Student Spotlight: Katie Olson
Katie Olson, a junior and art education major at NSU, is on the road to teaching others about art.
As a longtime Aberdeen resident, Olson decided to attend NSU so she could work closely with her professors, something she wouldn’t get in a larger school.
She was also able to apply the AP and dual credits she had earned during high school towards her degree at Northern.
“My mother also graduated from Northern,” said Olson. “NSU offered a community I am familiar with, and let me make the most of my scholarships.”
Olson stated that she has struggled the most with being a perfectionist during her time at NSU, often struggling with time constraints on projects as well as her busy schedule.
“I’ve also struggled with procrastination, as I got into the habit of it during senior year of high school,” said Olson. “I have to force myself to start some projects early, especially with media like ceramics, that tend to be very time sensitive.”
Olson also finds constantly being involved with her classes and their projects, as well as clubs on campus, the honors program and other activities keeps her looking forward to the next day and what it has in store.
Extracurricular Activities
During her time at Northern, Olson has since picked up many extra-curricular activities to fill the time between her classes and projects.
Olson has had the opportunity to attend the Upper Midwest Regional Honors Conference (UMRHC), where she was able to learn about other honor student's research.
“It felt wonderful to be around students from other colleges who were genuinely interested in one another’s research and findings,” said Olson. “It encouraged me to pursue my own research with the knowledge that I can contribute.”
“The NSU Honors Program has really challenged me to take on new opportunities,” said Olson. “Something which will assist me with my future career teaching art classes. I’ll never settle, and I’ll always be pushing ahead.”
Olson hopes to instill these morals into her future students, and by doing that it will lead them to their own success.
Plans for the Future
Olson’s art teachers in middle school and high school inspired her love for the subject, and encouraged her talent.
“Another extremely notable teacher who really showed me what passionate, superb teaching can be was my AP Literature teacher in high school,” Olson said. “Generally speaking, I have liked school my whole life, so it seemed natural to transition from student to teacher.”
Olson also plans to enter her work in exhibitions and to earn her M.A and her Ph.D., and to one day be able to teach in the Midwest at the middle or high school level.
She hopes she can also travel the world and inspire individuals to rise up to their potential, challenge themselves, and explore their world through art.
Olson’s immediate plans for the future are to begin writing and researching an interesting thesis and to create interesting artwork related to it.