Wartburg has what it takes for you to be successful

NAME: Lexi Groe
CLASS YEAR: 2022
HOMETOWN: Lake Mills, Iowa
MAJORS: Environmental Science & Studies and Public Health

INVOVLEMENT ON CAMPUS: Volleyball, Track, Dance Marathon, The W work-study, Intramurals

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE WARTBURG: I decided to come to Wartburg mostly because my Mom went to Wartburg. However, I also liked the proximity to home, it was close enough that I could pop back home if I needed to.

HOW DID YOU DECIDE ON YOUR MAJOR: I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to major in, but I met with a couple of the professors in the environmental science major, and I really liked them, so I started to go with that. I was not originally planning to do public health at all but my professor convinced me. I am glad he did. I had always been interested in business, so I decided to stay for an extra semester and kind of wrap that up.

HOW HAS WARTBURG SET YOU UP FOR SUCCESS IN YOUR FIELD: I think connections is a big thing. Chatting with people and being able to find people who have been at Wartburg and are working now is a good icebreaker. I think my work as an on-campus contact tracer during the pandemic made me more comfortable with people because I would make hundreds of calls. I think that experience helped me a ton with managing data and communicating with people, and gave me a lot of real-life experience.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A CONTACT TRACER: I had to get certified through Johns Hopkins University, and then I was the point of contact for anyone who had COVID, was exposed to COVID, or was feeling sick. It was as fun as it could be. We did all the testing. We did all the contact tracing for two years. It was very immersive in some very prevalent health issues. It also was very applicable in learning different ways to communicate with people. The new policies in place for COVID changed weekly, so I had to make sure I understood the new policies and that everybody on the team understood the new policies. That way we could explain it to students and faculty when we would call and chat with them if they had been exposed or were feeling sick or had tested positive.

FAVORITE MEMORY AT WARTBURG: I have to say May Term — sand volleyball at night and spending time with friends. When it starts to warm up, everyone is outside and that just changes the atmosphere of campus. It is always one of my favorite times.

ANY ADVICE FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS: My biggest advice would be to get involved in things. Get involved in something and that can open doors to get involved in more things. You move away from home, and you don’t have your high school friends or your parents. Finding your group of people is huge. 

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS AFTER GRADUATION: I work in Des Moines as a a staffing manager at a company called Talent Bridge. I do interviews with people, resume-building, and what not. My fiancé teaches at Earlham; he is also from Wartburg.

WHY IS WARTBURG WORTH IT: My professors knew my name. For example, one of my professors, I had him for a morning class and then again for a night class. I skipped my morning class, and then when I came for my night class, they came to check on me. It was nice that they knew I wasn’t there, and they knew my name. It is not just a classroom of 500 people that you go unnoticed. I really like how personable that it feels to me. They see us as people and not just another student.