Alice Ottoson-McKeen isn’t your average Occidental student; she’s from Alaska, which makes her 20 times cooler. She is also one of the friendliest people you will meet. “Being involved in activities has definitely helped me meet and get to know a lot if people,” she says. Her activities on campus include Delta Omicron Tau, Frisbee, Peer Health Exchange, Dance Production, and Outdoors Club and she loves all of them equally. Read on to learn more about this week’s Campus Celebrity!
Part of the reason Alice picked Occidental, besides being a liberal arts college, was because Los Angeles is almost the exact opposite of Juneau, Alaska. She says, “I’ve lived in Juneau my whole life. I figured it would be a good experience to go someplace really different.” Her memories of Alaska were unique, including having a bear break into her house, but in choosing colleges she wanted a change of scene. Even though she claims “Alaska is da bomb” and she loves that she can go camping every weekend, the fact that it rains 90 inches per year and gets super dark in the winter were qualities she grew tired of.
Going from a completely new environment is always a tough undertaking, but Alice is the type of person to jump into new things with optimism. Although she had never played frisbee before, she joined her sophomore year and now loves it. She says, “The whole team has a great positive energy. Everyone is always cheering each other on at practice and in games. And everyone in it genuinely wants you to succeed not only in frisbee but in all aspects of your life.”
Another activity Alice is involved in is Delta, which she says is how she met some of her best friends at Oxy. Since she’s in Delta she knows people everywhere she goes on campus. “It’s a great support network too. If I have a question on homework there’s always a Delta in my class who I feel comfortable asking for help.”
In her free-time, this Politics major/Economics minor really enjoys sleeping, writing poetry (mostly limericks but sometimes haikus), and training for a half marathon in April, “I should be running every day, but I’ve been really busy and I keep having to skip workouts so we’ll see how that goes.” This fall semester she is hoping to campaign for senator Jon Tester in Montana!
Image credit: Alice Ottoson-McKeen