community

that would shape the remainder of my time at Grinnell.

I still remember my first article. I was covering the mental health resources available through Student Health and Wellness (SHAW) and the issues some students had with their accessibility. I remember how anxious I felt going into each interview, how unsteady I felt writing it and the pride I felt when it was published and later awarded by the Iowa College Media Association.

I found a sense of confidence within the words I had written, but that confidence was not found alone. Each word I had laid was checked, revised and read repeatedly by the other editors and our professional advisor, Lyle Muller. It was their help and guidance that laid the foundation for the journalist I would become.

It was also that sense of collaboration, of helping each other improve relentlessly,

that I will most take with me as I end my career as a journalist. When looking at the younger S&B staff members and editors that will take on that mantle, I see that same sense of community lives on.

I spent the last year working directly with those younger writers, editors and photographers. I’ve seen them learn and grow into talented journalists who I am confident will lead The S&B to new heights. Looking back, I hope I was as helpful and encouraging to them as the seniors were to me when I first joined the paper.

As I leave The S&B and journalism altogether — at least for now — I will look back incredibly fondly on my time here. The pride I felt when I published my first article has been replaced with the pride of seeing our underclassmen develop into skilled and thoughtful journalists. It is a sense of pride I will not soon forget.

Sadie Staker Video Editor

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Working for The Scarlet & Black had been a long-standing goal of mine since second year as I loved storytelling and was eager

to explore the field of journalism.

However, due to my tendency to overcommit myself to schoolwork and extracurriculars, I never felt I

had the time to take on a new job.

Eventually, I accumulated enough academic credits to take only three classes per semester during my

fourth year. Finally, the chance to work for The S&B had arrived! So I applied for the job and was accepted as video editor in my final semester.

During my time as video editor, I attended events, participated in activities, visited spaces and met people on campus and in the community which I would not have encountered otherwise. I learned essential journalism skills, such as how to badger people with emails, edit quickly and conduct interviews. I was hit by nerf bullets, ran alongside the cross country team, explored the Makerspace, learned about food systems in Grinnell and befriended the famous Dining Hall “Cheery Checkers.” All in all, I had fun.

While working for the newspa-

per was fun, it was also challenging. I was continually impressed by the talent and dedication of The S&B staff who managed the near-impossible task of turning out an entire newspaper every week while balancing their schoolwork and other obligations. The creation of the weekly paper is made possible through great leadership, effective workflows and good organization, but mostly through the passion that each person brought to their job. Everyone was inviting, kind, helpful and forgiving towards me as I learned how to do my job and integrated myself into the team. Their good-natured humor created a wonderful work environment, and I’m glad to have been part of a great team and a great newspaper. OWEN BARBATO

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Allison Moore Staff Writer

When I submitted my first S&B staff writer application in the summer of 2021, I was sobbing. I had convinced myself that no one in their right mind would think me capable of writing a coherent article, let alone permit me to publish one.

But it had been my dream ever since I first learned to type on my dad’s clunky old iMac to become a published author. So, I called him up and he urged me to suck it up and hit “submit.” Three years, hundreds of interviews and over fifty articles later, I couldn’t be more grateful for that phone call.

My high school had no robust journalism program, and I’d never interviewed someone in an official capacity. At The S&B, I simply learned how to do the job by doing it.

I still remember sweating before my first interview for a low-stakes arts article, scared that my list of twenty prepared questions wouldn’t be enough. Slowly, and with the guidance of so many other talented student journalists, I found my footing and eagerly snatched any opportunity for an extra story.

After spending months on an article that

resulted in a fellow student throwing our stacks of newspapers in the rain, I learned quickly that journalism can be a thankless industry. However, realizing that not everyone will always respond well to your work served me greatly in the next couple years as I dealt with more criticism and grew in confidence — both in my reporting and personally.

Navigating these more challenging stories gave me the courage to apply for opinions editor in my second semester and then serve as co-editor-in-chief during my junior year. Returning as a writer this year was one of the wisest decisions I’ve made, as I feel better equipped to start my post-grad reporting job at the Storm Lake Times-Pilot.

During our final all-staff meeting for the year, the seniors went around the room delivering final reflections about their experience at the paper. I politely declined to answer because as soon as it came my turn, my eyes had welled with tears and a lump in my throat prevented me from speaking a full sentence.

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Generally, I think I express myself better in writing than dialogue. So, to anyone I’ve worked with at The S&B in the past three years, I’d like to say this –– I don’t know who I would be without this newspaper.

Thank you to Abraham Teuber `22 and Eva Hill `22 who gave me my first big-girl

job and answered my hundreds of questions.

Thank you to Nadia Langley `23, my partner-in-crime and without whom I’d be half the journalist I am today. And thank you to anyone I’ve worked with or interviewed over the last three years. You’ve changed me more than you know.

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The Scarlet & Black Staff Spring 2024 Editors-in-Chief News Editors Community Editor Features Editor Arts Editor Sports Editor Opinions Editor Copy Editors Visual Editor Video Editor Graphic Designers Honorary Editor

Eleanor Corbin Nick El Hajj Scarlett Saldaña Zach Spindler-Krage Taylor Nunley Marcy Cassidy-Mapp Krista Spies Mohammad Igbaria Sarah Evans Alice Parker Samuel Bates Khanh Do Sadie Staker ET Ourn Gabriela Rożnawska Henry Loomis Next year’s print edition (hopefully)

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GABRIELA ROŻNAWSKA

Scarlet & Black The Senior Issue the

Volume 140, Senior Issue

May 6, 2024 • Grinnell, Iowa

thesandb.com

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From top left: Arts Editor Krista Spies, Features Editor Marcy Cassidy-Mapp, Copy Editor Sam Bates, Sports Editor Mohammad Igbaria, Staff Writer Allison Moore Bottom, from left: Staff Writer Nina Baker, Editor in Chief Nick El Hajj, Editor in Chief Eleanor Corbin, Video Editor Sadie Staker

Class of 2024