Mara Forsyth ’18
Elementary education
Softball

2017-18 honors: Second-team All-Conference, First-team All-Region

After graduation: Second-grade teacher and volleyball coach, Denver (Iowa) Community School District

How did the coaching staff emphasize academics once you were on campus?

Coach (Jamie Mueller) was always interested and asking me questions about my major and what I wanted to get out of my experience. Study tables were required for students who were struggling. We had grade checks all the time. The culture she created was about building independent, strong people, and that’s just part of the program.

You student-taught in Hawaii. How did that work with your softball training?

At first I was just messing around, saying I should go there to do my student teaching. But it would have been during my whole off-season, and I have always been the person to run off-season things, and I didn’t want to miss that. I went into Coach’s office and said this is my idea, but I probably won’t do it, and she said, ‘No, do it. That’s why you chose a DIII school. That is why we have those opportunities. It’s about the experience.’ She was the one who convinced me to do it.

What was the athletic highlight of your Wartburg career?

Overall, the biggest things I will remember were our trips to Florida for spring training and the bus rides with my teammates. The relationships I’ve built with the coaching staff and my teammates will last a lot longer than the actual games will.

And academically?

My student teaching. The opportunities that Wartburg has created for students to go and travel to different places is awesome.