Lindsay is a writing and rhetoric major, cultural studies minor and honors program participant. A tutor in the college’s Writing Center and intern in the summer study abroad department, she also has been a feature writer for the Beacon student newspaper. During her junior year, Lindsay was one of seven students who participated in Northwestern’s inaugural Romania Semester; she plans to study in the Middle Eastern country of Oman as a senior. She traveled to Trinidad as a member of a Spring Service Project team and lives in the Mission House, one of Northwestern’s themed residences. She also has danced in the annual RUSH student dance concert.

Ideas on paper
“My classes in rhetorical studies have been some of my favorites. As a writer I’m being consistently stretched, and communicating ideas through the lens of fiction, creative non-fiction, rhetorical argument, anthropology and other means has required me to think critically about who I am, what I believe and how I engage a complex world. Wrestling with ideas is crucial far beyond the college environment. Our society too easily assumes the ‘sheep mentality’ of plodding along in the ruts of old ideas, but my Northwestern education is challenging familiar assumptions and requiring me to make independent decisions.”

Think again
“Even in their brilliance as scholars, Northwestern’s English professors are down-to-earth and genuinely care about their students as individuals. When I have been frustrated with my writing or thrown up my hands over some perplexity, a visit with one of my writing teachers invariably helps me take a deep breath, renew my perspective and believe there is hope. Whenever I leave a professor’s office, I feel like I take better thoughts with me.”

A reading place
“Northwestern’s English department and its idiosyncratic characters have fit me so well and have wonderfully supported my academic development. The distinctive creaks of Granberg Hall, the feeling of being surrounded by good books and good ideas, the laughter of familiar voices—this place is like home to me now.”

Rhetorical question
“When I tell people I’m a writing and rhetoric major, they ask, ‘What in the world can you do with that?’ My rhetorical parry would be: ‘What can I not do with that?’ The possibilities stretch wide because communicating effectively and with originality is one of the most crucial skills for any venue. I have the sense that my life after college is going to be a story in itself, with communication being central to it. My vision for the future isn’t limited to my career; primarily I think about what I can do to serve Christ and love others most effectively with the gifts and time I have been given.”

Mountaintop experience
“When I began applying for colleges and seeking the Lord’s direction, I never anticipated coming to Iowa. As much as I am a daughter of the Midwest, I was hoping to spend some years in the mountains. However, Northwestern was the door God opened the widest. Little did I know God would give me mountains in Eastern Europe. Northwestern is excellent at connecting students to the world, and after being part of the inaugural Romania Semester, I can only be grateful for one of the most significant opportunities of my life thus far. Spending four months in a post-communist context with New Horizons Foundation—an organization that is changing the lives of Romanian youth and thereby changing the future of that country—was an experience impossible to describe adequately. The semester solidified my desire to work internationally with an NGO (non-government organization) in the future.”

Next chapter
“As I look ahead to graduation, I’ve reached a place in my life where uncertainty is more comfortable than certainty, for in the questions I find God, rather than my own small answers. Rainer Maria Rilke says it poignantly: ‘… learn to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and books written in a very foreign tongue. … Live the questions now. Perhaps then, without hardly noticing, you will live along some distant day into the answers.’”