Before Beloit

I played softball and then dabbled in the arts, playing and creating my own music and eventually earning an IB certificate for it while enjoying a few of my favorite courses, such as language.

My freshman year English teacher who was friends with a 2009 Beloit College alum, Erin Gurak, recommended that I look into Beloit College.

I was drawn to Beloit due to the academic freedom embedded in liberal arts and the school’s focus on international studies as exemplified by both its study abroad and foreign language programs.

 

Year 1

I joined the college’s jazz band where I played piano for every semester following, except for one where I took a private music class. I performed in the December Dance Workshops for the first time. 
 

Year 2

Assisted Beloit College dance department head Chris Johnson in organizing dance productions. I curated a few dance productions with a friend, Mira Treatman, such as “CinderElla”, a story representing jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, and “Protestant Reggae Ballet” which was later performed at Art-o-matic in Washington DC.

I started living in specialty housing, Interfaith House. The people were particularly nice and it provided me with an opportunity to explore my own Jewish identity and learn more about other religions and spiritualities.

I declared my Economics major and my dance major. 

"After taking Introduction to Advanced Microeconomics with Dr. Josh Hall and Economic Development with Dr. Nimish Adhia, I felt the field [economics] was a good mix of statistics, philosophy, and almost an engineering primer"

Year 3

Toured Europe musically after touring in the midwest and east coast with my band, Dupond Dupont. The European tour was entirely made possible by Chris Johnson, who was awarded a grant to perform her choreography with other dancers and myself at an international dance festival in Prague, Czech Republic. I just stuck around Europe afterwards with my banjo. 

 

Year 4

I became the director of the WISE Foundation where I organized a small arts festival which included local music, theater, and dance with the intention of increasing interaction and engagement between the students on campus and the surrounding city community.

After Beloit

I originally considered working in arts management or doing research around art and healthy communities. This is when I discovered that research interested me more than management or curation. 

I worked as a substitute teacher at Beloit Memorial High School while learning to code in R and work with spatial data outside of school hours, balancing it all with shows and tours with my band. Through this process, I discovered the very rich field of public health and decided to apply to graduate school. 

I am currently a PhD Candidate at UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health with an expected defense around August 2021. 

"During the time I spend in Beloit after graduating, I remained in contact with professors such as Rongal Watson, Arielle John, and Brian Morello, all who provided me with the mentorship I needed to figure out my next step."

"I attribute the liberal arts education I received at Beloit to the ease with which I was able to pursue a career in an entirely track than my majors. I picked up microbiology and had a fairly easy time learning more advanced statistical methods and coding in Matlab and Python.”