Lacey Squier has about three weeks left at Gustavus, and then she’ll have just a few weeks to pack up her life and head over to Bowling Green State University in Ohio. This communication studies major will very soon be studying there in the student personnel graduate program. However, approaching graduation does not slow down Lacey’s excitement and involvement at Gustavus. “She shows more Gustie pride than just about anyone I know … it’s impossible for her to walk by the Book Mark without wanting a new article of Gustie gear, no matter how close to graduation she is,” Senior Public Accounting Major Hanna Fischer said.
Lacey’s pride in Gustavus did not start as a senior. She has been a delighted member of our community all four of her years here. “Lacey is a Gustie through and through. Seriously, this girl bleeds black and gold. In the four years that I have lived near or with Lacey, I have witnessed how incredibly involved she is and am always surprised by how much one girl is able to do,” Senior Chemistry Major Chelsea Bayer said.
Lacey has put that Gustavus pride to good use. “Lacey truly embodies the spirit of Gustavus in her work with others. She is committed to the student experience, developing relationships and most importantly experiencing all of the opportunities that Gustavus has to offer,” Lacey’s CAB adviser, Assistant Director of Student Activities, Adria Junso said.
Lacey’s first year she said she “dabbled” in many different organizations on campus. “I went to the involvement fair my first year, and I was one of those people who signed up for 17 different things and then was on all of their email lists,” Lacey said. In her first couple of years at Gustavus, Lacey was involved in many groups such as The Greens environmental club and Gustavus’s radio station, KGSM.
However it didn’t take long for Lacey to find something that she became really passionate about. During the first-year involvement fair, she also signed up for the coffeehouse committee of the Campus Activities Board (CAB) and very quickly found herself becoming more and more involved. “I really admired the committee executives. The spring of my first year, the executives of the coffeehouse committee had resigned and one of my executives recommended me. So spring of my first year I was thrown into it, and was a bit overwhelmed,“ Lacey said. Lacey is now the Co-president of CAB.
Lacey has thoroughly enjoyed her time spent with CAB. Although she sometimes feels like she’s at work, she still likes to attend campus events in her spare time. “I’m the only senior on the CAB board. I think I take those moments more intensely than others; being all sentimental and all,” Lacey said.
Lacey’s all-time favorite memory with CAB was during the 2010 Tyrone Wells homecoming concert. “We pulled him aside and said, ‘Hey Tyrone, can you just stop in the middle of your concert and start clapping your hands slowly, and then gradually speed up?’ Without him knowing it, we got Tyrone to start the Gustie Rouser!” At this year’s President’s Ball, CAB recommended a Tyrone Wells song as “the CAB song.”
Lacey is a 2011 recipient of the Paul Magnusen Leadership and Service Award. The award seems very fitting to those who know Lacey. “Lacey is the person you go to when you need something because you know she will be understanding and helpful in any way she can be. Always,” Sophomore Environmental Studies Major Alex Christensen said. CAB won the Magnusen award while Lacey was co-president, and she was one of the producers of the “It Gets Better” video project at Gustavus which also won the award.
According to some of her professors, Lacey is just as much of a leader inside the classroom. “She has a powerful ability to lead by example in the classroom, asserting her well-considered opinions while still opening doors for her classmates to contribute to the vital conversations,” Professor of Communication Studies Martin Lang said.
Alongside CAB, Lacey studied abroad in Barcelona Spain her junior year and is a member of the Guild of St. Lucia. She is currently living in a house off campus with six girls from her dorm section her first year. One of the girls explains why Lacey makes such a good friend. “She knows who she is and what she wants, and she speaks her mind but is also willing to get crazy, let loose and have fun in life,” Senior Geography Major Aubrey Austin said.
As Lacey prepares to finish her time at Gustavus, one of her friends, Senior Dance and Psychology Major Leah McEllistrem, puts Lacey’s time here into perspective. “When I met Lacey my first year, she told me she wanted to study abroad in Spain, be the president of CAB, get into grad school for student affairs and remain a die-hard Harry Potter fan, and she has accomplished all of those things and many more while being in college, which just shows how dedicated and amazing she is.”