Senior Leader Draws on BVU Experience
There is celebration among the COVID-19 chaos for Katelyn Baltes who has accepted a position teaching art at the high school she attended. Through the uncertainty, she is thankful for the good times she had at BVU.
A time to celebrate is also a time to adjust for Katelyn Baltes, a Buena Vista University senior majoring in art education.
“I just got a job teaching art education at Hampton-Dumont High School, where I graduated in 2016,” Baltes says.
“And yet my heart breaks because our campus is closed due to the coronavirus,” she adds.
It’s a spring semester full of anxiety and unanswered questions for many students, notably BVU’s Class of 2020 which awaits word on whether or not dramatic steps for group gatherings or social distancing will still be in force by late May.
“I won’t finish my senior year of golf. I don’t think I can say goodbye to my friends from international countries, and other states, the way I wished,” Baltes says. “And while it’s hard to think of things like that, I’m also grateful for everything we have and have had at BVU.”
“People often say how you know that a campus feels right the minute you step foot on it. That’s the way it worked for me with BVU. I knew immediately.”
Katelyn Baltes
Baltes has certainly gotten the most out of her BVU experience. When not participating on the Beavers golf team, she could be found serving in the executive leadership teams for a variety of organizations, such as Teachers Inc.; Art & Design Club; and Kappa, Delta, Pi. Baltes served as a resident advisor for two years, then ascended to a position of community coordinator.
“People often say how you know that a campus feels right the minute you step foot on it,” she says. “That’s the way it worked for me with BVU. I knew immediately. And it’s always felt like family. I had the opportunity to be in sports, activities, and leadership. And they all prepared me.”
Baltes, who is student teaching at Clear Lake High School, has begun learning more about online teaching as the high school moves in that direction. Baltes has experience in online education as she took a class via Zoom last year. She even had to teach a lesson on Zoom as part of the class.
“I’m not the greatest when it comes to technology, but Zoom was easy,” she says. “We just have to realize that we’re all in this together.”
Spring 2020 and the changes astir have Katelyn Baltes, the future art teacher, thinking about her BVU cap and gown. The cap, she says, is something she thought she’d decorate. She’d love to have that chance.
“My cooperating teacher just gave me something related to Dr. Seuss’ ‘Oh, The Things We Can Do,'” she says. “If I decorate my cap, that might be the theme. ‘Oh, The Things We Can Do’ resembles my life to this moment.”