I have a hard time imagining The College of New Jersey without some of the people I’ve known since my freshman year. Kristen Vogt is one of these people. I’ve been friends with Kristen since I was a freshman living in Centennial Hall. She was a sophomore, and a Community Advisor (CA) on a different floor of the building. The following year, when I was hired as a CA, we were placed on the same staff and since, I’ve gotten to know her quite well. And, if any of you know Vogt, you know that she’s quite the powerhouse.
Vogt is a senior chemistry major, the President of The Chemistry Honor Society (GSE), a Student Manager of Residence Operations in ResEd, a sister of Sigma Kappa, and one of the smartest and most ambitious people I know.
As president of GSE, her goal is to make it a more involved group on campus. She describes it as the more academically oriented chemistry association in comparison to Student Chemists Association. According to Vogt, GSE is more tutoring and fundraising heavy. They have library hours to provide chemistry help for other students. Kristen recently organized a laptop sticker sale in terms of fundraising efforts. As part of her goal to make GSE more involved, she’s been developing the mentorship program, so that mentors and mentees form a stronger connection with each other and get more out of it. In the past, she felt that the relationship did not really exist beyond the initial days of freshman year.
Vogt also does research in one of the chemistry labs with Dr. Baker, a professor at TCNJ, for computational chemistry. She told me that before she started working there, she didn’t know too much about the extremely computer-based form of chemistry. But, after talking to Dr. Baker, she developed an interest in his research and joined his lab. She said she’s learned so much from him and that he essentially taught her everything she needed to know in order to work in the lab. In addition to his mentorship in the lab, she said he’s helped her apply to conferences, scholarships, graduate school visitation programs and many other chemistry programs.
Dr. Baker helped her apply to the Priscilla Carney Jones scholarship, which is an American Chemical Society scholarship for undergraduate women in science. Vogt applied to the scholarship last spring and recently found out that she won! Last year, another girl from the same research lab with Baker won the scholarship. She commented on the rarity of two people from the same lab winning the same scholarship two years in a row and attributed it to Baker and his investment in his students.
This faculty-student mentorship/relationship is something that Vogt values highly. It was her experiences with her high school chemistry teacher that initially sparked her interest in chemistry and led her to delve into the subject, both in high school and as a major. In the future, she wants to teach in a small college setting to be on the other side of the relationship.
This summer, Vogt participated in and REU, or Research Experience for Undergraduates, a National Science Foundation program for undergraduate students to work with faculty and researchers in a university setting. Vogt spent her summer in Minnesota, where she said the environment was very different from TCNJ in the sense that it was at a much larger school and so she didn’t have the same level of faculty-student interaction as she usually does.
On the path to becoming a college professor, she plans to go to graduate school and get a PhD right after graduating from TCNJ. She’s currently in the process of applying to schools and is interested in pursuing biochemistry and working in the biotech field to gain experience before starting a teaching career.
On top of her chemistry ventures, Vogt is a Student Manager of Residential Operations in ResEd. This basically means she’s responsible for the physical operations of her buildings and helps the Community Advisors make sure their buildings are running smoothly. For her sophomore and junior years, Kristen was a CA, first in Centennial and then in ABE.
I met her in Centennial when I was a freshman and then worked with her in ABE, and am still on the same staff with her. She’s been one of the constants at TCNJ for me since I came here.
With so much going on in her life, it may seem like Vogt has no time to function, but she does. I marvel at how well she manages having a social life and hobbies while doing research, taking difficult classes and applying for conferences, scholarships and graduate schools.
Her hobbies include outdoorsy activities and crafty things like calligraphy. On a warm day, you can expect to find Kristen chilling in a hammock by the lake. She also likes going hiking in addition to baking (her favorite item to make is pumpkin bread) and playing her ukulele. I personally find it incredibly calming to watch her write in her calligraphy penmanship and her bullet journaling is beautiful.
Before starting her REU this summer, Vogt also took a somewhat spontaneous trip to Europe with some friends. She was there for 10 days, visiting Vienna and Paris and enjoying the vacation, as she traveled and saw all the sights.
After all of this, I asked her what her favorite experience at TCNJ has been. Kristen said the first thing that came to mind was ResLife. Even though it’s been hard at times, she said the people she’s met through it are the reason she is who she is. Without them, she said she’d be a different person today.
I was wondering what motivates her to keep going and trying so hard at everything she does. She said she’s always trying put herself out there because you never know what’s going to happen unless you try.
She told me a story about the summer after her sophomore year. She thought she wouldn’t get hired at an REU because she didn’t have enough experience and it was still early in her academic career, but one of her friends in the same position applied and got accepted to one. She wondered if she had applied to REUs that year, could she have gotten hired? Instead of an REU that summer, she did the MUSE program here at TCNJ because it was a safer bet. She said there are so many opportunities out there, such as research programs and scholarships, that a sure way to not get anything is to not apply.
If there was anything she could tell her freshman year self, it is to not be afraid of failure. The worst thing that can happen if you apply to something and don’t get accepted is just that, you don’t get accepted. She was once nervous to put herself out there, but has since learned to try anyway.
I’m grateful to have met this avocado-toast loving, hammocking, globe-trotting chemistry nerd. She has turned to be a role model. I know there are so many things she will accomplish and I aspire to be even a fraction of the person she is.