What drew you to Concordia?
Three things, the education program at a Lutheran college, the chance to play soccer and the chance to be in music.

First, I went to a Lutheran grade school and I knew I wanted to be a teacher and share that experience with kids. It’s just something I always knew I wanted to do.

And then the opportunity to do both soccer and music was really important to me. I’ve played soccer since I was three years old and, even though I wasn’t recruited, I knew I wanted to try to play. After the first week of practice, the coach made me a fullback! Last year, we were in the semi-finals to play into the conference championship against our rivals, Edgewood in Madison. It was double OT and we scored the winning goal with minutes left, we all rushed the field! It was really exciting. We’re really promising this year too. We lost a lot of seniors and we have a lot of freshman now but we look really good.

Finally, I’ve played alto sax since I was in fifth grade so I wanted to join Concordia’s wind ensemble. I just love it! We tour WI, IA and MN in the winter and get the chance to visit a lot of people’s home churches. We go on one big trip every three years – 60-75 of us – and this year we’re traveling to Greece for a week and a half.

When I got here, met the coach, the Admission Counselor - I just knew it was the perfect place.

What was your first day like?
Nerve-wracking! But soccer, football, tennis, cross country and volleyball are all here early for camps. It’s not so bad because it wasn’t completely filled so we got to get used to being here.

It took about two weeks to get adjusted, just making sure I had the right books and knew how to get to my classes. I knew about 90% of the place in two weeks.

Kelsey’s Do’s and Don’ts
Don’t try to be someone you’re not. College is starting fresh for lots of people. You get to start over and be yourself so you can make the right kind of friends.

Do get involved in something! In high school you can do eight things at once but in college it’s harder. But you can find something that you fit in with to meet friends who have the same interests. Older people, too, can help with mentoring. When I started playing soccer, I made lots of friends through it, but my roommates weren’t in soccer, so I made a good, mixed group of friends outside of soccer too.

Favorite spot to study on campus?
I like Albrecht lounge, there’s lots of comfy chairs. You can just chill out, study and have some peace and quite by yourself.

Best Place to get a late night pizza?
Domino’s! I mean, they have their own keys to get in! They’re here all the time. It’s totally the way to go.

On dorm life
If you’re living with someone you don’t know, e-mail them ahead of time. Figure out who’s bringing what, get to know their personality.

On campus worship
I don’t have a car so I go to services here on campus, and it’s an outstanding community. It’s fun to worship with people you like, people you have things in common with. Plus we have The Haven on Sunday nights and it’s really fun to get together there since it’s not so traditional. It’s contemporary worship, bands come - it’s a great place for everyone.

On her major
It’s awesome! There are so many good professors, and they start you in education classes right away so you can switch majors if it’s not right. And they’re all so knowledgeable because they taught first, and now they teach college. We get to observe off campus and see how other teachers work, and it just helps so much because, you know, it’s what we’re going to be doing. And the profs are very open - they all have open doors, if you need anything, even if it’s not school related. I just always feel really comfortable going to them for anything. Just to have another outlet like that helps.

What’s the latest Kelsey has ever been up studying?
5:00 a.m. for finals week. It was my government final. There’s a point where you’re drifting, you know, but you just do it anyway. Once I got in there it wasn’t that bad, but you never know!

On the lake view
When I came to visit in my senior year, they had just started the bluff construction and I was just like, this view is amazing! Every morning for soccer we jog at 6:45 a.m., we stretch overlooking the lake - it’s totally one of the coolest feelings. You can go down there at night, see the stars, it’s breathtaking.