Unfiltered: Fall 2022

Senior year has arrived for the students in “Unfiltered,” a series that asks five simple questions—over and over, each semester until they graduate. Along with thinking about life after graduation, our students from the Class of 2023 are soaking up senior year with corn mazes, classes on jazz history and Dances of the African Diaspora, and an internship with the Advocates for Human Rights in Minneapolis. 

Here’s what they have to say this fall: 

Ross Relic
Crystal Lake, Ill.

What class are you most excited about right now? Jazz Advance! It’s wonderful to learn such a detailed history about how jazz formed and developed!

What’s one recent triumph (large or small!)? I got my first ever girlfriend, which has been a massive milestone for me!

What have you learned lately? I have recently started learning Portuguese! It has turned out to be a lot more different from Spanish than I was led to believe!

What do you wish you would’ve known six months ago? I wish I would’ve known that I should start keeping a more formal budget so that I could’ve limited my expenses more over the summer and saved more money.

What’s one thing you want to do in the next six months? I hope to have figured out a solid plan for what I’m going to try to do immediately after college…because so far it’s been pretty vague.

Carter Rutherford
Alexandria, Va., and Santiago, Chile

What class are you most excited about right now? Dances of the African Diaspora with Sister Patricia Brown is so much fun! It’s been a great experience stepping out of my comfort zone and finding community in the dance studio.

What’s one recent triumph (large or small!)? I finished my Asian Studies major last semester. I’m currently taking the last classes for my Geography major and Data Science minor, but it feels good to have finished a major.

What have you learned lately? This semester, I’ve learned a lot about caste in India and the rise of Hindu nationalism. I’m currently taking Political Geographies of South Asia with visiting professor Rupak Shrestha and attended a talk by Yashica Dutt and a screening of Anand Padwardhan’s film Vivek on campus. 

What do you wish you would’ve known six months ago? I wish I had realized how cold and gray it would be until the end of April. I was not prepared for winter to last that long!

What’s one thing you want to do in the next six months? Figure out what’s next for me! I’m graduating in December and I’m still figuring out where I’m going to live and what I’m going to do. It’s a nerve-racking but also exciting time.

Hannah Scharrer
Tacoma, Wash.

What class are you most excited about right now? I’m doing an internship for credit right now with the Advocates for Human Rights and it is such a rewarding learning experience! It’s also nice to not have homework for it!

What’s one recent triumph (large or small!)? I’ve been wanting to go to a corn maze in Minnesota ever since my freshman year and never did, but I finally made it over fall break.

What have you learned lately? I learned that I am not allergic to bees! I was stung for the first time over fall break. Good information to know!

What do you wish you would’ve known six months ago? I was abroad six months ago, and I wish I had known how much I would miss it! Toward the end of my time in Spain, I felt like I was ready to come home, but now I feel ready to go back and explore even more!

What’s one thing you want to do in the next six months? I’m looking forward to just enjoying the rest of my senior year. I’m hoping to go to a lot of hockey games in downtown St. Paul, too.