Katelyn Bosch
Highschool: Unity Christian High School
Class of 2016
Independent Student of the Day
Some might see a life of wandering, but Katelyn Bosch always felt like she had a plan. That plan was supposed to include a college somewhere far away. Instead, she chose Calvin College. Despite being only 30 minutes from where she grew up, it was a significant change, and allowed Katelyn to spend a semester abroad in England. “It has always been my dream to go to the UK, and I finally made it, and was allowed to stay for 4 months. I met wonderful people doing wonderful things with their lives, explored castles, colorful villages, pubs, and countryside and loved every second of it. I was able to also visit Ireland, Italy, Paris, Santorini, and Rothenburg, all countries with their own fascinating cultures and norms.”
At Calvin, Katelyn ended up falling in love with many intellectual pursuits and decided on two majors – history and strategic communications. She wants to also major in religion, art history, art, English, and Spanish, but there isn't enough time.
Hmmm, what else?
Katelyn took a journalism class freshman year and hated it. The deadline driven, AP style, boring third person articles that forced her to talk to people for content added a lot of stress to her life. So, naturally, when asked to write for the religion section of the Calvin Chimes her sophomore year, she agreed. The next year she was hired as the religion section editor, and is currently the online editor. The work that was initially challenging and stressful, is still challenging and stressful, but Katelyn sees the beauty in making stories accessible to people.
Katelyn’s family is full of two loving, adventuresome, and beautiful parents, and three sisters who can be described likewise. They are the calm in the storm she can always come back to. She wouldn't trade them for the world.
My motivation
Stories. The little narratives you find when you talk with the person in the elevator for one minute before they step out, the perfect image of a cup of coffee your friend posted on Instagram, or the history of an object you found at an antique store. Everything and everyone has a story, and these stories are a very powerful force.
My latest accomplishments
I recently worked on initiatives on our student newspaper, Calvin Chimes, to bring about more student involvement and staff enjoyment. Our paper struggled last semester with students who are overtaxed and overworked, and we wanted this to be different next semester. We wanted to foster a fun work environment. So we opened up more digital communication channels so editors can ask for help when needed, we moved our meetings to earlier in the week to better deal with fall-outs before our Wednesday deadline, and had a visioning session with staff so they could bring their frustrations forward. This has been life-changing for everyone on staff, who regularly spent 8-10 hours in the office every Wednesday night.
Next big goal
As a senior, I spend a lot of time looking forward to what the rest of my life will be like. My goal is to find a way to use my passions and interests to help people...and still be able to pay my bills. That last part is what I'm still figuring out.
I hope to participate in a graduate program in public history in order to better achieve this goal.
Why is choosing your own path important?
There are a lot of things in the world that try to set a direction for your feet and tell you what to do. Some are conflicting; some are poor choices for you. It is important to be able to understand when things are socially constructed and needlessly stressful or constraining to you.
Personally, I see many areas where people's histories and stories are being told poorly, and I want to be able to change that. It would be easy to go along with the status quo, but I am interested in alternative mediums, such as online and visual representations, that may be better effective.
Favorite place on campus
Fish House CafeShare this profile
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