Biology major
Undergraduate Day
Azieb Kidanu ’10 decided after her sophomore year of high school that she wanted to attend the College of St. Catherine. The College’s First Step program convinced her that St. Kate’s was the place she wanted to be.
Like many other young women of color who have been introduced to St. Catherine’s and to college life through First Step, Kidanu came away from her stay in St. Paul buoyed with enthusiasm for her future. “They really let me know that if I want to do this, if I’m willing to take the time and energy it needs, I can make it happen,” she says. “That’s when I realized that I wanted to go to St. Kate’s.”
For Kidanu, who moved to Minnesota from the Sudan when Kidanu was just a toddler, that was important because she always knew she would attend college. “Education was very important to my parents,” Kidanu says.
Now Kidanu, a biology major with a pre-med emphasis, helps other young women. She works as a Resident Hall advisor as well as with the First Step program. As a First Step participant, Kidanu was able to ask college professionals the questions her parents couldn’t answer; she learned how to fill out the FAFSA form and where to look for scholarships; she saw how warm and inviting the campus was for a student like her.
“That program set everything in motion for me,” Kidanu says. “That’s when I decided in my mind and in my heart that I wanted to go to St. Kate’s. I like what St. Kate’s does for women, and especially for women of color.”