Graduate Profile: Katherine Persitz
Katherine Persitz, 2006 Alma graduate, says her minor in American Studies is helping her find solutions to situations in both her personal and professional life.
"This minor helped me understand how to connect pieces of a puzzle that don't always seem to fit together," she says. "When you are looking at an issue, personally or professionally, you need to look at every angle. Working for a minor that required that kind of insight developed the instinct to dig deeper than a band-aid solution."
"When you are looking at an issue, personally or professionally, you need to look at every angle. Working for a minor that required that kind of insight developed the instinct to dig deeper than a band-aid solution."
Persitz works as a customer account transfer service representative for Edward Jones in Phoenix, Ariz. She says she was attracted to the American Studies minor because of how it interacted with other academic programs.
"I really connected with how interactive it was with the other majors and minors," she says. "To understand one aspect like literature of American Studies, it helped to understand the history and politics of the time. Since it connected so many aspects of what already interested me, it seemed natural to want to get a degree in something I was already pursuing."
A Spring Term class to Chicago also was influential for Persitz, who credits it for allowing her the confidence to study in Chicago for a semester.
The small campus and professor interaction were what drew Persitz to Alma, where she was involved in the Almanian (the student newspaper), Phi Sigma Sigma, the Scot (yearbook) and Student Congress.
