Erik Lagerquist, Carolyn Ward, Chris Lee, and Emma Dempsey awarded the Four Friends Fellowship.
The Four Friends Fellowship was established in 2012 by John Youngblood ’81, Peter Ross ’80, Danal Abrams ’80, and Jeff Appelquist ’80—collectively, “Four Friends”—in appreciation for all the experiences they had upon meeting at Carleton in the late ‘70s. The Fellowship is awarded annually to a group of two or more Carleton students who propose the most compelling “shared experience to deepen friendship.”
This year’s winners are Erik Lagerquist ’19 (Colchester, VT.) Carolyn Ward ’19 (Wilmington, DE.) Chris Lee ’19 (Rolling Meadows, IL.), and Emma Dempsey ’19 (Oak Park, IL.) We chatted with Lagerquist about the foursome’s upcoming project and how the close friends found their unique bond.
How did you hear about the Four Friends Fellowship?
We first heard about the fellowship our freshman year from our peers.
How did you come up with your idea? How did you guys decide to apply together?
We took a trip to Minneapolis/Saint Paul (aka “The Cities”) to see a concert during fall term of our freshman year and had an incredible experience. We often reminisce about that night as a turning point in our relationship, though we haven’t been able to make it back to the cities nearly as much as we would have liked. We’d been talking about applying for the fellowship ever since that night in the Cities, so it felt right to go back there and make a project that will hopefully encourage similar experiences.
Tell me what you will be doing?
We’ll be spending a week in the Twin Cities, making “A Carl’s Guide to the Twin Cities.” The guide will be an interactive map that shows ours and others’ experiences in the Cities. To make the map, we’ll be spending a couple days in several parts of the Cities and experiencing the cultural and historical attractions that are offered there.
As new students, we had the perception that the Cities were easily accessible, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Therefore, one of our focuses on the trip will be to find and document free, low-cost, and easily accessible things to do the in the Cities. Ideally, our guide will have something like a “Twin Cities on a budget” page. Hopefully we can give students a better sense of the range of costs associated with different activities in the cities.
What are you most excited for?
Seeing a new side of the cities! Being there for a week will take us to some places off the beaten path—places we wouldn’t necessarily find online or hear about at Carleton.
We’re also very excited about sharing meals with one another. A lot of our favorite memories together at Carleton have come while cooking and eating together. We plan to eat a lot of good food over the course of the week, and sitting down to eat together every day will be a great way to relax and reflect on the events of that day.
What are you least excited for?
Saying goodbye. After the summer, Chris will be in South Korea for the entire academic year, so this experience will be our last one together for a while.
What will be the end result of the fellowship? How will you bring it back to the Carleton Community?
We are making an interactive map that will be on SAO’s website, documenting all the places we visited, as well as other places suggested by students and faculty.
What do you think makes this opportunity unique?
We think our bring-back component is pretty unique in that it will hopefully outlast us by many years and continue to be updated by future Carls. It would be great to have our experiences turn into something helpful for other students planning their own trips!