Alumni

How do you think Lake Forest prepared you for the career you have today?

Lake Forest prepared me for my career in many ways. The first one was my writing skills. I came into college trying my best, but not a great writer. During my first semester, I started going to the Writing Center because I want my writing to be on par with, if not better than, my classmates. I eventually had a standing appointment where I went in every week and with my tutor, we revised my writing, we fixed mistakes, and we learned together. Now, I’m going to be in a published book, so I would say it has gotten a lot better thanks to that experience.

Another way is research. When I hear the word research, I first think science or data and math, but I don’t think education. However, there's a lot of research that happens in education, and there are ways to do research that is not just crunching numbers. During my freshman year when I did research with Dr. Don Meyer, and again as a Richter Scholars, I was doing a lot of reading, writing, pulling and extracting information, and then putting it all together. That's still research, and I never looked at research that way before, so this was the first time I discovered a new way to do research. Now, I regularly do active research in my classrooms, including social and emotional learning activities and lessons to see if I can pull out concrete data, and if not, I can still see when kids are progressing, and it's happening before my eyes.

Most importantly, Lake Forest prepared me for my career by setting me up for success in my clinic. In my clinic, I saw so many teachers, and I spent so many hours in classrooms watching and working with students and teachers. I could not be successful at what I do today without having that background knowledge, without having that practice, without being able to see different types of ways of teaching and how kids learn. Having that hands-on experience was a total game-changer. You can watch videos all day, but nothing beats the real thing of being in a classroom working with kids and observing teachers who are experienced. There’s nothing better.

Why Lake Forest?

When I was a freshman in high school, I thought I knew where I wanted to go, and it was a big university in Chicago where I would be one of tens of thousands of kids that attended there. I carried this thought all the way to my senior year of high school. had never even heard of Lake Forest and never thought of even looking at small schools. My best friend in high school was a year older than I was, and when I was a senior, she was a freshman at Lake Forest. She talked about how amazing her college was and that not only is it beautiful, but the professors here are also so intriguing and inspiring. She said the classes challenge and excite you and the opportunities seem endless. She told me I should check it out, and I decided to visit her and take a tour of campus.

I walked into my tour and met with someone from the music department because I knew I wanted to study music and education. From that moment, I felt such a sense of community, and I could see it radiating throughout the building, professors, and current students. I realized that based on past experience, I really do succeed when I'm in a small community with people that support me. I could see myself succeeding at Lake Forest, and I never looked back at that big university. I decided this is it, and it was a decision that I never will regret. Huge thank you to Lake Forest and my professors for helping me be the success story that I am today. I hope to keep growing, and I know that I will with the connections and the relationships, and everything that I have taken from my experience at the College. 

What was one of your most meaningful experiences at Lake Forest? and why?

One of my most meaningful experiences at Lake Forest College was when I was a senior. I was about to begin my last semester, and I was so nervous because I would be student-teaching. The professors and mentors worked so hard to get me a student-teaching placement at an elementary school in Lake Forest, and that experience was life-changing. Being able to student-teach in Lake Forest with the teacher that I had was amazing. She truly shaped me to become the educator I am. I feel like I'm a mini version of her, and I wouldn't want to be like anyone else because she was phenomenal. My Lake Forest College professors and mentors saw that, and they knew I needed to be placed with this teacher, so they made it happen. I'm so grateful and thankful. I still have that teacher as a contact and a mentor to this day. That wouldn't have happened if I went to any other school. I wouldn't be who I am. I wouldn't be teaching the way I do. I wouldn't be as successful as I am because my professors knew me, and they knew what I wanted. They knew my strengths and weaknesses and paired me with the perfect person to really make me shine and be the educator that I was meant to be.

Who is the one person/student organization/mentor that impacted you the most? and how so?

One person that impacted me the most at Lake Forest was Dr. Scott Edgar because he was my mentor starting when I was a freshman. I feel like he was a mentor even before I even started at the school as I met him on my campus tour. He's still a mentor to me to this day. I still email with him, and we still collaborate. He has pushed me to be the educator that I am, and I'm truly meant to be. When I was starting my career path in music education, I remember coming and telling Dr. Edgar that I want to be a high school music teacher and he said, okay, we’ll see. It was my first music education class where he took us to all these schools, different grade levels, different communities, different socioeconomic levels, and we got to see music in action. It was where I saw my first ever elementary general music class, and I fell in love. Truly, I knew in that moment this was my calling, and this is what I was meant to do. He could tell from the minute we got there to the minute we left. From that point on, I never looked back. I'm so glad because teaching elementary music is the best thing I think I could ever do. It's so rewarding, inspiring, and fun. Dr. Edgar was someone who pushed me and supported me and someone that I respect immensely. I can't thank him enough for all the things he did to help me become as successful as I am. Additionally, I am a contributor in his new book that is coming out soon. It’s a music education and social-emotional learning book that is putting into practice the things we study in regards to social-emotional learning.

What advice/wisdom would you share with your younger self when you started at Lake Forest?

Some advice or wisdom that I would give my younger self starting at Lake Forest would be to take advantage of and enjoy the time you have with your friends before you graduate. A lot of your friends will no longer live walking distance away, right up the stairs, right down the path, or across the quad on south campus. They're going to be off doing their own thing wherever they live. One of my best friends I met from Lake Forest used to live in the Chicagoland area, but now lives in Washington, D.C., so I'm lucky if I see her in person maybe once a year. Not that I didn't take advantage of the time when I was at Lake Forest, but I just wish I had more.