Ripon foundation serving Kaylie Marks ’20 well in graduate chiropractic studies

The strong foundation she received in her classes at Ripon College and the ability to finish her degree in three years are big takeaways for Kaylie Marks ‘20 of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Marks is pursuing a doctor of chiropractic degree with a sports emphasis at Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington, Minnesota. She is considering pursuing a master’s degree in clinical nutrition and a license in acupuncture.

Marks would like to serve athletes of all ages, to treat pregnant and postpartum women, provide nutritional counseling, and overall to provide patients the opportunity to live an optimal life, she says.

She says Ripon prepared her well for graduate school work. Many of her classes were review for her, “and because I was challenged at Ripon, it made taking 27 credits in graduate school much more manageable,” she says.

Marks also found a lot of value in her senior seminar project at Ripon. She felt she got so much out of it and that it was unique. “I sincerely want to thank you the entire biology department for the skills I’ve been equipped with to research and write scientifically. Not to mention, catching the contagious passion.”

Marks started at Ripon as a chemistry-biology major but switched to biology in her last semester so that she was able to graduate early. “Ripon College helped to prepare me for chiropractic school in several ways,” Marks says. “I can confidently say that every class I took at Ripon in my three years has facilitated the way that I learn and has been crucial in my higher level of thinking required for my current degree.

“The Catalyst program has molded me into being a critical thinker, a collaborator, and has given me an introduction to cultural competency,” she says. “In the tutoring program, I was a tutee as well as a tutor, which was vital to my success in the classroom. However, most importantly, I was challenged in majority of my biology classes to become a better student.

She says Ripon professors teach graduate-level material and expect graduate-level thinking. “The reason I wanted to continue a degree related to biology is due to the contagious passion that was portrayed consistently from each professor of biology at Ripon,” she says. “I never realized how much I loved learning until I was at Ripon College, and I’m so thankful for the ability to be optimistic about learning.”

(Photo: Kaylie Marks ’20 with her fiancé, Dakota Wilcox ’19, and their dog, Buckley)

Zoe Hazel ‘22
Friendship, Wisconsin