5 Questions with Elizabeth Krahe ’27

 1. Where are you from?

Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. It’s about halfway between Milwaukee and Madison. Dayton’s campus and the surrounding city expanded the small-town bubble I had been living in.  

2. What are you focusing on in education?

Urban education. I want to teach in an urban setting. I enrolled in the Urban Teacher Academy, a UD certificate program. And I’ll have a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) endorsement. In the Berry Summer Research Institute after my sophomore year, I interviewed experienced teachers and learned that interdisciplinary methods in English Language Arts and English as a Second Language advance the academic achievements of immigrant, refugee and urban students. For my honors thesis, I am looking at the English language learner program at Dayton’s Chaminade-Julienne High School as an intersection of Marianist education, TESOL and urban education.

3. Have you experienced cities other than Dayton?

I had a teaching internship this past summer at the Center for Urban Teaching in Milwaukee. After two weeks of training, there were four weeks of teaching. It was an absolute blast. Some unusual circumstances led to me having just one student. But he was a joy. He’s in sixth grade this year. He improved 40% in math; 60% in reading.

4. Readers of UD Magazine may recognize your name — maybe from your piece on forming a band, Juicebox, or the one about a free T-shirt leading you to joining the water polo club. What are you involved with now?

Still in the band. In high school, I played piano and was in choir. Still playing water polo. I’m club president; I love the sport and I love my teammates and I can connect with my father, Ken Krahe ’98, who was on a water polo team here that won a national championship. I’m also president of a small club called CAYAC (Collegiate Adolescent to Young Adult Club). I like to have a full schedule. And UD encourages multiple involvements.

5. What’s next?

I thought of going to grad school. But my calling now is to be in the classroom with students, motivating them to find joy in learning. Between freshman and sophomore year, I studied abroad in Florence, Italy. I’m now applying for a Fulbright; I’d like to teach in the Czech Republic, which has opportunities in middle schools and high schools. I have some extended family there. I could then bring an international perspective to teaching in the U.S., maybe in Milwaukee, where there are a lot of schools doing great work.

As told to Thomas M. Columbus

Photo by Sylvia Stahl ’18