Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | spring 2006

SPRING 2006
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Three wishes for Stephanie Kobes

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THREE WISHES FOR STEPHANIE KOBES

If you had a wish, what would it be?

That’s the question NBC reality program “Three Wishes” poses to its viewers and the question that ISU alumna Stephanie Kobes had the opportunity to answer.

Television viewers of “Three Wishes” watched Stephanie Kobes’ student loans of about $28,000 go up in smoke and dust on the Oct. 14 program.
The momentous day for Kobes, an aspiring dancer and a 2005 journalism and mass communication graduate, was filmed on July 19 when Iowa State’s Towers residence halls were reduced to rubble. Camera crews filmed Kobes’ reaction to her wish.

A “Three Wishes” cast member made certain that Kobes’ student loan file was placed in her old dorm room in the Towers. When the residence halls were destroyed, the burden of her educational loans drifted away, allowing her to continue her dance career in New York City with one less financial worry.

“Three Wishes” also made it possible for Kobes to audition with the Parsons Dance Company in New York City where she landed a scholarship to return to
the company for an intensive two-week workshop over the summer.

Kobes lost both her parents when she was a teenager. Six weeks after her mother died from a leaking aneurism in April 1999, her father committed suicide. The day her father died was only four days after her 17th birthday. “I lived with aunts and uncles and put myself through college,” she said.

The motto Kobes lives by after losing her parents at such a young age is, “Live with no regrets because life may not give you a lot of time.” Kobes, who minored in dance, is now in New York City working as a dancer.

Having her wishes granted has made Kobes’ life somewhat easier, but she is still finding her first two years out of college to be “the toughest.” She says, “When people say I’m a starving artist, they aren’t joking. I want to get through these two years, and I believe that there is something out there for me.”

Kobes recently auditioned for the Alvin Ailey Studios production of “The Dancer Who Wore Sneakers and Other Tales” and performed with the company Dec. 2-4 in New York City. “It went well,” she said. “I got to dance with a lot of different choreographers, and I made some good friends.”

Kobes said the majority of ISU faculty in journalism and dance knew that she would be a dancer. “They’ve been very supportive. I can’t decide at 35 that
I want to dance. Your body only lasts for so long. I can go back to journalism when I’m older.”

Kobes has future dreams of traveling with a professional dance company, owning her own dance studio, earning an MA degree in dance administration, or returning to the field of journalism as a dance critic. She has also considered teaching because so many teachers have helped her throughout her life.

“I’m looking for the best way to give back.”

About the Writer | Lori Runkle is a senior in journalism and mass communications from Humboldt, Iowa