Jane’s Journey

Why Grinnell?

I knew that I wanted a smaller liberal arts school. I have family in Kansas City, so my mom is familiar with the Midwest, and she recommended Grinnell.

I did the junior visit day — I got to go to a class visit, which was super fun, and talk to my coach. And I met a bunch of the players on the women’s soccer team. The visit definitely made a difference for me. I’d never been to Iowa, really. But I just felt the most comfortable here. Grinnell just turned out to be a really good option for me.

Soccer, Solidarity, and Covid-19

My first year was entirely online due to COVID but I was fortunate to come on campus for seven weeks in the spring. Even then, we were entirely online for classes. I got to see the people in my dorm, and most of those people were women’s soccer players.

A weird solidarity thing developed — we’re all stuck inside doing online classes. We might as well make the most of it!

I had great support from my teammates and my coaches. I got incredibly close with my class for soccer. One of my teammates — we’ve lived together every single year of college, and she’s my best friend.

Choosing My Major

I knew that I wanted to do something STEM related. For my entire life, I have wanted to go to med school. This is going to sound nuts, but after taking organic chemistry, I fell in love with chemistry. It was definitely due to my professors.

I did a MAP (Mentored Advanced Project) with Steve Sieck. He’s one of my favorite professors — he’s extremely supportive. He also is the faculty athletic mentor for soccer. I coached his daughter in soccer when I was here over the summer. I just have had fantastic experiences with him that aren’t just related to me being a student, which I think has made my experience all the better.

My adviser is Mark Levandoski. He’s been very helpful. I had a little bit of a hiccup my second year getting into classes, so I was trying to play catch up before I went abroad. And he was extremely instrumental in helping me.

Research

The title of my project is “The Microwave Synthesis of Fischer Indoles.” I use a really fancy, expensive chemical microwave to make small molecule pharmaceuticals. It’s a graduate level project. I’m continuing the MAP (Mentored Advanced Project) right now.

Professor Sieck and I are going to go to the American Chemical Society Conference in the spring in New Orleans, which is going to be super fun. And I’m going to present my research. If I make enough progress this semester, I could potentially be published with him. That would be really cool. Grinnell is so unprecedented for undergraduate research!

Study Abroad in South Africa

One of the reasons I chose Grinnell was for the study abroad experience. At most schools, if you have a spring sports season, you’re not allowed to miss it. Most coaches won’t let you do that. But I don’t think I’ve ever met a women’s soccer player here who hasn’t studied abroad, or any athlete, really.

I studied abroad in South Africa last semester — a direct enrollment into the University of Cape Town, which has 70,000 students, so, completely different from Grinnell.

South Africa has so much history! I took a medical anthropology class, and we obviously talked a lot about the AIDS epidemic because it’s still a huge problem. Learning about that and the ways in which systems are set up that marginalize groups of people intentionally has gotten me thinking about it and how I can be more helpful.

Fun and Friends

My senior friends and I have all been saying, “This is just going to be a really fun year.” We’re going to be doing lots of fun things and trying to take advantage of every single day at Grinnell.

Some of my best times with my friends have just been a random Friday afternoon or Saturday night watching a movie, painting my nails, just hanging out with my friends. I like to do something called ‘outside time,’ where we literally just put a blanket on Mac Field and play music and do homework outside.

You can do that anywhere in the world, but for whatever reason, it’s just more fun when you do it at Grinnell. Also going to Harris parties with your friends is always fun. Disco Harris is definitely my favorite!

There have been days where I’ve sat in the dining hall for two hours just having a really good time with my friends. That’s the nice thing about Grinnell. I’ve found more appreciation for doing little everyday things with people — just taking advantage of the things that Grinnell has to offer.