Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | fall 2004

FALL 2004
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Cover Story:
Surviving Stroke

Feature:
37 things to do on an ISU football weekend

Feature:
A new tradition

125th Anniversary Celebration:
>>A letter from Kristi Kielhorn Excited about Cy

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Greetings from Cyclone Country:

When I explain my family’s history with Iowa State, people always say, “So Kristi, you pretty much have cardinal and gold running through your veins!” My reply is always yes, I suppose with this many alumni in the family, I suppose I do have quite a lot of Cyclone blood in me.

Iowa State has always meant more to my family than just an education. We have a lot of history with Iowa State and quite a story to tell...

To the best of my knowledge, my great-grandmother and great-grandfather were the first from our family to arrive at Iowa State. My great-grandfather was here to pursue veterinary medicine, and my great-grandmother studied home economics. Iowa State is where they met and where their family began.
This point is important! It marks the beginning of a long line of Iowa State courtships and marriage in my family.

My great-grandparents stayed in Iowa and had two children: my grandmother and great-uncle. Both went to Iowa State. Following the trend set by her parents, my grandmother met my grandfather at Iowa State, got married, had children, and stayed in Iowa.

The next generation of Iowa Staters included my father. He came to Ames in the early 1980s. Meanwhile, Joan Bellinghausen (my mother) and her four brothers joined the Cyclone team. My father and mother met, were married, and once again stayed in Iowa. (Are you noticing the trend here?) And here’s a coincidence: When my parents met, my mother was in the same sorority that my dad’s mother was in – and even stranger, she was living in the same room that my dad’s mother had lived in! Call it what you want, but it sounds like fate to me!

This brings our Iowa State history lesson up to the present: me. I never really considered another college. And when I say “never really considered,” I mean Iowa State was the only school from which I even requested an application. I have been extremely involved during my four years at Iowa State.
I think I have tried just about everything at least once! I have lived on campus and off campus – with and without air conditioning. I have played intramurals, been involved with my majors, and worked with the Alumni Association. I have been involved with the Student Alumni Leadership Council since my freshman year. The past two years I have served on the executive council, and it has been the best learning experience I have had in college.

I am now beginning to apply to law schools, and it is really settling in that I have less than a year left. I am keeping busy planning things with the Student Alumni Leadership Council and studying for the LSAT. Still, I know my time at Iowa State is growing short. My family jokes with me about only having a year left to meet “the one.” I have three generations of couples behind me – I can’t very well “drop the ball” now!

But I take comfort in knowing that whatever my future has in store for me, I am prepared and ready. I can walk away from this place with confidence in my abilities and character. I owe all of this to Iowa State, to the people I have met, and to the things I have learned. As for “dropping the ball,” who knows? Check back with me in a year or two!

Kristi Kielhorn

Kristi Kielhorn is a senior in journalism and political science from Johnston, Iowa. When she graduates in May 2005, she hopes to attend law school and then pursue a master’s degree.

Read on | Excited about Cy