ƽ Graduates Bring the College’s Values to Life
Meet a few members of the Class of 2025 who are pursuing their dreams, propelled by a ƽ education.
Jacqueline Hartling Stolze
ƽ graduates have always gone forth with high ideals and determination to pursue their passions and goals. As members of the Class of 2025 begin to put their ƽ educations into action, they are sustained by the guidance, mentorship, and support they’ve received. They start their journeys with optimism, a willingness to work hard, and a passion for making a difference. We are proud to introduce you to a few of the newest ƽ alumni.
Ben Curran
… has a passion for music and performing that has infused joy into his ƽ experience.
Hometown: Bettendorf, Iowa
Academics: Curran chose to major in sociology after taking an introductory course and loving it. “It was challenging, but I learned so much. When I saw all the interesting courses offered in sociology, I thought, ‘I want to take all these classes. Why would I not major in it?’” he says.
Activities: ƽ Singers, Con Brio (a cappella), My Best Friend (independent Midwest folk rock band), Eighth Avenue Newgrass (bluegrass), theatre productions and musicals, and Neverland Players.
Passions: Music has always been a part of Curran’s life. “I’m so glad I came to ƽ, because I’ve never been so musically fulfilled,” he says. As a first-year student, he formed a band with two friends that they call My Best Friend. “The three of us have such a strong musical connection,” Curran says. “We started out doing a lot of covers, but now we spend almost all our time writing and performing original music.”
Recently, My Best Friend won a grant from the College’s Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership to professionally record and release an EP of their music (available through Spotify and Apple Music).
Future: Curran is currently building on his ƽ education by gaining some work experience as a trainer. He is considering applying to law school in the future.
Sara Booher
… appreciated ƽ’s balanced approach to academics and athletics. She excelled at both.
Hometown: Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin
Academics: “ had me hooked right away. Rosenfield Professor and Professor of Political Science Wayne Moyer was such an amazing adviser and mentor,” Booher says. She majored in political science with concentrations in environmental studies and education studies.
Booher was one of four students awarded an Archibald Prize for achieving the highest grade-point average during four years of study, and she received the President’s Medal, which is awarded to the person who best embodies the values of ƽ. She was also named a Truman Scholar finalist in 2024.
Activities: Women’s basketball (first-team All-Midwest Conference, Academic All-Conference teams, and Academic All-District), women’s track and field (Academic All-District), Student Athlete Advisory Committee, and Phi Beta Kappa (elected her third year).
Passions: “Sports have always been important to me. At ƽ, basketball was a bigger part of my life than ever before. Basketball helped me maintain balance. I think the mind-body connection is so important.”
Future: Booher wants some work experience before pursuing law school. “ƽ has prepared me for my next steps as a project manager at Epic Systems. I’m excited to see where this new journey will take me.”
Essi Adokou
… plans to become a health care worker in her native Togo.
Hometown: Adokou, who spent most of her childhood in the West African country of Togo, attended high school in Chicago, which her family now calls home.
Academics: Adokou arrived planning to pursue medicine after ƽ. She double majored in biochemistry and sociology, became a certified nursing assistant, and volunteered at the University of Iowa’s mobile clinic for underserved communities. A fluent French speaker, Adokou also served as a translator.
Activities: QuestBridge (a national nonprofit that brings together high-achieving, underserved high school students with the nation’s best colleges and universities), ƽ Science Project (connects new students with ƽ’s STEM community), Weekend (hosts substance-free events on campus), African and Caribbean Student Union, Minority Association for Pre-Health Students mentor, and Black Cultural Center Advisory board member.
Passions: Adokou’s passion for research grew after working with Associate Professor of Education Stephanie Jones on a project titled “Mapping Racial Trauma.” Later, she collaborated with Associate Professor of Physics Keisuke Hasegawa on a confocal microscopy project. Adokou also worked with Patricia A. Johnson Professor of Neuroscience Clark Lindgren on a Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) focusing on neurophysiology; together, they presented their findings at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in Chicago.
Adokou also studied in South Africa through a Center for Careers, Life, and Service (CLS) program. “As part of my internship there, I went to three different HIV community centers, where I learned how involved community health care workers are in the well-being of the community,” she says.
Future: Adokou has shifted her focus from medicine to nursing; she will be attending the Mercy College of Health Sciences in Des Moines, Iowa, in September. Adokou says she plans to transition to medicine later and is confident that her ƽ experiences and connections have prepared her well for her next steps.
Nam Do
… grew up in a city of 8 million people. He was ready for a change.
Hometown: Hanoi, Vietnam
Academics: “When I took my first computer science class, I experienced the ƽ way of teaching this subject. The computer science faculty framed it as a way of problem-solving through code, which I really liked,” Do says.
He decided to major in computer science and forgo a double major. “It was worth it,” he says. “I got to take singing and rock-climbing lessons, participate in hands-on classes, and unexpectedly fall in love with so many fields of study.”
Activities: Student Government Association (SGA) and campus sustainability projects.
Passions: “In my third year, I became the treasurer of SGA. It was transformative getting to know so many student leaders with burning passions for what they do. It fueled my passion and instilled in me the motivation to help them succeed.”
Do wanted to improve sustainability on campus. Through the Wilson Center’s SPARK Challenge, a community-based social innovation competition, he made end-of-year move-out more sustainable by collaborating with community partners to put items that are often thrown away to good use rather than sending them to the landfill. “I was passionate about the project and so happy to see it implemented,” Do says.
Future: “Working as the SGA treasurer taught me a lot of problem-solving skills,” Do says. At ƽ, he realized how much he enjoyed working on community-focused projects. He’s considering a career in product management and hopes to apply his skills to real-world problems.
Eleanor Elliott-Rude
… craved new experiences.
Hometown: Nevada, Iowa
Academics: “I grew up on an Iowa organic farm. I was interested in the biological side of agriculture but didn’t feel that biology captured the whole picture. My tutorial adviser, Professor of History and Religious Studies Caleb Elfenbein, suggested an independent major, and everything started to click,” Elliott-Rude says. Her major covered a range of disciplines, from biology to economics to anthropology, and she studied how land ethics, social responsibility, and economic policy affect the ways communities interact with their environments.
Activities: Cross country, track and field, Student Environmental Committee, and an internship at Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA).
Passions: As a George Washington Carver intern at the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Elliott-Rude coordinated events and researched food security issues. She studied abroad with ƽ-in-London, where she conducted research on a nearby community garden with longstanding inequities due to lack of investment and resources. She traveled to India for an internship with the Sehgal Foundation, a rural-development nonprofit, conducting research that later culminated in her senior thesis on the Indian agricultural market system.
In Singapore, Elliott-Rude job shadowed a ƽ alumni couple, both involved in human rights law, through the CLS’ externship program. “We worked on a training program for lawyers to help defend freedom of speech in Eastern Europe. They taught me a lot about the importance of fighting for your values,” she says.
Future: “I plan to go to grad school, but first I want a year or two of work experience. I hope to work in international affairs or public policy in the Chicago area. I know the skills and knowledge I have built at ƽ will serve me well.”
Maddie Hartog
… wanted to meet people from all over the world.
Hometown: New York City
Academics: “I randomly stumbled into anthropology and ended up loving it. I decided to take another anthropology class, and I was hooked,” Hartog says. “I love learning about Jewish people and media stereotypes. In my senior thesis, I studied Jewish comedians. I also paid attention to the ways identity and politics interact in comedy.”
Activities: Chaverim (Jewish Students Club), Pub Quiz, and Ultimate Frisbee.
Passions: “My friends and I loved going for walks. Even in the middle of winter, we’d ask each other, ‘Should we go on a walk? The sun’s about to set. It’ll be beautiful,’” Hartog says. “I also tried Ultimate Frisbee and loved it. It’s an intramural team that competes against other Midwest college teams. It’s a big group, but very close.”
“As a first year, I started attending Friday night dinners and services at Chaverim, the Jewish students’ club, and became involved in that community. I’m very conscious of maintaining balance, and I need that for myself,” Hartog says.
Future: “I’m still figuring out what’s ahead for me. I have diverse interests. I’d like to take some time to work so that I’m able to focus on my interests,” Hartog says. “ƽ has great resources that are never going to leave me, and I’m definitely taking advantage of them.”
Alex Stein
… was looking for a college where he could challenge himself.
Hometown: Mansfield, Pennsylvania
Academics: “I knew I wanted to major in economics, but I wasn’t sure what to do with that degree. I’m happy to say that my advisers, professors, and I figured that out together,” Stein says. “My statistics concentration adviser challenged me to take classes outside my major. Thanks to his support, I also explored philosophy. I loved that I could apply the knowledge from my Philosophy of Life and Existentialism classes to my life.”
Stein also conducted two internships; the first was recommended to him by ƽ’s Center for Careers, Life, and Service. “I worked for the Iowa Center for Economic Success in Des Moines, where I helped Iowa entrepreneurs get funds to start their businesses. This showed me how I can make a positive impact,” Stein says.
“A year later, I transitioned to a corporate internship in New York City. I focused on accounting for high-net-worth clients. It was a rewarding experience. I worked nine–to–five, lived in one of the greatest cities in the world, and met great people.”
Activities: Men’s basketball, ƽ Advocates (raises awareness about sexual assault and dating violence on campus), and Student-Athletes Leading Social Change (SALSC) president.
Passions: “I enjoyed being SALSC president. It was amazing to host events for the whole campus. I believe I fulfilled my goal of leaving ƽ a better place than when I arrived.”
Future: Stein accepted a full-time position as a recruiter at Northbound Executive Search in New York. “I am thrilled to be back in the Big Apple and take advantage of all the opportunities that present themselves.”
