Summer — 2007

Siri Hogfeldt

Kinesiology

“I’ve been away from school for a while, but now that I’m back, the teachers at SMC are keeping me really motivated to do well.”

When you’re an international student first arriving at SMC, it’s virtually assured that you’ll be met by the department’s ‘front line’: Darryl-Keith Ogata and Lynn Washington. “Those two have a really great department there,” says Siri Hogfeldt, who arrived here—complete with boyfriend—from Sweden. “They give us all the help we could ask for when we’re looking for apartments. They also help us enroll and tell us how to make the best use of our time here—both in and out of school.”

Siri has certainly taken the advice of her counselors to heart. She’s a full-time student and attending every semester that SMC offers. “I’m studying Kinesiology, which is about how the body moves and functions. What I’d like to do with that knowledge—and my own knowledge of yoga—is to become a physical therapist,” she explains. “I just love movement, and what I’d like to do is to help people who’ve been injured somehow. But just not in a hospital!” she says with a laugh. Well on her way toward entering her chosen field, Siri reports that the Sciences at SMC are percolating along nicely. “I’ve had Anatomy and Physiology so far, and they were both excellent classes. And I think that the whole department is just very, very good.” But Siri was also pleasantly surprised when she stepped out of her labs and into the intimidating—for some—study of math.

“I studied math with Terry Green, and though I wasn’t really afraid of it, I just never thought I could be good at it. But... well... he proved me wrong!” Learning a new culture and perfecting her already excellent English, Siri says that “educational traveling” is an adventure in itself. “I’m learning so much about America: volunteering for Meals on Wheels and cleaning up the beaches, all through SMC. I honestly feel quite at home here now. And if it’s possible, I’d like to think that we can stay here a good long while.”

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