Sarah Tahtinen-Pacheco stood with her Spanish class and watched as a shopper walked up to a native Spanish speaking man in his restaurant at the Midtown Global Market. As her class entered the room, the shopper marveled at the new cultural setting, took a photo, and moved on. As Tahtinen-Pacheco’s students approached the same scene, they took photos just as the shopper before them, but their main focus was the opportunity to communicate. The students engaged with the man who was running the sho

I have a confession: I don’t know what I’m doing. Somehow I am graduating college at age 19 but I still can’t tell my left from my right. The first time I took my driver’s test, I failed because the instructor told me to turn right and then loudly said “your other right.” Speaking of my car, I’ve watched my dad fill my windshield wiper fluid twice. He thinks I know how to do it but last time I tried I emptied the gallon down the driveway. I got a car wash to clean my windshield instead. I don

Bethel University junior Molly Longtin sighed as she discussed having to wear her hearing aids again. Before COVID-19 she was able to get by without them, using her two interpreters and lipreading. Now, Longtin must figure out how to learn in a new reality where everyone wears face coverings and lipreading is no longer an option. Longtin was born with a cleft lip, which doctors believe contributed to her diagnosis of sensorineural hearing loss in first grade. While she can hear some speech, ce

Seven-year-old Danielle Graczyk sat on the kitchen floor of her one-level house, curled up into her dog, Sally. The blankets wrapped around her comforted the two to sleep. Sally had been brought to Graczyk’s family by her uncle, who had been wrapped up in drugs and violence his whole life. Seven-year-old Gracyzk begged to keep the dog until her parents gave in. Little did they know the effect this one dog would have on the rest of Graczyk’s life. Growing up in a household that lived paycheck

Media production professor Nick Swedlund believes in the future of Bethel film even though he may not be a part of it. Nick Swedlund hustled into Can Can Wonderpark in St. Louis Park at 9 a.m. with his bag slung over his shoulder and his phone in his left hand. Rain drizzled from a gray sky over the home base of the 2019 Twin Cities Film Festival. The lights outside mixed with fog and created a haze. The cinema was filled with old-fashioned arcade games, dinosaur themed mini golf and statues o

Bethel University senior uses her apparel business to spread the Gospel. Abigail Hansen stood at the top of a mountain in Glacier National Park on a Saturday morning with her coworker and recent Concordia Moorhead business graduate Matthew Engum, recalling how she found her passion for screen printing. A year and a half before her trip to Montana, she had shut down her entrepreneurial T-shirt business, Gospel Tees, that she ran with her high school best friend, Hannah Gullixson. Since they had

Brad Atkinson, owner of Anchor Coffeehouse, shares the story behind how he created the brand of the largest mobile coffeehouse in the midwest.

Chanda Cook and Dona Sommerfeldt strategized and prepped for their last match of the White Bear Lake Lifetime club tournament. Division three tennis partners Chanda Cook and Donna Sommerfeldt met up an hour before their championship match at the White Bear Lake Lifetime Fitness before competing to put their name on the club plaque. Sommerfeldt’s eighth-grade son, Jack, who plays on the Mahtomedi High School varsity tennis team, showed up to all his mom’s matches leading up to the championship.

Home-cooked meals, locker decorations and shattering a glass table with a headspin. Special guest segments from new student podcasters!

On this week's episode of the Modern Story Podcast, Bethel students Makenna Cook, Karla Bonilla, and Maggie Riermann dive into the struggles of growing up, and facing the adult world when you still feel like a kid.