Meet Our Students

Jen Franke in a Costa Rican national park.

Tracking Peccaries, Primates

Northland College-Costa Rican Wildlife Project

For five weeks, Jennifer Franke hiked the pathways of a Costa Rican park, checking trail cams and looking for signs of wildlife. She slept at ranger stations, awoken each morning by the noisy chorus of howler monkey troupes. “Alpha males making their roaring vocal displays,” she said. This usually started at 3 a.m. but Franke…

Northland College student Liandra Skenandore portrait

Why Indigenous Literatures Matter

How Liandra Skenandore Incorporates Academics into Her Personal Life

Liandra Skenandore has always known the power and complexity of language. She grew up in DePere, Wisconsin, listening to family and friends tell stories around her kitchen table. She is a member of the Oneida Nation and is also Prairie Band Potawatomi, Seminole, and Creek. She transferred to Northland College in 2017 to study English…

Two students present at Science on Tap

Searching Star Beams to Tell an Ancient Story

Undergrads Present at Science on Tap

The third Tuesday of every month at The Alley in downtown Ashland, an average-sized dinner crowd transforms into standing room only as the big screen is switched from a game to a slideshow presentation. This is Science on Tap, where students, scientists, and community pour into a bar and restaurant for drinks, food, and an…

Northland College students in kayaks in Iceland

Semester in Iceland

Alec Drachenberg talks about his experience with the Center for Ecological Living and Learning

Why Iceland? Dave Oakes, the co-founder of the Center for Ecological Living and Learning, came to Northland College to present on the various programs that CELL had to offer. I was intrigued by the immersive study-abroad experience that this program offered; specifically, I was curious about being able to live in an eco-village for an…

Northland College student Frank Wroblewski

Mapping the Mountains of Venus

Frank Wroblewski '19

In opposition to its neighbor Earth, Venus is hot, acidic, and under a lot of pressure. There’s no wind or water and the only discernible features are mountains, lava flows, volcano-like features like lava tubes and tectonic remnants, and meteor impacts. It’s dystopia to some and a mystery to be uncovered by others. “In planetary…

Northland College student Danon Briggs coaching kids on the basketball court.

From Big City to Small Town

Senior Danon Briggs Head Coach for AHS Boys C Team

Danon Briggs wasn’t sure how long he might stay at Northland College when he first arrived as a junior transfer student three years ago. “Right away, I didn’t want to when I first got up to Northland,” Briggs said. “I didn’t like it at all. Being a big city kid, it was a hard transition…

Northland College student collects data for bat research

Monitoring Bats by Sound

The Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network Employs Students for Bat Research

For the past three summers, Northland students have helped to monitor bat populations on National Park Service properties throughout the Great Lakes region. Acoustic bat detectors—designed to record ultrasonic bat…  Read More

Northland College student EmmaMarie Hamond

EmmaMarie Hammond’s Three Lessons for Making Change

Citizen's Climate Lobby Goes to Washington DC

Junior EmmaMarie Hammond said she has learned three things from her internship with the Chequamegon chapter of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby (CCL) in northern Wisconsin: 1. Things don’t happen overnight;…  Read More

Four Northland College students sit in a boat with survey equipment

The Life Aquatic of the Penokee Hills

Students Survey Fish Populations

Northland College senior Megan Mader inches a jon boat into the vegetation near shore at Galilee Lake, a shallow, 212-acre lake with a handful of cabins dotting the shoreline. Mader…  Read More