Senior Reflection: Raenie Nielsen

CAS MarComm Author

05/13/2025 Added

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Raenie Nielsen gives a senior reflection at the May 9, 2025 Celebration of Excellence.

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[00:00:00.000]Good afternoon everyone. It's so exciting to be here finally at the end. I'm exhausted but happy
[00:00:10.400]and proud of my hard work and I imagine all the students in the room today feel similarly. I'm
[00:00:15.920]here today to talk to you about my undergraduate journey and reflect on what it means to be a part
[00:00:20.440]of the College of Arts and Sciences. So I'm a French and Russian double major with a minor in
[00:00:25.240]education studies and every time I tell people what I study they ask me the same question,
[00:00:30.260]either with their words or with their eyes. What are you going to do with that?
[00:00:34.860]The answer of course is get a job I love and never have to work a day in my life,
[00:00:39.900]which is also a pretty good summary of my undergrad experience. Every semester,
[00:00:44.560]although often difficult and requiring a lot of intelligence, creativity, and hard work,
[00:00:49.920]has been exciting and enjoyable to the point where I joke about having cheated my way through
[00:00:54.920]college because nobody is supposed to enjoy studying this much. I had the incredible
[00:00:59.700]experience of studying abroad in France, of being an RA and watching new students get their first
[00:01:04.580]taste of university life, of working on an English translation of a French book I'm obsessed with,
[00:01:09.780]of teaching English as a second language class, and watching a group of strangers from all over
[00:01:14.400]the world become a community, and so many more phenomenal experiences. For four years,
[00:01:19.780]I let curiosity move me, and the result was four years full of experiences that changed
[00:01:24.600]and grew me into a person I'm proud to be today. Of course nothing in my
[00:01:29.460]undergrad was achieved alone. So many people helped me and even changed my
[00:01:33.360]life. I would like to give a special thank you to my parents for supporting my
[00:01:38.400]education my whole life, to the French faculty in the Department of Modern
[00:01:42.480]Languages and Literatures for generally being fantastic, kind, and brilliant, to
[00:01:48.300]specifically Dr. Stump for igniting my passion for translation, meeting me
[00:01:52.400]meeting with me every single week this year to answer all my questions about my
[00:01:55.800]senior thesis project, and for encouraging me in pretty much everything,
[00:01:59.460]and to both him and Dr. Schauer for being my thesis advisors and just for
[00:02:05.220]being their entirely wonderful selves. I'd also like to thank Ilya, Irina, and
[00:02:10.620]Dr. Levchenko for their dedication to teaching Russian at UNL. We couldn't save
[00:02:15.340]the program, but we did our best, and I appreciate the passion, intelligence, and
[00:02:19.440]care with which you taught us. Lastly, I want to thank Dr. Griffin for including
[00:02:25.040]me in this year's Kass Inquire class and community, as well as for nominating me
[00:02:28.680]for Phi Beta Kappa and for the opportunity and privilege of sharing my
[00:02:32.520]senior reflection here today. Without her support, I would not
[00:02:35.200]be up here at all talking to you, so thank you. Before I go, I would like to
[00:02:40.180]leave you all with an invitation to think about what from your undergrad
[00:02:43.160]experience you're going to take with you into your future. Maybe it's a lifelong
[00:02:47.440]friendship. Maybe it's a new passion. Maybe it's a new perspective on yourself
[00:02:53.240]or the world. As you finish up finals and prepare for post-grad life, I invite you
[00:02:58.260]to reflect on how you've changed as a person since you first set foot on
[00:03:01.040]campus, how wonderful it is to change and grow, and to have a new opportunity
[00:03:05.180]every day to be more like the person you want to be. I'm so glad I got to take
[00:03:08.900]this journey with you. Thank you.
[00:03:12.080]Thank you.
[00:03:13.980]Thank you.

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Senior Reflection: Raenie Nielsen

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