Who's Who: Ellen Stolle

Junior hopes to one day become surgeon

By Rachel Burchfield

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Ellen Stolle, a double major in biochemistry and genetics, wants to become a surgeon one day.

Stolle, a Prairie Village junior, already has experience in the medical field as a volunteer at a local health clinic and Stolle has also prepared herself for her future career in another way. Thanks to her busy schedule due to her enormous amount of involvement on campus, she is prepared to handle her future career.

“I know that being a surgeon will be demanding of my time, but as busy as I’ve been here it won’t be too hard to adjust,” she said. “My diverse involvement will help me maintain other things outside of my time-consuming career.”

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In my free time, I do what I need to do for school. I have to stay organized to keep on top of things.

-Ellen Stolle, Prairie Village junior

Last week Stolle won the Outstanding Woman Student in Leadership Award from the Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center and with good reason — not only is Stolle a cheerleader and the president of the Student Alumni Association, she also holds offices in her sorority, Gamma Phi Beta, and is involved in several other activities ranging from the Board of Class Officers to the Chemistry Club.

Stolle is a member of many honor societies on campus and works with the Office of Admissions and Scholarships on their Hawk Talk program. She said she never really considered herself a leader until she was nominated by her sorority sisters for the leadership award, which she later won.

“It was a really big honor,” she said. “That my peers thought that I was doing the right thing made me realize that I am a leader, and I have an opportunity to influence younger students.”

Stolle describes herself as a motivator who tries to get others involved, she said. Getting involved at the University wasn’t difficult for Stolle. She was involved in high school at Shawnee Mission East and because the University of Kansas “felt like home,” she “felt so comfortable that I wasn’t worried about getting adjusted. It was easy to get involved with so many different things,” she said.

To budget her time she relies heavily on her planner, which is filled with different things to do every day.

“In my free time, I do what I need to do for school,” she said. “I have to stay organized to keep on top of things.”

Though finding time for everything can be challenging, Stolle said that it was important to become involved on campus.

“On a huge campus it is so easy to get lost in your own little world,” she said. “Being involved opens your eyes to all kinds of people at KU from all kids of different backgrounds.”

A year from now, she will be preparing to graduate from the University and move on to medical school. She wants to be remembered as someone who gave her all in everything that she did and as someone who encouraged others to do the same.

“I want to be remembered as well-rounded and someone who was pretty involved,” she said. “I want to be known as someone who put one hundred percent into everything that I did, and that I did everything that I could while I was here and I gave other students opportunities.”

— Edited by Ryan Schneider

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