Alumni Profile: Elizabeth Colletti

Throughout my four years at St. Norbert College, I kept myself plenty busy with a variety of activities, each of which contributed to my overall growth and maturation.  To enhance my physical growth, I participated on the varsity softball team for all four years.  This also helped to develop my teamwork skills and prepared me to be a future coach.  I increased my leadership abilities by working for Residential Life as a Resident Assistant in Burke Hall for my Sophomore and Junior years.  Academically, I furthered my mathematical and thinking skills through my positions as Math Club President and Pi Mu Epsilon Vice President.  These roles required me to co-chair the annual SNC High School Math Competition and PME Conference.  I also helped out the math department by offering time and knowledge as a math TA and individual tutor.  My personal development was ultimately tested through my eight-week student teach abroad opportunity in which I lived and taught in an underdeveloped community in St. Lucia, West Indies.  Had it not been for the strong base and extensive support system I built at SNC in the three years prior, I do not think I would have been as successful overseas; making it a truly unforgettable and life-changing experience.
 
Propelled into the real world just three days after graduation, I was hired at De La Salle Institute in Chicago, IL as their Technology Center Manager.  A co-institutional school (boys at one campus, girls at another campus), I oversee the Tech Center at the girls’ campus.  The students are part of an innovative Tablet PC program which requires every student to purchase a computer at the beginning of their freshman year.  All note-taking is done on the computer and the majority of their textbooks are loaded as software onto the tablet.  Needless to say, with over four hundred computers to worry about, there is never a dull day for me at work!  This manager position only allows enough time in the school day for me to teach one class of Geometry, but keeping myself in the classroom still allows me to share my passion for mathematics.  Also at De La Salle, I provide Calculus tutoring twice a week and general Freshman tutoring once a week.  I’m on the planning committee for a Women’s Career Day event we will be hosting in the spring which will bring in professionals from non-traditional jobs to show our students how much potential they have in the future.  Additionally, instead of playing softball this spring, I will be coaching the Lady Meteors at the varsity level.  To prepare for the season, I lead strength and conditioning sessions after school and run open gyms on Sundays where players can work on their hitting and fielding.  Then over the summer, as I have done for the past three summers, I will help build the master schedule of classes for both campuses at De La Salle.

I have always upheld the motto: “Work hard, Play hard” which is why I enjoy having the weekends to catch up with family and friends, go for long runs and devour any book I can get my hands on.  Traveling to St. Lucia has infected me with the “travel bug,” so I have also completed trips to Glacier National Park in Montana and a weeklong excursion to Sweden, Denmark and Norway.