Oberlin Stories Project
We have collected hundreds of personal narratives from students, alumni, faculty, and staff that explain the merits and strengths of Oberlin through the eyes of those who have experienced it firsthand.
Add your story
On being a member of the Sunshine Scouts
“I felt I was part of a kinetic community, rather than a hermetically sealed club. They did improv because they liked using their imaginations.”
Sam Skove ’12
On being part of the Posse scholarship program
“The other students who received a Posse scholarship to go to Oberlin that year were incredible leaders in their communities; I was proud to be included alongside them.”
Hope Rehak ’11
On singing with Collegium Musicum
“Monday and Wednesday afternoons, beginning promptly at 4:30 in Fairchild Chapel, were brief windows of respite from our otherwise whirlwind college lives.”
Martha Cargo ’07
On the lessons learned working for the Oberlin Review
“[I’ve taken] with me the grinding productivity, invention of necessity, and constant grace under constant pressure that I acquired down in Burton basement.”
Ben Newhouse ’04
On Oberlin being a Division III school
“This means that athletes are not allowed assistance in the admissions process or monetary incentives to come to a school, [which] meant that everyone on our team was participating purely for love of...
Shira Korn ’11
On learning to cook in a co-op
“But in a co-op, plan incorrectly and you could be swimming in pinto beans, have enough lasagna to cover a mummy, pop enough popcorn to fill a bathtub - or not prepare enough vegetables to feed a...
Jenny Bower ’13
On the larger Oberlin Community
“I was looking for a college with a town...I wanted to be able to engage in a community outside of the college itself. I found that when I visited Oberlin.”
Miata Rogers ’14
On Oberlin’s inclusive music scene
“Collaboration plays a fundamental role in the community’s constant appetite for great art. This inclusivity is indicative of the communal Oberlin personality that makes it such an incredible place.”
Charles Abbott ’14
On studying in London with David Walker
“Threading it all together were the conversations gently led by David about and around these plays, supplemented by talk of poems, novels, museum visits, and films, and from these emerged the...
Sze Foong ’99
On the way we treat writing at Oberlin
“I was so deeply engaged and tangled up in writing as a living, morphing entity, that when I got to graduate school I couldn’t tolerate the aridness of what passed there at the time for intellectual...
Judy Karasik ’75
On the Oberlin Orchestra China Tour
“... in spite of the stress and discomfort, my memories of the tour are overwhelmingly dominated by those moments of recognition that we experience only when we travel, the overriding reminders of...
Nicolee Kuester ’10
On getting to New Orleans
“Navigating time commitments and cost restraints, I was surprised by how many opportunities appeared in front of me.”
Cria Kay ’16