Fall 2003 - Northwestern College

N o r t h w e s t e r n C l a s s i cS t u d e n p tro f i l e2003 High School Student Leadership Confere n c e“Daring to Stand”near Amsterd a m ’s Red LightDistrict. The experience whether appetite for intern a t i o n a ltravel, so this fall she’s livingand studying in Gre a tBritain. Rather than the moreurban London study abro a dp rogram, Jeannine choseC a rm a rthen, Wales, whereshe is taking a creative writingclass and one calledPeople in the Country s i d e .“ P rofessors like Carl[ Va n d e rmeulen, English andcommunications] and KeithN o v. 14-15L e a rn about the practical, spiritual and personal aspectsof leadership, and get to know other student leaders!Registration deadline is Nov. 5. Contact Lisa Burc h ,d i rector of student programs, 712-707-7200, to re g i s t e ror receive a conference bro c h u re, or visitw w w. n w c i o w a . e d u / c o n f e re n c e s / l e a d e r s h i p 2 0 0 3 .[ F y n a a rdt, English] haveinfluenced me immensely, ”said Jeannine, who is thinkingof being a writer—andmaybe a pro f e s s o r. “I havem o re expectations now—ofothers, of myself, of life. I seethe world as a smaller place.I have a real sense of identity.I know I’m the same personwhether I’m on the Dakotaplains, in a New York highrise or in the Welsh countrysi d e . ”Rooted Writer“ Wallace Stegner wrote to his student Wendell Berry thati t ’s hard to come into the literary world with manure on yourboots,” wrote Jeannine in an essay about herself–a writer–andher most personal subject–rural life. “But I have a passion forrural writing,” she decided at the end of The AgriculturalImagination, a Nort h w e s t e rn course she took with Dr. KeithF y n a a rdt last spring.Jeannine read rural writers like Dakotans KathleenNorris and Linda Hasselstrom for the course. “At first Ithought, ‘Real artists hail from L.A. and New York, notplaces like Hoople, N.D., or Buttermilk, Kan. And seriouswriters don’t write about barns and windrows, lunchboxesand cowbells,’” she wrote.But Fynaardt, who studies Midwestern farm literatureand is writing a book about modern American agriculture ,convinced Jeannine that her love for the land is appro p r i a t eand import a n t .“Maybe not many people will be interested in re a d i n gabout the goings on at the local church bazaar or implementdealership, the history of the moldboard plow, or the year thed rought was so bad no crops came up, but it’s a history — a n da reality—that is dying. And it should be re c o rded,” Jeanninec o n c l u d e d .The “silence of the plains . . . [is a] fruitful silence thatproduces poems and essays,” wrote Norris, who’s becomeone of Jeannine’s favorite authors. “That’s what my homehas done for me, too,” wrote Jeannine. “It’s given me thematerial for when I need to ‘write what I know best.’ It’sbeen a way for me to more closely understand the farm andland I come from.”1 5 ▲ F a l l 2 0 0 3