The Colby Echo

Issue date: 2/16/07 Section: News & Features

Media Credit: Dan Nolan Karli Gasteazoro '07

Karli Gasteazoro is a Colby senior hailing from the Twin Cities area in Minnesota. On campus she is a resident of the Heights, a biology major with a creative writing minor, and has more things on her Colby resume than you can say in one breath. Karli, who has been a COOT2 Leader for three years, is also on the COOT2 committee, the group in charge of COOT2 Leader selections and training among other things. "I'm pretty obsessed with COOT," she has to say of her involvement, citing that she enjoys being able to work with people and give them advice, a key component of COOT2.

Gasteazoro has also made a point of being very involved in many other organizations on campus including the Student Government Association as a representative for the Junior Class, during which time she helped to organize events on campus designed to bring together students in different years and social groups. This year, Gasteazoro is helping to organize the Senior Pledge, the beginning of what will hopefully be a long term trend of this year's seniors giving back to the College.

Aside from her participation in welcoming incoming freshmen every year, Gasteazoro is also a member of the appeals board and the Off-Campus Study Committee. She herself has traveled abroad three times. She spent two Jan Plans in Thailand and for a semester she went on a traveling public health abroad program that included trips to India, China, and South Africa.

Why so involved? Well according to Gasteazoro, the kind of enthusiasm for Colby is what brought her here in the first place. "I came as a pre-frosh and was incredibly impressed by the community," she explains, "There was an energy on campus that I wanted to be a part of." But her energy isn't restricted to Colby's campus.

Two summers ago she worked at Belleview Hospital in New York City helping with patients and witnessing a variety of medical events from traumas in the emergency room to open heart surgery. This upcoming summer Gasteazoro will be working for the second consecutive year at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a camp for chronically and terminally ill children ages seven to fifteen.

"I'd ideally like to be working with patients, with people," Gasteazoro says of her employment ambitions, noting that she would most like to work in pediatrics. Like many seniors, Gasteazoro is not yet sure where she will be after the summer but says that she has had a few interviews. Gasteazoro also commented on how helpful Career Services had been this year in helping to edit her cover letters over winter break.

As far as advice, Gasteazoro had a few things to offer. First and most emphatically she urges everyone to go abroad. "Really try going abroad somewhere that pushes you beyond your comfort zone," she says. "Go live somewhere that is so far from your lifestyle that you get to see things differently." As far life on campus is concerned, "Choose your major sooner than they tell you to," and "don't let anyone persuade you from your passion," she urged.

As graduation closes in, Gasteazoro says she is "excited for this last semester to continue to strengthen [her] Colby community." And of the Senior Class, "We're all just so happy to be with each other for this last semester." While Gasteazoro herself may be leaving Colby's campus this spring, the work she has done while she was here will undoubtedly have a lasting effect and the enthusiasm that she has shown will likewise attract future Colby students with her same passion for community.

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