After starting college online due to the of the Pandemic, senior Kestra Engstrom is ready to graduate with a degree in English education and head on to graduate school.

Engstrom, the spring 2023 managing editor for the Daily Evergreen, has had quite the experience working at the newspaper. Starting as an opinion columnist at the end of her freshman year, Engstrom had a lot of opinions she wanted to share, and the opinion section was the perfect spot for it. 

She credits former opinion editor Meg Henry as a great role model, but the columnist position is more difficult than it seemed, finding stories and sources and then writing the pieces is harder than people may give it credit for. 

Engstrom then applied to be an opinion editor, inspired by Henry, to help the columnists grow their skills. With her degree, working one-on-one with opinion columnists to help them improve their writing and to get ideas to take into the classroom is a great experience for when she becomes a teacher.  

Becoming managing editor of the Daily Evergreen was something that Engstrom was nervous about, but ended up being one of the most rewarding experiences she has had in college she said. During her time as managing editor, Engstrom highlighted how her editors grew closer and the columnists improved as writers. 

She encourages new Evergreeners to know that they are the voice of the school. That comes with people looking to the Daily Evergreen to see what is going on at WSU, and what the students feel about everything going on. 

Entering WSU, Engstrom was planning on being a lawyer, with her major being political science. After a couple of political science classes, she realized that course of action wasn’t for her. 

“I thought about a lot of the English courses that I had taken at the WSU Tri-Cities campus and what literature has meant to me, and thought ‘Okay, maybe an English teacher would be a good way to go’ so I changed my major, and the next semester I started my English teaching courses and knew that was it,” Engstrom said. 

Engstrom said that working with and helping educate the next generation of students is one of her driving factors in wanting to be an English teacher. 

Coming into college, Engstrom had her mind set on being a political science major, not thinking she would be someone to change her major. However, a different path opened up that she preferred, and encouraged incoming students to go with the flow and do what seemed right. 

“Roll with the punches, at the end of the day you only get four years … or less. Really try to make the most of it and don’t be afraid to try new things or to fail,” Engstrom said. 

After graduation, Engstrom is planning on moving to the Tri-Cities with her fiancée to pursue a master’s degree online in secondary English education. Engstrom is expecting a baby in the fall.