Ella was a wonderfully busy, and talented, student in Elementary School in my art class. She was right at home being in a creative space. Ella was, and is, full of great energy and she loves, art, creativity, music (took piano lessons), dance, and nature.

Ella’s bronze plaque is of a Dance Leaping and a small grove of birch trees. Ella said she remembers every summer before school would start her family would go up North and she would know when they were getting close by the sighting of beautiful birch trees. The trees had an area where they started and a point where they stopped. It made me think about why they do that. In geography class, I have seen maps of different groups of growth where one thing stopped and another vegetation started and there is a lot behind it and some unknowns. I just think, “Minnesota biomes are so weird!”

Ella is attending Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota, and will be a Junior in the 2023-2024 school year. She is a double major in Dance and Geography. Go Gusties!!!

Ella Schwakopf Concept Idea for her plasticine plaque. What do you love about your life? 2013.