Drake Community Library is a public library serving the community of Grinnell, Iowa. The library also manages a local history archive consisting of thousands of documents and photographs pertaining to the history of Grinnell and the surrounding communities. Established in the 1970s and maintained by volunteers until recently, the library archives helps community members and researchers access information and primary sources. A core goal for the local history archives in the coming year is increasing digital access to the archive collections by uploading photographs and documents to the Digital Grinnell website and DCL local history website.

I joined the Partners in Education team because I am passionate about equity in higher education, especially in regards to first-generation college students. Partners provides students who are referred to the program with academic support, coaching and mentoring through partnerships with Academic Advising, campus learning centers, and faculty partners. In my role as an academic coach, I taught students evidence-based study strategies, facilitated group discussion circles about academic challenges, and coordinated events to increase students’ sense of belonging and confidence in their academic abilities. All of my work supporting students comes from a place of appreciative, inclusive and strengths-based advising and is based on the principles of affirmation, advocacy, and support as I walk with students on their academic journeys.

There is so much that goes into creating quality learning materials for students! I learned this first-hand during my experience as an intern at W.W Norton in the college editorial department. As an intern I assisted the political science team on projects related to both political science textbooks and the accompanying digital learning tools. I worked on everything from formatting manuscript drafts to creating art manuscripts, requesting permissions, and compiling questions for online quizzes. We centered accessibility, data visualization, and student engagement throughout the revision process for new editions in order to create quality textbooks for students of political science.

When I staffed the circulation desk as a student worker, I strove to provide excellent customer service to the public as a representative of the libraries. I also supported student and professor scholarship in a variety of ways. I assisted patrons with locating books, journal articles, and government documents in both the humanities and science libraries and helped patrons use the library search engine to maximum efficiency when searching for sources. I instructed patrons on how to use reference and reserve course materials and how to request interlibrary loans to acquire materials from partner organizations. A key part of my job was assisting students, faculty, staff, and community members to navigate Grinnell’s digital journal and database subscriptions for their research needs.

The Scarlet & Black is the oldest college newspaper west of the Mississippi! I worked as a student reporter where I wrote on topics of interest to the student population and broader local community on a weekly basis. My reporting includes front page news reports about research grants for professors, undergraduate fellowships, campus renovations, student protests, new funding initiatives, and community partnerships. I would research stories by conducting interviews with students, faculty, staff and town residents for feature profiles and reviews.