Spring 2022 SGA Executive Election results

Spring 2022 SGA                          Executive
Election results
By Mohammad Igbaria
igbariam@grinnell.edu

Loyal Terry `23 has won the Spring 2022 Executive Election and
will be the next president of the Student Government
Association (SGA). Diogo Tandeta Tartarotti `24 was also
elected as Vice President of Student Affairs and Jivyaa Vaidya
`23 was elected as Vice President of Academic Affairs. The
newly-elected Terry-Tandeta Tartarotti-Vaidya administration
will take office in the fall. Additionally, Natalia Ramirez
`24 was elected as All Campus Events Chair, and Sarah Toay `23
ran uncontested and was elected for the position of Treasurer.

The election, which ran from May 9 to May 16, was the subject
of widespread conversation and controversy primarily on the
social media apps YikYak and Instagram. Additionally, the
determination of the results of the election was delayed by
the withdrawal of one candidate on May 17 according to current

Vice President of Academic Affairs Ashton Aveling `22 in an
email to the S&B.

The candidate who initially withdrew, Nameera Dawood `23, then
requested to revoke her initial withdrawal. Current SGA
President Fernando Villatoro-Rodriguez `22 and College Vice
President of Student Affairs Sarah Mochenross decided to honor
the original request of withdrawal, also in consultation with
Dean of Students Ben Newhouse, Director of Student Involvement
Ashley Adams, and President Anne Harris, according to an email
from Aveling.

The results of the election were confirmed as final by Aveling
on June 3 in an email to the S&B.

Noa Goldman,                    Social           Media
Coordinator
I’ve been S&B-adjacent since my second year at Grinnell, when
I submitted my first comic in my Unreliable Notes series. It
was called “Move-in Day” and was inspired by watching my two
good friends, Abraham Teuber `22 (one of the S&B’s editors in
chief) and Hannah Agpoon `22 (one of the S&B’s graphic
designers), move into their dorm room. It has been such a

pleasure to draw my Unreliable Notes these last three years!

Outside of the Opinions section, I’ve had many different roles
within the S&B. I have been a freelance writer, a staff writer
and this semester I am one of the social media coordinators.
Working at the S&B has pushed my writing and my art, but most
importantly it has taught me how to be a better decision
maker.

Behind every article the S&B publishes, there are countless
decisions, big and small. There are discussions about who will
be interviewed for the story, what tone the article should
have, what exactly should be in its Twitter summary and so
much more. And no matter the nuance and complexity of such
discussions, in the end the staff must make a decision to the
best of their ability and take responsibility for any mistakes
made.

The staff at the S&B understands the gravity of their work.
They understand that the decisions they make affect how the
news they cover is interpreted. I have learned so much from
this process and from being a part of these discussions, even
peripherally. And I have every confidence that the next
generation of the S&B, led by Nadia Langley `23 and Allison
Moore `24, will continue to take the time and energy to make
such active and informed decisions.

Sophie Jackson
By Jane Hoffman
hoffmanj@grinnell.edu

For Sophie Jackson `22, the memories, lessons and perspectives
she has developed as a student at Grinnell are inextricable
from her adventures during her time off campus.

Originally from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Jackson fell in
love with Grinnell during her overnight student visit, when
her host invited her for midnight snacks at Spanish House
(chips, salsa and crepes, to be specific). Jackson was “blown
away” by the vibrancy of the Grinnell student body, which
convinced her that Grinnell was the place to spend her college
years.

Over the past four years, Jackson has certainly contributed to

the community she was impressed by as a high school senior.
She has both served the community and helped others take part
in service initiatives — leading Student Animal Volunteer
Ensemble (SAVE), a student group working in local animal
shelters, working with Crisis Intervention Services in
Oskaloosa and with the Grinnell Advocates on campus. Day to
day, you may have spotted Jackson welcoming prospective
students and their families as a tour guide and senior
interviewer.

As an independent major studying International Relations (IR),
Jackson has crafted a unique path through Grinnell’s
curriculum. While she started at Grinnell with interests in
political science and history, she honed in on pursuing IR as
a major after taking Professor Wayne Moyer’s politics of
international relations course in her first year. Advised by a
“dream team” of Professor John Garrison, English, and Moyer,
political science, Jackson chopped and braised her way through
Professor Todd Armstrong’s “Comrades in the Kitchen” class on
Soviet food culture and analyzed Queen Elizabeth I’s Golden
Speech to Parliament for an English and Peace and Conflict
Studies MAP with Professor Garrison — two highlights of her
academic tenure.

Jackson’s experience at Grinnell has also been defined by her
time off campus, due to both the COVID-19 pandemic and her
year spent in Europe. Although the pandemic forced her to
alter her plans several times (two attempts to spend a
semester in Moscow never panned out, given public health and
political circumstances that lead to program cancellations),
Jackson spent six weeks in Copenhagen, Denmark in spring 2021,
and the fall 2021 semester in Kyiv, Ukraine.

During her six weeks in Copenhagen, Jackson had the chance to
apply and further develop her skills in geopolitics, focusing
on terrorism and counterterrorism. Her second period of off-
campus study, spent in Kyiv, was “radically different” from
her time in Copenhagen. Studying in Russian, living with a

host family in a Soviet apartment and traveling throughout
Eastern Europe offered a wholly immersive linguistic and
cultural experience. She reflected fondly on conversations
with her host dad that lasted late into the night. Their
discussions challenged each of them to further examine their
own worldviews, while developing a “better sense of where the
other was coming from.”

Questions and debates about identity were also at the
forefront of Jackson’s academic pursuits in Ukraine: her
courses focused on questions of identity and conflict in the
post-Soviet space. Her time in the area has garnered further
relevance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February
2022. Having “experienced a world that doesn’t exist in the
same way anymore,” Jackson said she is still in touch with her
host family and community via Facebook, who have remained safe
throughout the tumult.

 [I] experienced a world that doesn’t exist in the same way
 anymore -Sophie Jackson `22

After graduation, Jackson is headed to Washington, DC, where
she will work as a paralegal in the Antitrust Division of the
U.S. Department of Justice. In the legal sphere, she will draw
upon her experience with Keep Tucson Together, an Arizona
organization that provides pro-bono legal counseling for
immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Reynaldo Wilson
By Lena Wiebe
wiebelen@grinnell.edu

When Reynaldo Wilson `22 came to Grinnell from his hometown of
Atlanta, he was looking for something different.

He quickly realized he got it when he found that Grinnell’s
local McDonald’s closes at 11 p.m. A habitual late-night
eater, Wilson said, “That was rough. That was rough to get
used to.” But don’t worry — Wilson adapted. “I made do. I got
snacks for later. It ended up being alright.”

As he prepares for his time post-Grinnell, Wilson is ready for
another change. A double political science and sociology major
with a not-so-secret side interest in philosophy, Wilson will
be attending the U.K.’s University of Oxford for a master’s
degree in sociology, where he will study inequalities and

perceptions of fairness in the undergraduate college
admissions process in the U.S. and the U.K. He plans to apply
to law school upon completion.

Wilson decided to apply to three graduate programs in the U.K.
after he lost a spot in a study abroad program through the
College because of the COVID-19 pandemic. These schools
included the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge
and University College London. He was admitted into each of
the schools except for the University of Cambridge.

Wilson is personable and quick to laugh or extend advice. “My
first year I was still getting used to the workload. I didn’t
do anything except work,” he said. But by his second year, he
began to get more involved, and he founded the College’s moot
court team. Now he’s also a research assistant and board
member at the Grinnell College National Poll, where he’s
brought a passion for rectifying racial injustice.

Wilson says he’s especially proud of research he presented
about people’s perceptions of racial inequality through the
poll. In a population-based survey experiment, Wilson found
that people were more likely to view the current status of
racial equality in the U.S. pessimistically if they were
reminded of the details of George Floyd’s murder by a police
officer.

“I’m glad I was able to contribute. They don’t need it, but it
adds even more support to social organizations like the Say
Their Names activists who try to make racial injustice
explicit and humanized. It finds that we can actually get
somewhere and have more of a reckoning of racial injustice if
we humanize it,” he said.

That interest in organizing for racial justice, especially
through legal work, has informed many of Wilson’s other
experiences throughout his time at the College. His second
year, he worked at the Georgia Innocence Project over the

summer, and last summer, he worked at the Center for
Constitutional Rights.

 I found that a lot of the readings in existentialism were
 addressed to me. -Reynaldo Wilson `22

Wilson’s interests naturally lend themselves to political
science, which he said he knew he wanted to major in before he
came to college. But his first year, upon the advice of his
advisor, he tried a sociology class, “and was hooked.”

“I think I like sociology for the philosophical tools it gives
us to analyze our current condition,” he said.

“I like philosophy, but sometimes it can be heavily academic
and not really meaningful. But sociology is a kind of applied
philosophy that I really enjoy,” Wilson said.

While we’re on the topic — Wilson is a philosophy enthusiast.
One of his favorite classes at the College? Existentialism.
Why? “The readings in academia … usually the audience are
people that want to hire them to be professors because they
sound really smart, and the audience is some higher entity…
But I found that a lot of the readings in existentialism were
addressed to me. Not like me, like Reynaldo, like Black from
the South, not that, but they were addressed to an individual
person, with different outlooks on the world, different
constituent elements of character. They were talking to me.”

Wilson is also a dyed-in-the-wool humanities and social
sciences kind of guy. We’re sitting in the HSSC. “I live here.
I’ve been kicked out by FM [Facilities Management] a couple of
times,” he said. He points to the Noyce Science Center. “I
don’t even know what that building’s called, to be honest.
I’ve had one class in there and it was stupid. If you gave me
$10,000 to find a room in 10 minutes I wouldn’t be able to do
it.”

His senior year, Wilson has been spending his free time on his
Onewheel, an electric skateboard. “I like being outside,” he
said. “So it’s just an easy way to see more outside … I’m
always playing loud music, so I’m jamming. I see my friends,
they start jamming with me.” Wilson said the skateboard “has
done a lot for me to close the size of Grinnell.”

And what is Wilson excited about as he gets ready to move
beyond Grinnell? “I guess, yet again, [to] explore a different
way of life, a different way of doing things.” Born and raised
in Atlanta, he’s excited to adopt a different perspective as
he moves abroad in the next year.

But also, he’s going to eat at a restaurant after 11.

Cameron Leung
By Nina Baker
bakernin@grinnell.edu

Cameron Leung `22 had a secret plan. For the past few years,
he’s been saving Joker cards from 52-card decks. He knew that
one day, he would find a use for them; he just didn’t know
when.

Leung moderates Nerf@Noyce. In a game called Traitors in
Terrorist Town (TTT), every player is divided into two teams.
Each player receives a card, and if the card is a joker, then
that player is a traitor to their team, unbeknownst to anyone
else.

Cameron      Leung
clearing         a
stairwell.   Photo
by Ariel Richards.

“And one night, we decided to change all of the cards into
Joker cards without telling anyone and it was one of the best
blood baths,” Leung said with a smile.

Apart from moderating Nerf@Noyce, Leung is the co-founder of
the Grinnell Disability Alliance, the manager of the STEW

Makerspace, a member of the Working Group for Diversity and
Inclusion and a computer science major.

As someone with multiple close friends who have disabilities,
Leung said he is deeply passionate about disability rights
advocacy.

In 2019, Leung took the Global Learning Program course
“Disability in Society: Art, Architecture & Activism,” led by
Autumn Wilke, assistant dean for disability resources,
Professor Casey Oberlin, sociology and Professor Justin
Thomas, theater. The class traveled to Washington, D.C. and
Japan. It was through this course that Leung connected with
Wilke to eventually form the Disability Alliance.

The work he’s done with the Disability Alliance is some of
Leung’s proudest work while at the College, he said.

Before Grinnell, Leung attended the Gwinnett School of
Mathematics, Science and Technology school in Atlanta,
Georgia. While there, he focused on developing skills in
mechanical engineering and design, thinking how to make
products and interfaces more accessible.

While the primary reason Leung attended the College was his
QuestBridge scholarship, he added that the open curriculum
motivated him to balance computer science (which, in his
opinion, is the flipside of engineering) along with courses
across other disciplines.

While studying abroad last fall in Copenhagen, Denmark, Leung
completed courses called “Entrepreneurship and Innovation” and
“Innovation Through Design Thinking.”

Both courses made Leung remember his penchant for design
thinking, a problem-solving approach with the intention to
improve products, which he had felt so passionately about in
high school. He wanted to study design thinking further and
thus spent his winter break applying to graduate school for

programs incorporating elements of this approach.

This fall, Leung will attend the University of Pennsylvania’s
master’s in Integrated Product Design. The program combines
coursework and research in design thinking, human-computer
interaction and business planning.

Design thinking was not the only way Leung spent his time in
Copenhagen. While there, Leung took countless photos in his
spare time. He wandered around the city with his DSLR camera
hanging from his backpack, ready to snap a photo at any
opportunity that presented itself.

He received the camera during the pandemic and practiced
taking photos around his neighborhood in Atlanta.

“But I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as when I actually
went to Copenhagen. It was an amazing pastime for me,” Leung
said. “Photography was basically my escape.”

Leung’s photography can be viewed at www.cameronkleung.com.

Ellyonna Glenn
By Ellianna Cierpiot
cierpiot@grinnell.edu

Ellyonna Glenn `22 characterized her time in Grinnell, IA with
a series of late-night shenanigans and good times spent with
close friends. When the weather was nice, Glenn and her
friends would take walks and sit on the soccer fields, talking
about anything and everything.

As a political science major and East Asian studies and global
development studies double concentrator, Glenn has spent time
taking classes through Sophia University in Tokyo (virtually)
during the pandemic and working on an independent study with
Professor Shigeta Schimmell about Japanese environmental
literature, which blended her interests in literature and the
environment through a new lens.

“I hadn’t really studied it before but it was something new
and familiar at the same time,” Glenn said.

Glenn is currently 14 hours ahead of Central Standard Time
where she is living in South Korea, taking classes and “just
vibing.” Next year, she hopes to have a job teaching English,
which is something Glenn says she kind of stumbled into.

“An opportunity literally just fell into my lap, like through
a friend of a friend of a friend,” Glenn said.

However, she originally planned to take a gap year or two
before applying to law schools. Glenn went to a STEM magnet
high school, which was known for rigorous academics. After
years of academia, she is ready for a bit of a break.

“I feel like I’ve been a fulltime student since I was 15 … and
I just feel like I really need a break from doing that, and
experiencing more dynamics to my being.”

A mainstay of her time at Grinnell — both pre- and post-
pandemic — has been Glenn’s tight-knit friend group. 2 a.m.
soccer field meetings don’t happen with just one person, after
all, and Glenn remembers meeting one of her closest friends
during their Dining Hall student worker orientation.

 I feel like I’ve been a fulltime student since I was 15 … and
 I just feel like I really need a break from doing that, and
 experiencing more dynamics to my being. -Ellyonna Glenn `22

“I just remember looking over at her and I was like ‘do you
know what we’re supposed to be doing right now?’ and she was
like, ‘Nah’ and we just became friends since then,” Glenn
said.

Glenn participated in Koreaography, a dance club with her
friends, and also performed at the spring Drag Show her first
year. Having so many friends to rely on and keep in touch with
across the world helped her through the pandemic.

“Honestly the only reason I kept going online is because I
wanted to graduate with my friends,” Glenn said. “I didn’t
want to have to do time away from them after they’d already
finished up their time at Grinnell … to be concise, it was
difficult.”

In Glenn’s future is the simultaneous excitement and dread of
having a plan to not have a plan.

“I’m really excited to just not have so many deadlines anymore
and not be a student,” Glenn said. “But I’m also feeling kind
of overwhelmed with post-grad. What am I going to do? I just
have always been that person with a plan and so when people
ask me now, ‘What’s your plan? What are you going to do next?’
and I have to say, ‘I don’t know.’ I’m literally figuring it
out as we speak.”

Because   she   is   abroad,   Glenn   won’t   be   graduating   at

commencement with the rest of the class of 2022, but that’s
something she’s okay with. She said her goodbyes to her
friends before she left for Korea, early in the morning before
getting on the plane, and since then has come to terms with
the end of her undergraduate status and time at Grinnell.

“I’ve gotten to a point where it’s like, I’m just de jure
finishing,. Not to be a poli sci major, but I de facto
finished my time at Grinnell weeks and weeks ago. It’s been a
lot of emotions.”

Micaela Daney
By Nina Baker
bakernin@grinnell.edu

Micaela Daney `22 was flattered, but perplexed, when I told
her she was nominated for the Scarlet & Black Senior Issue.
She was even more flattered when I told her I had nominated
her myself.

Daney majored in English. She’d always loved to read and
write, and because of that, she began writing a novel in the
spring of her second year. Recently, she completed a first
draft of 80,000 words. After she completes several rounds of
edits, she said she hopes to publish the book via a
traditional publication process.

“But like, I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I mean, I
could very easily fail. Because like, everyone fails at
different things,” Daney said.

“But,” I said, “a lot of people do succeed.”

Daney said ENG 205: Craft of Fiction stands out to her as one
of the most memorable classes she took at the College.

“There is literally nothing better than making up stories —
and having people judge them.” She laughed. “It’s kind of
exciting, because it’s like, what will people think? What will
people say? You really hear what people actually think.”

Daney said in the English department that she’s never had a
professor who hasn’t been knowledgeable and thoughtful. She
said people from Grinnell in general is what she’ll miss most.

“I think of all the people who I’m going to miss and also all
the times when I’ve needed help. People have helped me whether
they be professors, or other students who have helped me and
listened to me or given me a second chance.”

Daney ran for the women’s cross country and track & field team
her first two years at Grinnell. When she went home to San
Jose, California, during the pandemic, she contracted a non-
COVID-19- related illness which affected her for multiple

months.

At first, Daney said Head Cross Country Coach Sarah Burnell
`14 was resistant to letting Daney join the team again because
she didn’t feel Daney was ready. But Daney convinced her to
let her do separate workouts and act as team manager until
Burnell thought she was ready to compete.

“I’m really grateful to her that she was willing to listen to
me and bend her own rules and give me the opportunity to
compete,” Daney said. “That really meant a lot to me in my
last year.”

After she graduates, Daney will move to the Minneapolis-St.
Paul Metro Area and live with her boyfriend, John Osler `20.
While there, she plans to work while editing her book.

Once in the Twin Cities, she said she’s excited to volunteer
more and to stay conscious of the environmental and human
rights impacts of her purchases. As a Grinnell student
constrained by both money and time, she said she sometimes
purchases items less expensive or convenient, potentially
buying from “fast-fashion” brands accused of paying minuscule
wages to employees in factories outside the U.S.

Daney said she thinks frequently about ethical interaction in
U.S. and world economy. She said she doesn’t want to proceed
through life and realize that her choices have supported
trends and businesses she views as damaging.

“That’s something that really changes as you leave college.
You have a lot more power in what you choose, especially if
you’re living in a city.”

And the last thing Daney will remember after she leaves
Grinnell? A sense of absurdist humor she said she views coming
from the College administration.

“I will say there is some humor from the administration,” she

said. “There are always things I will find bemusing, and
funny. … The very performative comedy aspect of this school,
that makes it almost feel like it was like a four-year long
performance. Like, a really abstract piece of performance
art.”

Clare Roarty
By Libby Eggert
eggertli@grinnell.edu

Clare Roarty `22 knows she will never find another program
like Neverland, Grinnell’s student-theatre group that
collaborates with preschool-aged children to write and adapt
their stories to the Wall Performance Lab stage.

Roarty said she hopes to use the skills and confidence she

learned from Grinnell to her next adventure. In addition to
Neverland, she has been a part of the Women’s Frisbee team,
the Grinneleanor Roosevelts (the Svelts), where she currently
serves as captain,

“Grinnell has given me a lot of opportunities to be in charge
of things in a way I never had before, make decisions for
organizations that I care about to make them tangibly better
and put in work that feels like it matters,” she said

Roarty is deciding between an elementary English teaching
position in France and a service-based teaching position in
Des Moines (she’s leaning towards France). She majored in
French and religious studies and hopes to end up in elementary
education as a youth services librarian or in ministry.

“At the moment, I’m leaning towards elementary education, but
that changes weekly,” Roarty said. “But I definitely know I
will be working with kids in some capacity. I think that’s my
priority.”

Neverland has changed the way she interacts with children.
Roarty has experience as a camp counselor, babysitter and
tutor, but there’s a special element to Neverland, she said.

“You’re just with the kids, like you’re sitting down with
equals to some extent, and trying to figure what they want to
write about.”

Rather than childcare where the adult is leading and managing
the kids, Roarty instead appreciates being able to focus on
the kids’ “pure and simple” imaginations.

She has been a Neverland “player” for all four years at
Grinnell, and directed the group her second year after the
fourth-year leaders handed it down to her.

“I definitely felt a lot of pressure to keep this organization
alive. … Obviously there were other people who were invested

in it, but ultimately it was me who was in charge during this
transition period.”

Frisbee has also taught her valuable teaching skills she plans
to put into practice. As a captain, she had to teach drills to
her team, set up practice and organize tournaments for the
team.

“I didn’t anticipate all of the work which was a bit of a
learning curve,” Roarty said. She started as a team member,
then was treasurer, and then became captain this year. “You
build connections with people on the team that I don’t think I
would have if I hadn’t been captain.”

Roarty spent a lot of time with Professor Tyler Roberts, who
advised her religious studies major before he passed away last
summer. She took three classes on religion with Roberts.

“I took my first religious studies class with him on
spirituality, and he ripped into my writing, pushed me a lot …
through his classes and reading his feedback I was able to
actually see tangible growth. … He was my most influential
professor.” Her senior seminar for religious studies is
focused on her Unitarian Universalist church, Unity Temple, in
her hometown of Oak Park, Illinois. “I’m looking at how youth
are negotiating in their memories of religious education,”
particularly in a setting that does not follow the typical
rules of a typical church,” Roarty said.

But she’s fond of the projects she’s watching other students
in that class do. “The things people have thought of to study
through a religious studies lens is crazy cool. It’s not
something I would have at the beginning of my four years
thought of as, oh, this is religious studies.”

Socially, Roarty has spent time in two different friend groups
throughout her four years, one rooted in friends she made her
first and second year. Her other group moved back to Grinnell
during the pandemic and has lived together since then — they

now live at 1018 East Street.

Roarty also works at Burling Library and Kistle Science
Library. As a first year, she worked in the Dining Hall, and
has worked for the French department as a tutor and
administrative assistant.

Roarty’s favorite place on campus is the tables on the first
floor of Burling Library, that she has dubbed the “amoeba
tables,” although she has heard them referred to as the “egg
tables,” much to her distaste.

Neverland ran their spring show — Roarty’s final show — the
first weekend of March. She said she was grateful just to be a
player, and not to have to focus on being in charge.

“I felt a really nice sense of closure, but I also felt so
connected to the cast, including younger members who I really
had just met a few weeks earlier.”

Frisbee will run through the end of the semester, and she
knows she’s leaving the group in good hands.

“I was blown away by these first and second years, who are
better than me and all of our upper class. They’re going to be
so good in the next three years.”

She said she’ll miss Grinnell, especially having her friends
close, but she is sure they will be lifelong relationships.
But she is grateful for the confidence Grinnell has given her.

“I’ve learned a lot about leadership, whatever that means,”
said Roarty.

Nini Pataridze
By Jandry Perez Garcia
perezgar@grinnell.edu

Nini Pataridze `22 was sure she wanted an American education.
She applied to several liberal arts colleges in the U.S.,
Grinnell College included, from her home country of Georgia.
As Pataridze was applying to the colleges, Grinnell did not
start out as her first choice, but as the process progressed
and she received her acceptance, she ultimately chose
Grinnell.

Pataridze said the determining factors that led to her choice
was Grinnell’s sense of a small, tight-knit community and the
small class sizes that would allow her to know her professors
better.

However, she had concerns about coming to Grinnell. For

starters, she was moving to an entirely new, unfamiliar
country thousands of miles away. A town of 9,000 people in the
American Midwest was going to be a significant shift from her
home in Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi, an ancient, culturally
rich city of over a million people.

 Grinnell really helped me to understand how much of my
 identity is because of my culture and where I come from. –
 Nini Pataridze

Ultimately, Pataridze found her place in Iowa. The risk paid
off, and she is happy about her decision to come to Grinnell
having learned things about herself.

“When you come from a different country and you’re, like,
thrown into this small community that’s not in the most global
place but has a lot of international students, you start to
really respect and understand the worth and value of your
culture and who you are as a person. So, I would say Grinnell
really helped me to understand how much of my identity is
because of my culture and where I come from,” Pataridze said.

Pataridze is also grateful for the friendships she has formed
with fellow international students during her time at Grinnell
and the unique bond they share.

“We all miss our home, our culture, our language, you know,
traditions, customs, and that is something we share through
our differences here,” she said.

Pataridze appreciates the work of organizations like the
International Student Organization (ISO) that allowed her to
share her culture and experience others’ cultures, something
that ultimately led to the friendships she will cherish after
she leaves Grinnell.

She says that Grinnell has given her access to opportunities

she did not have before. Through the Institute for Global
Engagement, Pataridze was able to study abroad in Copenhagen
last year.

Pataridze has concrete future steps after Grinnell. She hopes
to utilize her double major in history and political science
to work as a refugee caseworker, eventually go to graduate
school and, at some point, go back to Georgia.

Pataridze says that Grinnell alumni have been great resources
for staying hopeful through the sense of uncertainty about the
future that comes with graduating.

She explained that Grinnell had more in-person opportunities
for current students to meet alumni during pre-Covid years and
she would like to see this happening again (although she
understands that it is difficult given that we are still in
the midst of a pandemic).

As her parting message to current and future Grinnellians,
Pataridze encourages students to take advantage of all the
resources Grinnell has to offer.

“Even if you’re not sure that the opportunities are there, go
and ask. Go to faculty or go to staff, ask about something
you’re interested in and what you can do.”

To her fellow graduating fourth years, she says:

“I’m just happy we made it. And I’m really, really proud
especially because of the years that we had at Grinnell,
unconventional years. … We made it regardless of things that
have happened to us along the way,” she said.

Lex Baumann
By Ryleigh Hayworth
hayworth@grinnell.edu

For her entire first semester of college, Lex Baumann `22
could not earn a three on her weekly three-point calculus I
quiz. You got one point for putting your name on the paper,
one point for trying and one point for accuracy. She passed
the class, although not with the grade she wanted, and it
taught her an important lesson:

“You’re not going to be great at everything you do,” said
Baumann.

Baumann came to Grinnell College from St. Charles, Illinois.
While she was plenty prepared for the cold Midwest winters,
academics were another story.

“I did fine in math in high school, but I’d never taken a math
class where I didn’t get an A … compared to here, my high
school was not as rigorous.”

Baumann credits her tutorial advisor Albert Lacson and his
class with giving her the skills to handle the stress of
Grinnell academics. They journaled, meditated and planned out
schedules as a group, which was a significant help for her in
adjusting to college life. Baumann took calculus I in her
first semester as she was planning to major in economics. She
was a declared economics major before she realized she no
longer wanted to pursue economics.

“Well, I’m going to be major-less now,” Baumann said
describing her decision to change majors. “I was worried about
not being able to go abroad; not being able to graduate on
time.”

Luckily, she had advisors, both official and unofficial, to
help her determine her path. The class that opened her eyes to
the field of education was EDU-213, Cultural Politics Language
Teaching with Professor Cori Jakubiak. Here, she discovered
interests in policies and pedagogies and how she might change
them through a career in law.

Her passion for education and justice is supplemented by her
parents: her mom is from an immigrant family and her dad is
from a working-class family, and education is a priority to
both of them.

“We have family friends out in the Philippines, for example,
and they didn’t get the same opportunities as my mom did,”
said Baumann. “And it was just kind of by sheer luck that they
ended up here, you know, but that wasn’t something I was even
thinking about until I’d started taking these education
classes. I had just known that like, it was really important
to my family.”

Outside of classes, Baumann is very involved in campus life.

She works as a senior interviewer for the office of
admissions. She is involved in tap dance and plays the piano.
In her second year, she enjoyed planning events as a Community
Advisor and started a Zumba club with some friends.

Baumann has also engaged in political activism through
canvassing for Bernie Sanders during the 2020 election cycle
and with a former campus group called Student Action.

When she chose to go to college in rural Iowa, Baumann did not
think about the Iowa caucuses and the fact that all
presidential candidates spend time in Iowa, especially on
college campuses. A CNN town hall with Joe Biden took place
during Baumann’s second year in Bucksbaum’s Roberts Theatre,
and she remembers witnessing her peers engage at that event.

“I really enjoyed listening to my classmates question him and
push back on ideas that he was presenting to us. I think it’s
always really empowering when you’re with a group of students
who are like, ‘yes, we’re fighting for the same cause. And
we’re not afraid to question authorities like Joe Biden.’”

This year, Baumann crossed off a task on every Grinnellian’s
bucket list: climbing Bucksbaum. It was a chilly night when
her and her friends ventured to the building. Baumann, who is
scared of heights, struggled to get up, and one of her friends
had to pull her to the roof. After a while, they decided it
was too cold and decided to climb down. However, this proved
harder than climbing up.

“My friend went first and she was like a ninja — like, she got
down so easily. I couldn’t get down … I tried to swing down
like the way she did and I was dangling there for a minute.
She’s like, okay, like, drop onto the chair. And so I did but
I missed the chair.”

Baumann emerged unscathed, but her other friends remained
stuck, and they ended up calling campus safety. The remaining
friends on the roof spent a while up there while campus safety

searched for a ladder. Baumann remembers throwing blankets up
to them while they waited. Another lesson learned: don’t climb
Bucksbaum if you don’t have a way down.

Next year, Baumann plans to attend Loyola University to
participate in their child law program in combination with
their Masters in Public Policy. Short term, she hopes to help
children gain access to education resources and break down
barriers for them. Long term, she hopes to reform education in
other ways, such as eliminating the use of standardized
testing. This path will combine her passions for policy
studies and education she pursued here at Grinnell.

“I’m leaving Grinnell with a lot more confidence than I came
in with,” said Baumann. “I think I’m more confident in myself,
not only as a person and what I want, but also in my ability
to think critically and succeed in an environment where there
isn’t always one correct answer.”

Elizabeth Wong
By Nick El Hajj
elhajjni@grinnell.edu

Elizabeth Wong `22 had always intended to become a pre-med
student and therefore fulfilled that desire by majoring in
biochemistry at Grinnell. However, in addition to choosing an
intensive major, Wong also chose to add a philosophy major as
another challenge. She said, “I was really bad at it, so I
just decided to challenge myself and major in it.”

Wong said she especially values her time at Grinnell which she
said has been “full of blessings, hardships and silver
linings.”

She considers herself someone who has had “both sides of the
academic experience.” She said, “there are some professors
like Professor Mobley who really show love and passion in
their teaching, and then there are others who curve tests and
create toxic competitive classes.”

Her favorite classes were her chamber ensembles where she
“didn’t feel like it was a class, but rather just a fun
activity.”

Wong has also been dedicated to not missing a single valuable
event on campus, most being events with free food.

“I love free food. I used to make a spreadsheet of all events
on campus and add pictures of flyers as I walked past them. I
also kept track of emails and color-coded events with, of
course, events with free food being in red because I just
couldn’t miss them,” said Wong.

Such events weren’t all about the food, however, as Wong made
cherished connections along the way.

“I met one of my closest friends through Lesbian Brunch. At
first, I didn’t hear ‘Lesbian Brunch.’ I heard ‘free food,’
but it quickly turned into something much more,” she said.

However, her endeavors to eat as much free food as possible
were put to a sudden halt during her second-year spring
semester when she had to evacuate the campus because of a
“raging new pandemic.”

“I just assumed during that time that we’d return next fall,
but that did not happen, and over the summer it was made more
and more clear that we won’t be returning anytime soon,” she
said.

Despite the pandemic, Wong was still able to find the silver
linings and appreciated “spending a lot of time with family
and the dog.” She also tried to make the most out of the

pandemic-induced quarterly academic model and “breeze through
her major classes.”

The pandemic did prevent her from doing a lot of the
activities she loved, including drag, chamber ensembles,
ballet, rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, finding
free food and making new friends.

“We just lost a lot of culture over COVID. A lot of the
friends that I have met and am currently very close to were
made through events that have food, and that was simply not an
option during COVID,” said Wong.

After quarantine, she returned to campus and now lives off-
campus. Wong enjoys having her own kitchen and “some peace and
quiet,” yet dislikes having “a longer hike to campus and
seeing the occasional dead cat, which is very sad,” she said.

Wong also had a few bad experiences with townspeople,
describing local landlords as “slumlord millionaires that rob
students” and citing “a really bad interaction with someone
that made me feel unsure of myself and my sexuality and my
gender,” she said.

In fact, this interaction was a driving force for her to join
this year’s Drag Show as “The Ace of Spades.”

“After that encounter, I thought of joining two days before
the show. I’m glad that I did because I feel like it really
made me more connected with the community and was really
reaffirming for me,” Wong said.

Wong has had firm mottos that have guided her Grinnell
experience. Most importantly: “I live life by trying to treat
people in a way that I would not regret. I want to make sure
that the people around me are cared for.”

She said, “Grinnell is a place for you to learn something new
and make friends with people you have never made friends with

before. This campus is so small that if you are mean to
someone, it spreads around and just creates a bad effect that
ripples through all of us.”

After graduation, Wong hopes to return home to Philadelphia
and become a full-time researcher.

Jax Seiler
By Marcus Cassidy
cassidym@grinnell.edu

The thumping stage, the beaming lights, the excited silence of
the crowd. After hours spent pouring over props, scripts and
roles, Jax Seiler `22 prepares to engage, enthuse and
entertain a crowd of parents and relatives eager to watch
their kids’ ideas come to life.

Seiler is a senior member of the Neverland Players. Neverland
“players” turn stories written and composed by students at the
local Davis Elementary School in Grinnell into frequently
moving, always-funny skits, creating a lighthearted and happy-
go-lucky environment. Seiler has performed with this group
since his first semester on campus.

“It is just genuinely a lot of fun when you get the skit, and
you just start throwing spaghetti at the wall with ideas. What
could work here, what are some things we’ve done in the past,
what are some things we haven’t done? What are other groups
doing that we want to do?” Seiler said. “Just throw it at the
wall, whatever sticks, sticks, and it ends up ridiculous every
year.”

 A notable performance for Seiler was the Grant Trilogy, aptly
named after its author. Three images with no title, coherent
plot, or relation to each other were converted to full skit
performances.

“What the hell is going on here? Neverland can be very
straightforward. This story has a pretty basic plot structure
and you just kind of do it straight.” Seiler said. “Those can
be fantastic. Those are adorable. They’re good. They’re
excellent. And then there’s things like what was referred to
as the Grant trilogy.”

Seiler’s theatrical pursuits are contrasted sharply by his
lengthy background in the STEM field. Having grown up in
southern Illinois, Seiler went to a math and sciences oriented
boarding school in Aurora for three years (described as
“Grinnell with fifteen-year-olds”). While attending, the
opportunities afforded led him to declare a computer science
major.

Alongside his affinities for theater and computer science,
Seiler is pursuing a linguistics concentration and works as a
Technology and Research Consultant at Kistle Library. His
responsibilities revolve around assisting library patrons and
organizing library resources.

Seiler is also vice president of the student organization
Duels and Games (DAG), which focuses on foam sword fighting
and games. He started participating in DAG after a falling out
with his first-year friend group. Soon after, DAG helped him
learn to be more outgoing and has since become a meaningful
part of his social life.

“Yeah, it’s just beating the hell out of each other with
swords and just relieving stress after a long week,” Seiler
said. “I am very glad I found DAG because my post grad plans
all involve DAG members at the moment. Anyone here can
hopefully see that DAG has a long and storied tradition.”

One of Seiler’s most recognizable passions is his beloved (and
sometimes excessive) hobby of knitting. He’s been knitting on
and off for years, using monthly subscriptions for yarn and
string. Several years ago, Seiler became co-president of the
Fiber Arts club, which focuses on providing students with
instruction, access, and feedback to knitting, crochet,
embroidery and cross stitch.

“It did exist my first year and then I took it over the second
or third year, and we’ve been working on sort of dragging it
back from the brink,” Seiler said. “I think we’ve got it in a

good spot and I’m comfortable handing it off. We have a couple
of people who semi-regularly come and it’s nice to just have
something like that on campus.”

Overall, with this unique combination of plays, games, knitted
garments and code, Seiler has had varied and fulfilling
experiences at Grinnell College. In contrast to his hometown,
Grinnell gave him the opportunity to explore himself and
reevaluate his sense of identity.

“I was a lot more introverted and yes, awkward. Who isn’t
awkward as a first year? I’m glad that I had that safety
bubble to hop out of and get a lot more comfortable being
loud” Seiler said.