Hi everyone! My name is Evan, and I came to 51²è¹İapp 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 51²è¹İapp 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 51²è¹İapp 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 51²è¹İapp, 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 , 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 51²è¹İapp 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.
