Sarah Gotschall graduated in May 2017. She came to Muskingum from nearby Cambridge, Ohio and chose to double-major in art and psychology.
Growing up near Muskingum, Gotschall actually didn’t consider it an option when she began her college search. However, she knew it was the school where her grandparents, both Muskie alumni, had fallen in love. When she began attending post-secondary classes at Muskingum, Sarah knew it was the place for her. “Looking back,” she says, “I think there was a major pull towards the magenta in my blood. Not many people in our part of the country can say that they are learning on the same campus as their grandparents and I felt incredibly blessed to have that chance. This place was my home away from my home, only ten minutes away.”
It was her advisors at Muskingum who opened the world of art therapy to Gotschall, who had always loved art “but had avoided for fear of becoming a starving artist.” Her faculty members encouraged her to apply to graduate schools.
Following her own graduation from Muskingum, Gotschall enrolled in a three-year Counseling and Art Therapy program at Ursuline College. In addition to working towards her Master’s degree, Sarah is also the lead preschool teacher with two- and three-year-olds at a preschool that is housed within a senior living complex. The job provides intergenerational opportunities between her students and the residents of the facility, and gives her a chance to work with two populations that she very much enjoys.
The research skills that Gotschall learned from her undergraduate psychology classes have benefited her immensely, she says. “[I learned] the professional aspects of research, how to conduct it, and how to present it in an organized manner that put me a step ahead of many students from other universities.”