Profile Text: Talon Wolter Edited by: Sam Purkiss Audio Profile: Tanner Frost Joanne Alvorez embraced her daughter, Alesia, and posed for a graduation photo in 2020. She was receiving her Masters in Social Work from the University of Iowa, and though her path wasn’t always clear, her priorities were ever firm. “If you’re going to […]
Salli Nichols on “Growing Our Own”
Profile Text: Piper Nicely Edited by: Sam Purkiss Audio Profile: Hannah Kramer Walking around Storm Lake, Salli Nichols’ granddaughter insists that she knows everyone. In a way, it’s true. As a retired English, journalism, and ESL teacher for Storm Lake High School, Nichols has watched her students grow up and join the workforce in town, […]
Emilia Marroquín Finds a New Beginning
Profile Text: Laurel Myers Audio Profile: Blake McMillan For many inhabitants of Storm Lake, the town has become synonymous with opportunity and new beginnings. Offering ample employment, quality education, a bustling and diverse community, and a safe place to raise a family, the small Iowa town has attracted individuals from across the world as a […]
Karole Iraheta’s Education (for Service)
Profile text: Adam Kimble Edited by: Sam Purkiss Audio Profiles: Jaydn Forbes and Clayton Van Horn Karole Iraheta knows how it feels to be looked at like an outsider. She remembers going to other towns, like Spencer, for a track meet, and receiving uncomfortable glances when she talked to her parents in Spanish. She also […]
Maria Ramos and the Camino Largo from Migrant to Citizen and Councilwoman
Profile Text: Hunter Kolbus Audio Profile: Joshua Woolcott January 2016. Maria Ramos is writing down her answers to the United States citizenship test, hoping all the study sessions, tapes, and books finally pay off. Ramos had made a promise to herself that once she received her green card, she would never renew it; instead, she […]
Sally Henry Finds Her Footing
Profile text: Joey Puckett Audio Highlight: Omar Alcorta Edited by: Sam Purkiss Photos: Omar Alcorta Once again, Sally Henry was surrounded by new people and new opportunities, trying to find the right footing in an unfamiliar place. She’s no stranger to all that. She faced the same challenge when her family became the first Micronesian […]
Steve Berg and a Storm Lake Family Legacy
Profile Text: Travis Shane Edited by: Sam Purkiss Audio Profile: Hannah Kramer Photos: Hannah Kramer From his childhood in 1956 when “Old Main” burned down, to the town-altering closure of the meatpacking plant owned by Hygrade in 1981, to his personal leukemia battle in 2018, Steve Berg has seen it all and come out the […]
The Education of Raul Arevalo
Profile Text: Katie Johnston Audio Highlight: Hannah Perry Edited by: Sam Purkiss “We’re moving to the US,” his parents said one day. Arevalo first took the news in stride, only to later realize, “Oh wait, I don’t know anybody there,” he said. “And then when I came here, I went to school and I was […]
Signs of Hope: Mayra Lopez and a Generational Dilemma
Profile Text: Gillian Davis Audio Highlight: Savannah Davis Edited by: Sam Purkiss Photos: Mayra Lopez, Savannah Davis There are moments when 28-year-old Mayra Lopez questions how integrated immigrants really are in Storm Lake. Diversity is celebrated, but it can feel like “tokenism,” too: a quirk about the town, or an adornment. But this can quickly […]
Katie Lindgren, Family, and Finding the Right Words
Profile Text: Anna Rottenborn Audio Highlight: Blake McMillan Photographs: Blake McMillan and Katie Lindgren When Katie Lindgren looks back on her childhood in the 1980s and 1990s, she sees a nostalgia-tinged reflection of what Storm Lake once was. Raised a country kid, Lindgren still recalls the excitement she felt at being able to explore the […]