Spotlights
Great Starts: Sydney Spaeth ’23
Great Starts: Sydney Spaeth ’23
From time to time, we like to showcase a new SNC grad who’s entered the workplace or grad school. Success stories like these are pretty common. In fact, 95 percent of SNC's Class of 2022 alumni who responded to a survey said they were employed, in grad school or doing service work within nine months of graduating.
Hometown: West Bend, Wis.
Degree program: Bachelor of Arts in math and economics
Plans after graduation: Sydney has joined West Bend Mutual Insurance as a personal lines rating configuration specialist.
Where did the desire to double-major in math and economics come from?
I was initially a chemistry major and wanted to be an anesthesiologist. I did some job shadows and liked it, but in my first year, I took a Calculus Two class with Dr. Bosko-Dunbar and absolutely loved it. So, I figured I’d talk to some different advisors about my options. They encouraged me to just take a couple more math classes and see where that would take me. And I loved every math class I took. It was difficult, a lot of hours, but I really enjoyed it.
But I didn’t want to just do math; I liked exploring the story behind things. My advisor Dr. Laubacher told me to try an economics class and I immediately fell in love with that as well. He was a big mentor for me, taking into consideration the classes I really enjoyed and the type of work I liked to do. He gave me a lot of resources and different connections to make to find the path that I am on now.
What opportunities did you pursue within your programs?
I was a math teaching assistant for Dr. Laubacher my first three years, and the amount of people I met just through being a T.A. and building that community within the math department was significant in making me love the math major. And it helped me grow in my math skills, too. Constantly doing that kind of work in collaboration with other students set me up very well for where I’m at now.
I was also a fellow in the Center for Business and Economic Analysis, where I presented at the annual State of the Economy event.
It was Dr. Schaffer, director of the center, who came to talk me through my job offer, asking me questions to see if it was the right fit. Dr. von der Ruhr from economics has been important to me as well. He set me up with multiple job interviews and graduates of the economics program to talk to.
The professors are not just there to teach and grade your papers, they’re there to
help you figure out where you’re going and genuinely care about you. They want to be a resource for you to achieve all your dreams.
You were on the track team all four years. What was that experience like?
A main reason I came to St. Norbert was for the track team and the culture that exists on that team. I’ve broken some school records and made it to nationals, which I never ever could have expected coming in.
Looking at your St. Norbert experience in general, what sticks with you?
The math department taught me how to sit down with a problem and truly struggle with it. There were times when they said you’re not going to get it the first time,
and it took sometimes three to six hours to figure out a specific problem. So, I learned how to be okay with not knowing how
to do something and how to dive into an uncomfortable situation without any prior knowledge and still figure out the problem. With economics, I’ve learned how to tell the story of a problem and solution, how to explain yourself.
Since I was so focused on my major, I really came to enjoy the change that came with my other classes. It can be daunting to
take an art class or music class; that’s not something I thought I was very strong in. But it teaches you a different way of thinking. For example, I took a philosophy course my last semester, and I find myself now walking around thinking like a philosopher. I wouldn’t have that experience if it wasn’t for the liberal arts requirements here. It turned out to be a very positive experience for me.
