{"id":37338,"date":"2019-06-14T15:11:25","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T20:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=37338"},"modified":"2019-06-19T10:53:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T15:53:36","slug":"sam-galatz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2019\/06\/14\/sam-galatz\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Galatz"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sam<\/a>
Student Sam Galatz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

S<\/span>am Galatz writes to give voice to people whose perspectives often go unheard and whose experiences often go unnoticed in the shadow of dominant social norms.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Inclusivity is important to me,” said Galatz, whose writing focuses on issues of mental illness, low-income families and the LGBT community. “The majority of writers don’t consider those points of view.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Samuel<\/a>
Samuel Galatz presenting an abridged version of their Honors thesis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Hector native graduated with honors from Bemidji State University in May. They* stayed a fifth year to complete a triple major in English, Spanish and creative & professional writing, along with a minor in studio arts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following a mental health crisis in high school, Galatz accepted admission to BSU in a moment of apathy without setting foot on campus. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I planned to transfer but then I fell in love with it,” Galatz said. “It was just the people I met. I felt really heard and welcomed in my classes. It sounds cliché, but I found my second family at BSU.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Through writing, Galatz explored mental health themes by creating Jeremy, a fictional character who experiences a mental breakdown. They compiled that writing into a multi-genre senior thesis featuring fiction, poetry and self-reflective nonfiction and shared excerpts as a presenter at the Upper Midwest Honors Conference in April.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I really want to illustrate what it’s like to live with mental illness,” Galatz said. “I want others with mental illness to feel that they are not alone.”<\/span><\/p>\n

What struck Galatz’s honors adviser, Dr. Season Ellison, assistant professor of history, was the “imagery and sensations” portrayed in the writing. <\/span><\/p>\n

“It was really well received,” she said. “People commented on Sam’s bravery in sharing those experiences.”<\/span><\/p>\n

At BSU, Galatz has worked with residential life, the Honors Program, the Phoenix — BSU’s LGBT+ student organization — student affairs, the search committee to hire a diversity center coordinator, as a teaching assistant and with the Office of Admissions. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I thought I wanted to be a writer, but now I want to work in higher education,” Galatz said. “I’ve seen the whole process and I kind of enjoy it.” <\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually Galatz plans to attend graduate school, and Ellison notes that they will be a good candidate. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Sam has been a joy to work with and cares deeply about people,” she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Always an advocate, Galatz speaks highly of BSU, its professors, the “crisp air” and the views. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Just look out the window,” they said. “It’s beautiful.”<\/span><\/p>\n

* For greater inclusivity, Galatz prefers gender-neutral pronouns<\/i> – they, them, their instead of <\/i>he, she, his, hers. This story reflects that preference.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S<\/span>am Galatz writes to give voice to people whose perspectives often go unheard and whose experiences often go unnoticed in the shadow of dominant social norms.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[958],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37338"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37661,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37338\/revisions\/37661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}