Success Stories

I recently congratulated Scott Turley on his 20-year anniversary, and, of course, I asked him if my sweet potato pie is still in the dessert rotation at Grinnell.

Scott said, ‘We serve your pie recipe every Thanksgiving at the College. We never have leftover sweet potato pie.’

My language skills ended up being one of my strongest, and most important, assets.

I came to Grinnell as a biology major and had also thought about law school for social justice issues. Then I fell in love with anthropology.

Where the sciences are headed with research is exactly what’s embedded into classes at Grinnell. It starts from the very beginning with Intro to Biology, and continues as two or three authentic research projects for every class after that.

Research is a huge component in the arts. It's what you perform, it's what you study, it's what you create scripts based upon. It’s what leads you to stages and shows well beyond Grinnell.

I love that I go to a college where the only thing people care about is the quality of the character and the things that I bring to the table, not what I'm wearing, or how I sound, or how I look. At Grinnell, I feel free to be who I am.

Grinnell was really the first place where I actually had the chance, or the self-awareness, to pursue something that was a little bit out of my comfort zone.

I would definitely credit that experience with helping me to have a persuasive application and making me want to do this type of work.