Five Minutes with St. Olaf College

When I sat down with Sarah Patterson from St. Olaf’s College, I knew very little about the school other than it is in Minnesota. As I learned about the beautiful campus nestled on a mix of farmland, wooded area, and prairie (which I remember is a treeless grassy plain because I chose to do a 4th grade book report on Little House on the Prairie and it required that I build a diorama of Laura and her family traveling by covered wagon over the treeless grassy plain to her new home in Kansas). Anyway, the campus is picturesque – and located only 45 minutes south of the Minneapolis/St. Paul – St. Olaf’s offers the best of both the urban and suburban worlds.

Here are some excerpts from Five Minutes with St. Olaf’s…

One thing I wish everyone knew about St. Olaf’s: it is an academically outstanding place – more collaborative than competitive – with a real sense of community. And The St. Olaf Christmas Festival is one of the oldest Christmas musical celebrations in the U.S. - it is broadcast on PBS each year!

If St. Olaf’s had its own IPOD playlist, what would be on it? Pretty mainstream music – alternative rock and pop – like Train and Counting Crows. And Classical music - because of our well known music program – with 17 instrumental ensembles and 10 vocal ensembles – more than 1/3 of our students are involved in music – so someone is always singing or playing the violin around campus!

Dress up for class or wear sweatpants? wear sweatpants

Closest Starbucks or local coffeehouse? There is a Caribou Coffee in town, but the local coffee shop, Blue Monday, is most popular with our students.

Students can name the quarterback vs. we have a football team? It would depend on who you asked – about 25% of our students play varsity athletics and even more are involved in intramurals – but there are definitely students who have no idea who the Quarterback is.

Recent speakers on campus: Karl Rove, Arianna Huffington, and the Center for Experiential Learning is also always inviting alums back to talk with students about their jobs. Also – OK Go was on campus a few weeks ago – which was a big hit!

Published by KMH