Meet Greta Erickson, this week’s Her Campus Celeb. This beautiful ray of sunshine can brighten up anyone’s day. With a contagious smile, Greta, or G as her friends call her, looks at life in a positive and a “glass half full” sort of way. Greta is a very empathetic individual that can relate to almost anyone she meets. You might have seen Greta around campus or hopping from one coffee shop to the next, or you might have even seen her in IWC where she attends two yoga classes a week. Wherever you might have encountered her, you know that she is a very amazing and fun person to be around.
Coming from the town of Stillwater, Minnesota where she grew up with her mom, dad, and younger sister, Greta had a strong desire to come to Winona State University. Though she looked at other schools, Winona State felt right to her. Greta loved the size of campus and felt that the school was small enough that she wasn’t just a number among other students, yet it was big enough that she didn’t know everyone on campus. Plus, with all the great coffee shops around, Greta has a variety of places to go when it comes to getting homework done or just hanging out with friends. Being an outdoorsy kind of gal, the lakes and bluffs were perfect beacons to draw Greta to Winona State where she could hike the bluffs, and walk or rollerblade around the lakes.
A senior here at Winona State, Greta is majoring in Organizational Communication, with a minor in Training Development. What does she want to do with that, you ask? Ideally, Greta would love to work with an organization or big corporation where she would help with continued education and training of employees there. And if the organization allowed her to travel around to different branches of itself, that would be even better! This academic year, Greta is also involved in a research project that she is co-presenting with a professor from WSU. They will present their research on different teaching styles and how it works in a classroom at the CSCA Conference in Grand Rapids this coming April. Talk about above and beyond!
Greta is involved in quite a few different programs, clubs, and organizations here on campus and out in the community. Once just a member of the Communication Studies club, Greta has now taken the leadership role as President for this academic year. She says she has lots of work with it but loves doing it. Greta is also an Orientation Leader here on campus. The reason she loves doing this is because she gets to know incoming freshman and help them love Winona as much as she does. Being a Big Sister in the Big Brother Big Sister program is a way that Greta gives back to the Winona community. This is her second year being a Big to a wonderful fifth grade girl who she spends about two hours with every week just hanging out and helping her with schoolwork. Greta is also continuing her internship from the past two years into this academic year. Working for a non-profit Senior Housing center in the cities, Greta will be working remotely with a lot of website content as well as their social media while communicating with over 40 locations. She is one busy gal!
Not only is Greta super upbeat and caring about others, she is also very adventurous. This past May, Greta had the amazing opportunity to travel to Europe with two other friends from high school. Greta’s original plan was to study abroad but if she did that, she wouldn’t have been able to graduate on time. So, Greta and her friends planned this amazing trip so that they could fulfill that desire to travel parts of Europe. They went to Denmark, England, Ireland, and Spain. The cool part about their trip was that at least one of the girls knew someone in each country they visited, except for Ireland. Although Greta had a lot of fun on this trip, she can’t wait for the next time she gets to travel.
As you can see, Greta is an amazing gal who really loves working with people and helping them out. She is also very dedicated to the many different areas of her life. From schoolwork and research projects to being adventurous, connecting with the outdoors, and hanging out with the people close to her, Greta gives them all 100 percent. It’s hard to believe she’s single! Gentlemen out there listen up. If you want to win Greta’s heart here are a couple tips; she is looking for someone who gets along with most everyone, who likes to be outdoors, and who can be spontaneous and adventurous yet also likes to stay in and watch a movie. Greta is an amazing and caring gal with a great head on her shoulders, and getting to know her, not just in a romantic way but also in a friendship way, is well worth it! “I believe we have more than one soulmate and those soulmates can come in friend form, not just romantic forms.”-Greta Erickson
“Being nominated for the Her Campus Celebrity is really cool! I was not expecting any kind of nomination at all for anything with Her Campus but I’m really honored that I was picked. Though you can’t tell me who nominated me, and I do want to know who did, I am very honored and grateful to that person, so thank you!” -Greta Erickson