Welcome to Willamette

Whew!

When Paige Folsom ’06 talks about all her adventures since leaving Willamette, this seems like the appropriate response. She’s only been gone two years, but in that time she has worked as a sternperson on lobster boats in Maine, taught English in Spain, and returned to her hometown of Tacoma, Wash., where she now holds three jobs: writing for a quarterly health publication, assisting community college students with their writing, and acting as site coordinator for a middle school mentoring program. And she just enrolled in a master’s program for teaching at the University of Puget Sound.

Folsom recently was awarded a Fulbright Grant for U.S. Students that will take her to Argentina, where she will work in a training college for English as a second language (ESL) teachers. It’s an exciting prospect, but how will she find the time?

“Attaining balance has been a challenge for me,” she admits. “But I’m motivated by love of languages and art, love of learning, and by feeling compelled to serve, heal and connect in the community, even in small ways. I try to dedicate myself to things that combine all three.”

Even while she was at Willamette, Folsom was active. An English major for whom all disciplines converge in English language and literature, Folsom also found time to play lacrosse and intramural soccer, be a resident assistant, study abroad in Spain and India, participate in the Take a Break alternative spring break service program, and volunteer at a local school and a youth program, among other activities.

She obviously isn’t afraid to try new things. Like catching lobsters in Maine, which she did during the summers after her junior and senior years.

“While visiting a friend, I overheard her older brother teasing their mom about needing a summer sternman on his lobster boat,” she says. “She told him that rotten bait wasn’t her thing, and that she preferred to keep her day job. After thinking about it for a moment, I walked up to him and said, ‘Well, I’ll do it,’ and he hired me to work on a boat called the Spicy Pepper. He taught me a lot about fishing and eventually I worked my way onto other boats.”