At Concordia, I have a great community of people who help push me out of my comfort zone.
For most of Anna Hoier’s life, she’s lived out a plan she’s been able to predict. “I’m from a small town where people pretty much stay friends with the same group for their whole life. Even if you grow apart, you can’t really change friend groups because there’s not enough people living there for there to be other friend groups.”
Anna was in search of a new community, and she started looking for it at Concordia. “My aunt is a professor at Concordia, so she had been trying to convince me to come here for a long time. I wasn’t sure until I visited, and it just felt like a place where I would be able to make lots of good connections.”
As soon as Anna arrived, those connections started happening for her. “I came into Concordia on a speech scholarship. From the beginning, it was just such a good team to be a part of. On the first weekend of speech, they had everyone put their phone numbers and contact information into a group chat and that continued to be active. It’s been such a good community. I had my first speech meet this weekend and everyone was encouraging me the whole time. It’s just such a supportive group.”
After she started meeting people in speech, things started opening up for Anna. “I’m now a part of the Student Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity (SCRED), which I learned about from someone on the speech team. I became a part of IMPROVables and I found out about that from someone who was in SCRED. It was like a chain reaction that just ended up connecting me to a lot of good things.”
These clubs helped connect Anna to others, but they have also helped her connect with herself. “I’m a psychology major because I’ve always wanted to help people be the best versions of themselves. I feel like I’ve been working on that with my time in speech, and SCRED. I’ve also gotten more of an idea of my own voice. I know myself a little better and my purpose feels more defined.”
With a renewed sense of purpose, Anna can focus on becoming the best version of herself. “Since learning what I actually want to do with my life, I’ve kind of realized that I’m a lot more determined than I thought I was. I am a lot more secure in my goals than I ever was in high school, and now I have people in lots of different areas of life who push me to be the best version of myself. It’s a great place to be.”