Aunaleah Husted
Junior/ Sociology and Anthropology/Seattle, WA

“I really like the community feeling at Goucher, which I guess is a cliché, but it’s true. That’s why people like it here, because you can go far from home and still feel like part of a community,” says Aunaleah Husted.

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As an incredibly involved member of the Goucher community, Husted has had ample opportunity to meet “many interesting, colorful, and successful people,” she says, whether it be through her on-campus work, her off-campus voluntarism, or through connections fostered by her instructors.

Husted’s anthropology professor Rory Turner introduced her to Elaine Eff, the Maryland Historical Trust’s administrator of cultural conservation and a leading scholar on screen painting, a native Baltimore folk art form. Husted and two other Goucher students ended up volunteering to help Eff at a screen painting convention at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.

“[Professor Turner] has told us about opportunities to get more involved and brought in guest speakers … . When he hears about events I would like, he e-mails me. I have a feeling that wouldn’t happen at a big school. I am able to talk to him about what I want to do as a career. You really have that personal interaction at Goucher.”

During a summer internship at the Southwest Boston Community Development Corporation, Husted worked as a community planner and organizer. She helped set up community meetings about important local issues, planned an arts festival, applied for grants, wrote an annual report, and even helped do taxes for the organization.

“I met a lot of inspirational people and learned a lot more about the process of getting things done in the community,” Husted says. “It really opened my eyes about the nonprofit world. … The world needs more people to go into nonprofit work and be willing to try different things.”

Husted says she herself hopes to get a job in arts education, public health, community development, or a combination of the three after she graduates.

When she’s not volunteering with nonprofits or participating in campus groups, such as Goucher’s Student Alumnae/i Association  and the Goucher Suicide Awareness and Prevention Group (which she founded), Husted can be found working in various offices around campus as part of the college’s work-study program.

“Goucher’s all about being a well-rounded person, but it’s up to you,” Husted says. “It’s your job to get involved, whether it’s work or clubs or wholeheartedly getting into your classes or meeting people or going into Baltimore and doing community service.”