Oracle Online

O: What do you do for telecounseling?

JS: We call up mainly prospective students and just see how the college search is going, check with them about coming to visit Hamline. Sometimes we’ll call about things like the Hamline Experience and try to get them to come to that.

O: Your hair is a very unique trait. Was it a conscious choice to grow out your hair?

JS: Well, kinda. It was the winter of my 9th-grade year in high-school. And I was just like, ah, I’ll start growing out my hair. Then one of my friends had his hair permed so I permed my hair and it’s just been going since then. I was helping out at the Hamline Experience [with] Colin MacFarlane, we were holding the doors open for people. Then someone made a remark about how [we are] two of the most recognizable characters on campus.

O: What are your hobbies?

JS: I’ve played guitar for five years. I sometimes play piano and I’m hoping [to take] piano lessons next semester. I draw here and there.

O: What are your favorite bands right now?

JS: Muse is one of my favorite bands. I tend to listen to rather eclectic music, stuff that people might not know about. But you find a lot of people at Hamline that know about a lot of stuff. I also like a lot of classical music, so I listen to a lot of Beethoven.

O: Have you been to any concerts lately?

JS: For the Presidential Scholars Colloquium, we went to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the day after I went and saw one of Beethoven’s Symphonies
play. There’s a show at First Avenue I want to go to...

O: What’s your major?

JS: Right now it’s philosophy and a minor in religion.

O: Do you have any plans on what you want to do with that?

JS: My plan right now is to go to St. Thomas and take Arabic, go through the whole Arabic program and see how fluent I can get with that. Then, either go to the Peace Corp for two years or go on to graduate school for something and then do something with the government. [They’re] looking for people who can speak fluent Arabic, especially with modern-day politics. I took Islam for my J-term; it really piqued my interest.

O: Do you have a religious affiliation?

JS: No, I don’t. My parents raised me in an atheistic household. I consider myself a deist; I believe in a higher power, I don’t know what it is. My dad has been really influenced by East Asian religions. He did meditation for awhile, so Buddhism for me is the closest thing to a religion that I had in my life. I don’t know if I’ll necessarily convert to Buddhism. It’s something I’ll look into. I don’t feel the necessity to affiliate myself one way or the other.

O: Do you have aspirations to travel a lot?

JS: My friends and I always talk about [backpacking] through Europe. I want to study abroad, hopefully. I know there’s the York program. I think it would be cool to go across Europe and see all the different sights.

O: What’s your hometown?

JS: Truman, Minnesota. It’s south-central Minnesota, about 20 miles from the Iowa border. I went there until 8th-grade and then I [moved] to Fairmont. So, I went from a town of about 1,000 to about 11,000. I guess it felt like a real step up at the time but it wasn’t really. You realize that no matter where you go there will always be the same kind of people.