Jamie Thierolf - Add-Venture Program

With her multiple interests and goals, the Add-Venture program seemed like a perfect fit for Jamie Thierolf ’12. Initially her focus was on elementary education as a major, with a special education minor. But she also was interested in history and Spanish, and wanted to study abroad and take part in the Honors program during her senior year. The Add-Venture program would allow her the freedom to pursue all these interests and more.

“Normally the education program has so many classes, you don’t have time to also do a minor, much less a second major,” she says. But with the flexibility afforded through Add-Venture, she was able to add a Spanish major and history minor. Her Honors project will be about English as a second language for Hispanics and the best teaching strategies for mainstream teachers.

“These students are getting pushed through classes faster, so they’re in regular (mainstream) classes a lot more,” she explains. Thierolf began this project last spring and will finish in the fall, so she can complete her student teaching in the spring, as she prepares to graduate.

After that, she plans to travel and teach English abroad for a few years—maybe with the U.S. Dept. of Defense, teaching children of military personnel or maybe through a Fulbright grant.