Laurie Dahlberg

I will say it right out: as a student, I had a checkered past. Without a clear idea of what college was going to do for me, I floundered around for at least five years, “working” on my undergraduate degree. In 1975, I started in junior college. After a year, I transferred to Rockford College for one semester and then promptly dropped out. I worked the rest of 1976, then came to ISU in 1977 to be a studio art major. Somehow I wound up as a glassblowing student, dropped out again for a little while, then came back and limped to a mediocre finish. I had thought I might want to be an artist, but had not the slightest idea what that meant, or how you might do it. But I had also fallen in with a great group of friends.