Pursuing Your Passions

A woman of many titles, Callie Wachendorf, ‘12, seems to do it all. She currently works as a health care IT professional, but that wasn’t what she originally had planned for herself.

“I actually went to my undergrad for fashion. My degree is in apparel and textiles retail merchandising,” Wachendorf said.

She started at the Buckle, intending to work her way up to being a purchaser for the company. But when she had her son, Cooper, Wachendorf decided that working nights and weekends would not work for her anymore. She started working at St. Alexius Medical Center in Bismarck as an office coordinator. “That’s when I realized I am a very goal-oriented, project-driven person,” she said.

“And then one day, I was thinking of the life I wanted to give my son, and I was not content with where we were. I wanted to grow; I wanted to have more for him, do more for him. And I wanted to show him how hard work can pay off, so I applied to the University of Mary for my MBA and switched positions within the medical center to do recovery audit, contracting for Medicare and Medicaid claims,” she said.

“When I got accepted to grad school at Mary, it was a pivotal moment in my life. It changed who I was as a person and told me that I was good enough to go after my dreams, and I didn’t have to settle for the status quo,” Wachendorf continued. “When the days were long and the hours were short on a project, my professors were understanding, and they worked with me, and they encouraged me to get through it. The education I obtained opened my eyes to what I wanted to do.”

After completing her Master of Business Administration in Management, she joined the hospital’s IT department as a business analyst. Since then, Wachendorf has held various IT positions leading up to her current position as a health care IT consultant with Briljent.

Although Wachendorf missed fashion, she was content. “Life just took me in a different direction. I didn’t feel like I was missing out on my dreams or anything like that; it felt like I was making a new dream. But I still always had a creative itch in me,” she said.

Wachendorf wanted a creative outlet, so she bought a machine to make her own shirts, and soon people started asking where they could buy them. She started ND T-Shirt Co. in 2017 and makes soft t-shirts with fun and snarky sayings. In 2019, she began ROAM Wear 701 with a friend, a Midwest brand of clothing.

“Our tagline is ‘we are all born to roam’ because the Midwest is a beautiful place, and it’s where a lot of us call home, and we’re proud of it,” Wachendorf said. The shirts embrace Midwest culture, with sayings like ‘You Betcha’ and ‘Uffda.’ Wachendorf runs both of the businesses from her garage and home office.

Now Wachendorf gets to do both, working as an IT consultant during the day and working on her apparel businesses at night. On top of that, she juggles being a mom and finds time to run a nonprofit, ND Giving Co., which puts on an annual toy drive and sends birthday and Christmas packages to families of fallen soldiers.

“At first, it was just for children of a deployed unit, but I learned that there is a real niche for children of fallen soldiers here in North Dakota. For the last six years, we have done Christmas and birthday gifts for these kids to let them know we understand their pain and that we want to stand with them, and we want to thank them for their family’s service and sacrifice,” she said.

Wachendorf says that while it may seem like her day job and her other passions are very different, to her, it all comes down to finding creative solutions to a problem. Balancing it all keeps her busy, but she says she would not change a thing.

“It’s a constant prioritization. One of my biggest concerns is making sure that my son never feels like we’re putting work or anything over him, so we make sure that we have family dinners and spend time together. But it’s not always easy, especially around the holidays when the toy drive is happening, and that’s when we do a pop-up shop for the t-shirts, and at work, I’m trying to hit deadlines,” she said. “But you find a way, and people rally around to help. Sometimes my parents pick up Cooper from school, or my friends help out at the pop-up shop so that I can catch a nap and refresh. It makes a huge difference.

“My best advice is to surround yourself with people who encourage you, lift you up, and will help you grow. That’s the ticket to success – who you have around you.”

Some of the ROAM Wear 701 apparel Callie and her husband print in their garage.