Last month, student liaisons experienced two days of insider access to the Nobel Conference speakers.
“I just brought a suspicious black duffel bag with a fish skull in it from Jackson Campus Center to Christ Chapel,” says Olivia Hagestuen ʼ26, which on a regular school day might be a totally strange thing to say. But as a student liaison during the Nobel Conference, it’s completely normal.
The 62nd annual Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College welcomed seven speakers from across the country last month to discuss the theme of the Mississippi River. Each year, a select group of Gustavus students are paired with each speaker to assist them throughout the conference — they eat meals together, escort them on campus, and help them with niche tasks like locating a Dr Pepper or a quiet space to sit between events.
Olivia, along with her co-student liaison Maddy Schilling ʼ28, were assigned to speaker Solomon R. David, an assistant professor of aquatic ecology at the University of Minnesota, who studies gar fish — hence the fish skull duffel bag.
“It’s a really valuable experience,” says Maddy, a junior majoring in Environmental Studies, who received career advice from Dr. David. “We talked about science communication and it made me think about other opportunities I can explore with my degree.”
As an interdisciplinary conference, any student in any major can apply to become a liaison. Copeland Steele ʼ29, an Instrumental Music Education major, became aware of the opportunity when his First-Term Seminar professor mentioned it in class last year. “As someone who's interested in being a music educator, I'm also interested in education more broadly, and that includes science communication,” says Copeland. He was designated the “time guy” both days, holding up minute countdown signs during each presenter’s talk.
Students can apply for a liaison position in the fall for the following year’s conference through a specialized SigX (Signature Experience) course. Once accepted, the group of around 20 students meet about once a month to coordinate research on each speaker and plan engagement events. “Even if you’re an ‘overinvolved Gustie,’ the commitments are spread out so it’s doable,” says Copeland.
Olivia and Maddy planned a Bin-gar event (that’s Bingo, but gar themed) last spring to raise awareness for this year’s conference. Ahead of the sleep-themed conference in 2023, now seniors Laura Sunnarborg ʼ27 and Ester Ljunggren ʼ27 hosted a “community nap” on campus, inspired by their speaker Tricia Hersey’s own napping events. They set up yoga mats and pillows, and provided reflection prompts based on Hersey’s book. “People actually fell asleep!” notes Ester.
Currently in their final year at Gustavus, Laura and Ester were appointed as Student Senate co-presidents and credit their student liaison experience for giving them the courage to step into larger leadership roles.
“It was a confidence builder to interact with a New York Times bestselling author and people from high-ranking institutions. I was just a 19-year-old student from Mound, Minnesota, but I was capable of doing that,” says Laura.
“In Student Senate, we do a lot of advocacy work and communicate with intimidating entities, like the president of the college or the board of trustees,” she says. “Because I was a Nobel Conference student liaison, I am prepared to represent the Senate well and be confident speaking, because I've done it before.”
Similarly, the conference connected alumnus Lauren Rocheford ʼ26 with several career-boosting opportunities. Prior to the 2025 conference, which focused on sugar, Lauren conducted an independent project on Type II Diabetes in a former Nobel speaker’s lab. She then became a student liaison for Dr. Frank Hu, a physician-scientist who studies the role that sweeteners play in the disease. “I wanted to be as immersed as possible in the experience,” says Lauren, who is interested in pursuing medicine and currently applying to medical school.
That kind of connection—bringing classroom knowledge to a real-world setting—lets students see science up close. “The combined information from my professors and my major has made it super appealing to be a part of the conversation and relating to people who are doing that with their real lives,” says student liaison and senior geology major Freya Rising ʼ27.
As the only institution outside of Sweden with permission to use the Nobel name, Gustavus has the unique opportunity to put students at the center of intellectual curiosity. “It taught me how to view issues as broader than belonging to one or two disciplines,” says Ester. “We can ask, ‘What does the science mean? What are the political and social implications?’ That's what makes Nobel special.”
