GSA Advising

From 2016 to 2022, I advised 7-12th grade adolescent students in their Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) student club. I created curriculum, connected students with resources, and acted as as a responsibly boundaried adult who wants the next generation of queer youth to have access to life roadmaps and supports. This has been some of the most important and impactful work I have been able to do.

In this role, I regularly organized all-ages drag brunch outings, mediated group and family conflicts, and coordinated fundraisers for local queer organizations. I established a free binder exchange, which took donations from local queer adults and donated 20+ binders to queer youth.

Outside of GSA, I taught queer summer camp experiences - offering drag culture and performance camps for adolescents (7-12th grades) and gender creative social camps for younger students (3rd-6th grades).

Example Presentation

iRace Advising

From 2017-2019, I organized logistics and curriculum for Great River’s annual iRace summit, a student-centered conference on race, identity, and culture. The iRace summit was a pre-pandemic annual conference, rooted in students’ desire for a day of intentional pause and reflection on how issues of cultural identity and marginalization affect our greater communities.

This was a year long project that involved everything from teaching classes on identity to inviting and reviewing dozens of potential workshop facilitators to being responsible for all the day-of logistics of a 800 person conference.

I saw my advising role as an opportunity to support students in thinking deeply about their own identities and about the places where Great River could use its institutional privilege to better support individuals.

workshop program

Student-created documentary on the impact and history of iRace. Charlie is interviewed at 1:55-2:20, 6:45-7:11, 8:20-9:00, and 11:37-12:37.

Bachelor of Arts in Women & Gender Studies
Minor in Sociology
Cumulative GPA 3.6
St. Catherine University, 2015

Recipient of Best Paper in Women's Studies, for “Mary Magdalene as a Feminist Icon” ( 2015)
Nominated for Dean of Student's Leadership Award ( 2015)
MPIRG Organizing Member (Women & Gender Task Force Leader, 2013-2015)
Ceramic work featured in the 109th Ariston Fine Arts Magazine (2015)
Performer and Writer, Catherine’s Monologues (2012-2015)
Recipient of PLEN scholarship to attend and present at National Womens’ Studies Conference (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2014)
Testified in support of the Trans Student Toolkit in front of MDE Board (2015)

Fantastic Ferments
Fermentation is one of the oldest and safest food preservation techniques. With some simple materials and knowledge, we can harness this natural transformative process to create something delicious, funky, and nourishing. Come learn the magic of microbes and begin preserving your own pickles, krauts, and other lacto-fermented goods! The workshop will be hands-on, with opportunities prepare your own lacto-fermented food to take home. Participants will learn beginning fermenting techniques, how to create an ideal microbial environment, and what food safety norms to follow. (Workshop originally created for GRS students, has been given at multiple folk schools and festivals)

Gender Diversity on the Autism Spectrum (created 2019, updated workshop available)
Continuing education training on supporting gender-creative students on the autism spectrum in public schools. Workshop given for SpEd consultant agency (Indigo Education) working with public charter schools in Minnesota.

Pronouns and Portfolios (created 2018, updated workshop available)
Continuing education training on working with and supporting gender-creative college students in professional career searches. Workshop given for professional association of college career counselors (WIPCCC).

Trans*cending Binaries (created 2016, updated workshop available)
Overview on gender creative identity, with specific curriculum on gender pronouns, transgender history, and care for trans community members. Most requested and offered workshop. Workshops given as part of new faculty inservice (Great River School), orientation leader training (St. Kate’s), and student leadership conferences (iRace).

Supporting Gender Creative Studies at a Womens’ College (created 2015, updated workshop available)
Overview on gender creative identity, with specific professional development focus on supporting GC students in women-only educational spaces. Created as part of senior seminar work with AQM Center for Women, focused on researching trans experience at a womens’ college and advising university leadership on needed admission policy changes. Workshops given as part of continuing education conferences (Teaching Learning Network), required DEI hours, and faculty professional development (St. Kate’s).

Soil Health 101
What is soil? What is land stewardship? What is permaculture? What does it mean to have a relationship to a place? Healthy soil, teeming with microbial life, is the building block of all life around us and contributes to balance at all levels of our ecosystem. Come learn more about this fundamental resource and how you can build healthy soil in your own yard. This course serves as an introduction to the development and sustaining of healthy soil and land stewardship. Participants will learn soil health and permaculture basics and engage in guided inquiry and reflection on building their own relationships with land. (Workshop created for Women Environmental Institute's Earth Week series)