I grew up in North Fond du Lac, a small Wisconsin town, and graduated from Horace Mann High School with plenty of ambition and not much of a map. Looking back, what I needed most wasn’t a plan. It was a community: mentors and peers who could help me see what I was capable of. Creating that kind of community for young people has become the thread running through everything I do.
At UW-Madison, I studied entrepreneurship and leadership at the Wisconsin School of Business and finished my BBA in three years. The most meaningful parts of college were the communities I got to help build. As Executive Director of the Badger Student Officials Association, I helped enhance Bucky’s Classic into a WIAA-approved officiating camp. As program assistant for the Business Emerging Leaders (BEL) Scholarship Program, I started the BEL Council, a group of twelve scholars I still get to walk alongside and mentor today.
Beyond campus, I serve as Vice President at Rewired Dynamics, where I lead RewiredEDU, a neuroscience-based social-emotional learning and leadership curriculum for schools. GRiT, our curriculum, is built around the climb up Mount Everest, from Basecamp to Summit, and it gives students tools to understand themselves, build real relationships, and lead with hope.
So why an MA in Arts and Creative Enterprise Leadership? Because I’ve realized the work I care about most is creative work. Designing a curriculum, hosting a gathering, building an experience that makes a fourteen-year-old feel seen: through the Bolz Center, I have realized that these are acts of creation. They need the same strategy, storytelling, and sustainability that any arts organization needs. The Bolz Center felt like the right place to sharpen both sides of that equation, the business and the art.
This year, I’m learning what it takes to turn a mission into a sustainable business: winning school partners, rallying local sponsors, and making sure every lesson can be understood by each student. My coursework feeds directly into that work. In MHR 632: Arts Entrepreneurship, I’m designing a one-day experiential leadership workshop that could become the pilot for a larger GRiT camp. I also work as a graduate assistant and case manager at the Wisconsin School of Business, supporting students as they navigate college, which keeps me close to the young people that I’m building for. After graduation, I plan to stay with Rewired Dynamics full time and keep building. My hope is that this program helps me bring more creativity and intention into the spaces we create for young people, so the next kid from a small town has a basecamp waiting when they start their climb.
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