Tanya Newkirk '91
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- Alenka FigaAlenka: OK.
- Tanya NewkirkTanya: OK. My name is Tanya Newkirk and I currently live in Jackson, Mississippi, and I’m a member of the Grinnell College class of 1991. I’ll talk about number one: why did I come to Grinnell College? Interesting question. I’m from Southern California and so people always ask me that. "How did you end up at Grinnell?" And I guess partly, my sophomore year of high school I started getting all the stuff in my mailbox at my high school and I was pretty impressed with the marketing stuff. I guess, the admissions materials, but, not that they were slick or fancy or anything, but that they just really- I mean, what I realized later was that it really captured kind of the essence of Grinnell really well.
- Tanya NewkirkTanya: And then I had a friend who was a year older in high school whose sister went to Grinnell. And so, he said, “Oh, I think you’d really like my sister. She’s coming home for Spring Break with her boyfriend from Grinnell. You should meet them.” And... so I met them, really liked them both, hung out with them, and they said, “Oh, yeah, you should apply.” And.. so I applied.
- Tanya NewkirkTanya: My two colleges in the Midwest were Grinnell and Oberlin, and I did campus visits at each one and I’ll never forget, ‘cause it was November when I came here and it was really cold. It wasn’t... I don’t think it was snowing yet but it was really, really cold, coming from Southern California, and.... And it was freezing, and all our flights were delayed for, y'know, bad weather or whatever. And so, when we got here – my grandmother came with me, and I remember somebody from the admissions office, which wasn’t all that big at the time, picked us up at the airport and drove us here and it was just really sweet, and my grandmother was really impressed.
- Tanya NewkirkTanya: And they had matched me up with a student, y'know, who worked with admissions who was also from Southern California, and just a really nice guy. And he said, “Well, I’m sorry, y'know, it’s really-” it was like one in the morning by the time we got here and he said, “I can’t give you the regular tour, but I’ll show you around,” you know. And so he had keys to everywhere. Then it was midsems, right, so everybody, you’d think, would be like stressed out and whatever, but he took me to the basement of Younker, like, Younker pit I guess, and people were studying for midsems and they all like, stopped and took a break, and they were really friendly and somebody was playing the piano, and... So he kind of took me- it was kind of like the underground tour of Grinnell, you know?
- Tanya NewkirkTanya: And it was just- it was really neat, and I just saw in the Reunion stuff that he- that this guy who’s two years older than me has passed away, which means he was only like 40. He was only 45 or something, just passed away in November. So that just struck me kind of coming full circle, you know, that I remember- I wasn’t really close to him after I got here, but I would see him around and say, “Hey, you gave me the tour!” And so I wanna find out, you know, what the story was, of that, but....
- Tanya NewkirkTanya: But, everybody was just so friendly. I remember, I went by myself to the dining hall to eat. You know, I spent the night here and everybody was genuinely friendly. You know, it wasn’t like they were "Oh," checking out the prospective student. They were just curious and whatever, versus when I went to Oberlin, it was sort of more of a... sort of a snooty atmosphere I guess, and people were like, you know, kind of checking me out, but wouldn’t come talk to me kind of thing, but... Anyway, so... that was just something that struck me.
- Tanya NewkirkTanya: What else? I did meet my partner, spouse here. Now we just got divorced, but we met when we were... beginning of our sophomore year, so when we were nineteen. And... it was just very interesting. I was from California. He was from Wisconsin, and... lots of regional differences, but..... yeah, we were together for a long time, and married for almost eighteen years, I think, and together for.... like 24. And I always count that because, y'know, I figure, it’s not just the marriage that counts; it’s the whole thing. So... but- and I brought my son here, to Reunion. He’s eight and a half, so I think it’ll just be interesting to see how he remembers, y'know, this visit, here.
- Tanya NewkirkTanya: And my sister, my half-sister, ended up coming here, which I didn’t expect. She grew up in San Diego and is eleven years younger. But, I think, kind of... when she came here for my graduation, she was young. Y'know, she was.... I guess she was... she was probably eleven. Yeah, she was eleven, and... ten or eleven, and I think she’d never been to the Midwest before and just the beauty of the campus and all kind of the pomp and circumstance, and I think it really kind of was the ideal college setting to her, and...
- Alenka Figa & Tanya NewkirkAlenka: What was her name? Sorry...Tanya: Christine Newkirk.Alenka: Hm...Tanya: She graduated in 2002, so.... But- and so, this would be her ten year reunion, but she lives in New York City now. She lives in Brooklyn, so... I didn’t figure she’d probably make it out for that, but it was just kinda- it was cool that she ended up coming here, and... So, I don’t know. It’s good to be back.Alenka: That's good.Tanya: It’s nice to take part in this, so thanks.Alenka: Thank you.
Alumni oral history interview with Tanya Newkirk '91. Recorded June 2, 2012.