Alumni: My teachers opened up the world for me!
Hester Buell
Hester Buell was part of our very first rhetoric cohort (2007-12) and has recently returned to school to become a therapist.
Years at Greenhouse: 2007-12
College: Wheaton College
Major: Psychology
Grad School: University of Chicago (Social Work)
Job: Career Advisor
Employers: Youth Job Center
Living in: Bowers in Hyde Park, IL
Greenhouse has made an incredible difference in my life. It combined academic rigor with a genuine passion and curiosity about life, and it encouraged me to dig deeper into the things I was studying.
My teachers - Debbie Gottlieb, Erica Dinsmore, and Barbara Gauthier - are brilliant and powerful women who really opened up the world for me, and I'm incredibly grateful to them.
I am currently living in a housing co-op called Bowers in Hyde Park, Chicago. It's the closest I've ever come to living the type of community Paul talks about in Acts, and it's an incredible experience. Twenty of us (aged 1 to 55) live in an old brick building and share all the joys and burdens of life together - cooking vegan meals, playing instruments, growing a garden, caring for each other when one of us gets sick, supporting each other when someone loses a job, and enjoying each others' company.
This fall, I've actually gone back to school and am studying Social Work at the University of Chicago! My plan is to become a therapist and work with individuals struggling with addictions and mental health diagnoses.
–Hester Buell