Students

Growing up in the small town of Incline Village has been a blessing in my life, teaching me the importance of connection with my community and the environment. We all have the capability to help each other grow, and my studies at SNC have shown me just how far we reach!

Scott was inspired by a Development Economics Class with President Lynn Gillette to pursue classes on international affairs and global leadership, and then to pivotal service learning experiences in South Africa. He was introduced to the former CEO and Director of Save the Children during the 2013 MiddCORE Program, and everything fell into line.

The first to attend college in her family, Kallie Day came to SNC intending to finish her degree as fast as possible but quickly became focused on the unique learning community on campus. “We talk about the one-on-one,” she said, “but I think that unless you have been here, and you have soaked it in through all of these people that you are around, the idea doesn’t have much of an impact.”

Juan Sandoval aims to continue his high academic achievement here at Sierra Nevada College. He plans to pursue a graduate degree in criminal psychology. In his free time he reads and writes.

Katie Hughes is a non-traditional college student who received her GED at a small community college and became a member of two honors societies before transferring from her previous school. Her goal is to attend Harvard Business School for her MBA and own her own business.

Luis Chavez’s passions are soccer and snowboarding. His future entails graduate school and owning his own business.

Cole Mizak received high honors throughout high school, and some of his poems and short stories have been published. He competes on a regional and national level in motocross competitions nationwide. His goals include graduating Summa Cum Laude, achieve a high ranking on the LSAT, and attend an Ivy League law school.

Andrew Casey has held an internship at a law firm while working on his Business degree. He fundraises for the Wounded Warrior Project and Greenpeace, and enjoys helping others.

Bridget McGuigan has successfully maintained a 3.8 GPA while juggling work, college, friends, and the Marine Corps Reserve. She manages the school soccer club team and tutors math in the Sierra Nevada College tutoring center. Her goals include finishing her Marine Corps Reserve Contract and attending graduate school.

Kenny Stoneman came to SNC after six years in the United States Navy to specialize in Fiction in the new Creative Writing program. He has attended several national conferences and tutored many students in English throughout his years at SNC. His immediate goals are to attend graduate school in Scotland, become a Professor of Creative Writing, and buy a castle.

Bryce is an editor for the Sierra Nevada Review, Secretary of the Creative Writing Club, and has received multiple academic honors. He plans to attend graduate school for Literature or Creative Writing in order to teach. His spare time is spent writing poetry or reviews, practicing voice, with his nose buried in a book (or e-book), or polluting his ears with sonic vibrations.

Figure skating during my childhood taught me about hard work, determination, and the importance of self confidence. At school, art classes were the only classes I stayed interested in, but at SNC I discovered – by happy chance – my love for psychology. I will reach my dreams of helping others through art; it’s only a matter of time.

It wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year of high school when I realized I couldn’t live without the mountains. Sierra Nevada College is the perfect school for me – the classes are small, the teachers are great, and the opportunities in Tahoe are endless. My long-term goals are to be an activist in the environmental world, to inspire everyone I interact with to live a more sustainable life, and to encourage others to embrace each individual’s uniqueness!

It was hard for me to find the right place to go to school. I attended five community colleges, and traveled the world trying to find my niche. Sierra Nevada College seems like it was made for me. I can pursue my passions of rock climbing, skiing, and backpacking, while obtaining a degree in Outdoor Adventure Leadership and Environmental Science.

Picking up a crayon at a young age, I knew art was a passion but, during my adolescence, I never pursued art because my schools were focused on math, science, and English. I was never interested in college until I found SNC. It intrigued me because of its intimacy and mission of sustainability.

After getting my first camera in eighth grade, I haven’t stopped documenting what I enjoy doing. I am majoring in Digital Art and Journalism so I can start sharing what I believe are the best qualities of life, and help spread the knowledge of better quality sustainable living.

As a junior majoring in Environmental Science and Ecology, SNC science student Nicole Lutkemuller showed that she could identify lodge pole pines on satellite images from the wavelengths of light reflecting off the trees’ needles.

Tierney Cahill did not expect to become politically active, but when her sixth-grade students at Sarah Winnemucca Elementary challenged her to prove that ordinary Americans can run for office she dedicated herself to running for the District 2 Congressional seat. Despite a campaign budget totaling 2% of her opponent’s, Cahill received an unexpected 34% of the vote with her students by her side.

After taking Psychology 101 in my first semester there was no going back, as I fell in love with the diversity of topics and the freethinking attitude that was promoted from day one.

I decided to attend Sierra Nevada so I could continue to live in the place I love. I saw could learn while maintaining my active lifestyle, and while in the classroom my teachers could relate the subject matter to the area we live in while making learning experiences hands-on, fun, and interesting.

I found ceramics. I enrolled in the class, bought a wheel three weeks later, and took off from there.

The most influential class I’ve taken is the Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology class. This class has taught me to see other dimensions of consciousness and to realize how we are all connected.

I think the most significant thing I’ve learned here at SNC is the importance of having a balanced education. One of my favorite classes at SNC was Senior Ethics with Professor Dan O’Bryan. I loved being able to debate and defend my moral code! It was one of the most interactive classes I’ve ever taken.

My parents used to tell me that I couldn’t draw; I specifically remember them calling me the scribbler, and teasing that I didn’t color inside the lines … Who would have known it would be my major a few years later?

I grew up on comics and illustrations and was heavily inspired by the fine detail of the line work. I was about 8 years old when I knew that art was something that I seriously wanted to pursue.

I decided to move to Tahoe because I could not think of a more beautiful place to go to school, and because of the snow, of course. I am studying Sustainability because our society needs to find better ways to sustain itself than by creating nuclear waste dumps and sanctioning away oil from other countries.

As a kindergartener, I remember choosing to write left-handed. I felt my unordinary name should be distinguished with an unordinary style, thus writing left-handed. Let that style grow for two decades.

Today I ski, love life, love my family, and strive to do everything that opens my eyes wide and makes me smile.

I joined a robotics team in high school, which led me to mechanical engineering, but while my enthusiasm for engineering waned after a couple of years my love for the outdoors never did. After developing an interest in running my own business, I transferred to SNC as an Outdoor Adventure Leadership and Entrepreneurship major.

The search of who I really am is underway in this chapter at Sierra Nevada College, trying out a path of Outdoor Adventure Leadership and Entrepreneurship, but the answers only lie in the depths of myself, in no one else, no matter how hard I pry. I thrive for me, and constantly wonder where my boots will take me next.

Neither my mother nor my father graduated from college For them, seeing their children succeed means more than their own success. I am incredibly grateful that they made sure I grew up with a strong concrete foundation. My father constantly reminded me that “education is the most important thing in life,” and his message is becoming clear.

Ben Bishop, an outdoor and action sports filmmaker and photographer who received SNC’s first degree in Outdoor Adventure Leadership, is a veteran world traveler who frequently clocks six months straight in places like China, Japan, Alaska, Canada, and Utah, but he says, “I don’t think I would be anywhere if it weren’t for SNC. I don’t think I could have gone to any other college and said, I’m really interested in this outdoor realm, and have them formulate a program.”

Major: Entrepreneurship, Global Management Class of: 2011 Amanda was always an excellent student, but faculty saw she could be truly […]

SNC captured Zach’s attention because of the unmatchable environmental and ecological conditions in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The amount of attention paid over the years to the preservation and restoration of North America’s largest alpine lake—Lake Tahoe—has turned the region into a haven for scientific research.