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This Founders Day, a classroom of first-year students were the experts on St. Olaf College’s 150-year history. 

Students in Professor of Norwegian Kari Lie Dorer’s First-Year Seminar course Life on the Hill: Then and Now spent their first semester on campus researching stories of St. Olaf’s past and present. Teams of students selected four events that took place over the course of the college’s 150 years and worked to compile them into a digital timeline with help from campus research librarians, staff in the St. Olaf College Archives, and members of the IT team. These timelines were on display during this year’s Founders Day celebration, which featured a special chapel address from President Susan Rundell Singer and a cupcake reception in the Buntrock Commons Crossroads. 

“There were so many people that came up to me to express that the students had done phenomenal work,” Dorer says. “The students now know pieces of St. Olaf’s history that people who have been here for many more years — whether they be staff, faculty, or students — have never been introduced to. Hopefully, that helps them feel more at home.”

Student research covered a wide range of St. Olaf’s history, from the very beginnings of the college in 1874 to the career of current St. Olaf Choir Conductor Anton Armstrong ’78. In researching so many different generations of the college’s history, these first-year students have been challenged to reflect on the St. Olaf experience and how it has changed throughout time. 

“A real pillar of this course is thinking about how students have navigated life at different periods of time, whether it be during periods of war, during periods of protest, all these things that are either so important to the St. Olaf campus or so important in the world,” Dorer says. “How have students gotten through these things in the past, and how do those experiences compare to the experiences students currently have?”

“A real pillar of this course is thinking about how students have navigated life at different periods of time … How have students gotten through these things in the past, and how do those experiences compare to the experiences students currently have?”

— Professor of Norwegian Kari Lie Dorer

All students attending St. Olaf are required to take a first-year seminar course such as this one, focusing primarily on developing skills essential to success at a liberal arts college: critical thinking, text analysis, and effective discussion. At the start of the course, students began practicing these skills as they had conversations about who gets to tell an institutional story such as St. Olaf’s. Many in the class agreed that students have the privilege and responsibility to keep St. Olaf’s history alive.   

“As a first-year, it is so important to engage in your school’s history because it establishes your roots in the college,” Andrew Bonk ’28 says. “Getting to learn about the college that I am attending has helped me to fall more in love with the school and get more acclimated to the campus.” 

Beyond academics, first-year seminar courses explore several inherent values of St. Olaf, such as the value of fostering community. For many students, this sesquicentennial research opportunity made them feel more connected to the campus community given they were able to meet with Oles of all generations while preparing and presenting their work. 

“My favorite part of this project was how it allowed us to connect with alumni, faculty, community members, and — for many of us — family members,” Marenna Bang ’28 says. “We were able to interview and present to former Oles, which was extremely rewarding.”

“My favorite part of this project was how it allowed us to connect with alumni, faculty, community members, and — for many of us — family members. We were able to interview and present to former Oles, which was extremely rewarding.”

— Marenna Bang ’28

Avery Flanders ’28 echoes this sentiment, having researched events taking place between 1950-1974 and getting to present to alumni who went to St. Olaf during that period. 

“So many St. Olaf alumni from my time period were at Founders Day, and they shared incredible stories related to the topics I was presenting,” Flanders says. “Hearing their personal experiences really brought the history to life in a way that was both meaningful and inspiring.” 

In addition to the standard goals of a first-year seminar course, Dorer’s course prompted students to consider their own challenges in college alongside those of Oles before them. As they reflect on how former St. Olaf students navigated life both in the everyday and during major world events, Dorer hopes that students leave the course feeling more deeply connected to St. Olaf.           

“I think the hope was to give these individuals in the class a certain level of pride that they have taken part in St. Olaf’s history in a very deep and meaningful way,” Dorer says. “Their project is something that other students, former students, and other individuals can access forever. I think they really left Founders Day feeling like they made a meaningful contribution to St. Olaf’s legacy.” 

Dorer says the need to research and share St. Olaf’s history does not end with the creation of these student timelines.

“This was a really great start, but we need another iteration of the course to engage with other important moments and individuals in time,” she says. “One thing that I felt like we didn’t examine thoroughly enough was what St. Olaf was before it was St. Olaf, including the Wahpekute Band of the Dakota Nation who originally inhabited the land St. Olaf sits on.”

The timelines that students in this course created are preserved in a digital collection that is now a permanent contribution to the sesquicentennial history of the college.