Hi everyone! My name is Evan, and I came to Grinnell looking for community and a broader horizon. Having grown up in a rural area, I originally wanted to go to a city, but there was something special about the Grinnell community that I just couldn't ignore. Several months later, I packed up my parents' car and headed north to the prairie in the fall of 2017.
Now that my time at Grinnell is almost up, I can't help but think about how much I will miss the student body and the freeing atmosphere of the prairie.
From Micro to Macro
When I first started out at Grinnell, I planned to major in biology, with a focus on public health. I worked through my first three semesters in the lab, getting hands on experience and presenting my research, but something didn't feel right.
In the fall of my second year, I took an introductory course in Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies, and it wasn't long before I realized that this was where I wanted to be. If not for the individually-advised curriculum and lack of general education courses, this switch would have been quite the headache. It would have been worth it regardless, but I'm still glad it wasn't!
So, I hung up my lab coat for the Humanities, and dove into work like the LGBT Oral Histories of Central Iowa (LOHCI) Project , an oral history initiative with the GWSS and History program aimed at documenting the lives of LGBTQ-identified folks in Central Iowa. Performing these quite personal, one- to two -hour interviews was no easy task and required a lot of training, but the stories I heard from community members will stick with me for a lifetime.
Summer in My (First) City
The summer after my second year, I received funding from the Center for Careers, Life, and Services (CLS) to complete an unpaid internship at the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, WA. There, I assisted with marketing and programming for the annual Local Sightings Film Festival, and also lived in a city for the first time in my rural life!
The Birds, the Bees, and... Me!
Starting my first month of college, I began work as a peer educator for the Sexual Health Information Center (SHIC). This is the only thing I have done consistently all four years, and having this passionate community of educators (and an engaged student body) has shaped my Grinnell experience.
The future of SHIC isn't clear, but the lessons learned in our small (and I mean SMALL) office were vital lifelines for me as I navigated all the twists and turns of college.
Iowa Beauty
Coming from the beautiful scenery of Southern Illinois, I wasn't sure what kind of outdoor experiences I would find in the prairie. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.
Senior Year in Quarantine
Shortly before the pandemic started, my friends and I signed a lease to live in a house off-campus for our senior year, and I am so glad we did! If not for the moral support, communal meals, and nature excursions, I'm not sure how I would have handled quarantine.
