Ashlie Staebell, '25, studied Public Health and early childhood education at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). During her last semester, she completed an internship with Northland Adaptive, where she helped people with disabilities engage in community recreation activities like yoga and archery. 

“I've had such a positive experience,” she says. “At UMD, my instructors cared so much about their students and wanted all of them to succeed… And with Northland, I saw the big difference you can make in someone's life by only working with them for an hour or two a week.” 

“Teaching someone how to shoot archery just brought the biggest smile to some of these kids' faces,” she says. “When they'd hit that bullseye, they would just light up.”

“Duluth has given me a lot of opportunity to do some of the stuff that I really love doing, which is just helping people,” she says. After graduating this past December, Staebell hopes to further her education toward a career in healthcare, where she can continue to make an impact for patients long into the future.