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Katherine Persitz

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.

 

Students at Alma College can get involved in any of nearly 75 campus organizations, including fraternities and sororities, student government, academic honorary societies, campus media, intramural sports, the performing arts and worship groups.

 

Graduate Profile

Andrea Miller
Graduation: 2006
Major: History
Minor: American Studies

Andrea Miller hopes her American Studies minor coupled with a history major will lead her to a career in museum work or work at a national historic site.

“American Studies allowed me to get the chance to take a variety of classes and see how each class fit nicely with other classes I was taking at the time,” the 2006 graduate says. “It gave me a great base for my major, as well as a liberal arts education in general.”