Tell us about your Bright Schol­ar connection.

My con­nec­tion with the Bright Foun­da­tion began in Fall 2017, when Tom Press and Mered­ith Dohmen shared their vision for cre­at­ing a net­work of sup­port for Bright Schol­ars on each cam­pus. Because of the strong, col­lab­o­ra­tive rela­tion­ships already in place between the foun­da­tion and UNI cam­pus lead­ers, they decid­ed to pilot a mod­el on UNI’s cam­pus. At the time, I was a grad­u­ate stu­dent with a pas­sion for build­ing men­tor­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties for first-gen­er­a­tion stu­dents, and was trust­ed to help bring that vision to life.

Work­ing along­side stu­dents and cam­pus lead­ers, we launched a sup­port mod­el for UNI Bright Schol­ars—pieces of which remain in place today. Fol­low­ing grad­u­a­tion from my master’s pro­gram, I became the Hon­ors & Schol­ars Pro­gram Coor­di­na­tor at UNI, con­tin­u­ing this work as part of my new role. Now, as the Bright Foun­da­tion’s Direc­tor of Schol­ar Engage­ment, I’m excit­ed to grow the organization’s sup­port for stu­dents by working with Bright Schol­ars at all three of Iowa’s regent uni­ver­si­ties.

How would you sum­ma­rize your pro­fes­sion­al career thus far?

For the past eight years, I’ve focused my career on build­ing pro­grams that help all stu­dents thrive in col­lege and beyond, with an empha­sis on first-gen­er­a­tion col­lege stu­dents. I’ve worked to cre­ate spaces that spark con­fi­dence, sup­port aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess, and pre­pare stu­dents for life after grad­u­a­tion — all ground­ed in authen­tic rela­tion­ships.

This work is very per­son­al for me. When I was an under­graduate stu­dent, I received a schol­ar­ship much like the Bright Schol­ars awards, and it tru­ly changed my life. The finan­cial sup­port was impor­tant, but know­ing that some­one believed in me meant even more. With­out that invest­ment, I wouldn’t have been able to afford or fin­ish my degree. I’m here today because gen­er­ous donors once took a chance on me — and now I get to cheer on, sup­port, and cel­e­brate the BRIGHT­est stu­dents out there!

What keeps you busy out­side of work?

Out­side of work, I keep busy run­ning my own busi­ness and tak­ing care of a large acreage. If I’m not tack­ling tax­es or mow­ing the lawn, you’ll prob­a­bly find me at the gym, enjoy­ing a walk by the riv­er, try­ing out a new restau­rant, or curled up with a good book (I’m always look­ing for rec­om­men­da­tions!).

Three fun facts about me:

1. I own a green­house busi­ness in north­ern Iowa that’s been in my fam­i­ly for three gen­er­a­tions!

2. I am a two-time state cham­pi­on in high school girl’s golf.

3. I know every sin­gle word of the movie Mon­sters, Inc.