Hi, I'm Ollie, the author of this LibGuide!
I graduated from Kutztown in Fall 2025, where I received a BS in Library Science and BA in History. I joined KU as a Freshman in Fall 2022 as just a Library Science major, but added a second major in History in Fall 2023. While here, I joined the Library Science Fraternity, Alpha Beta Alpha, in Fall of 2022 as a member and then served as secretary in 2023-2024 and vice president 2024-2025. I also worked in the Curriculum Materials Center in the library from October 2022 to December 2025.
A big interest of mine is French, both the language and the history. I have been lucky enough to have studied it for several years before college and studied abroad during my time at KU in Paris at the Institut Catholique de Paris. If possible, I highly recommend applying to study abroad programs and their relevant scholarships. I really thought I would never be able to afford it, but scholarships helped a lot! It was my first time flying by myself and being out of the country, so I was incredibly anxious, but it was one of the best decisions I've ever made, and I learned so much more than just academics. My biggest take away was that if I can navigate a National Airport in my second language, I can do anything!
An important extracurricular in my life is color guard, which I have been a part of since I was in high school. I joined the Kutztown University March Unit's guard as a Freshman till I graduated as a captain in 2025. Outside of Kutztown, I teach guard at Parkland High School, have continued the sport independently during the Summer and Winter/Spring, and will continue for the foreseeable future.
Last, This LibGuide is my Capstone Project for Honors, but funnily enough, I originally had no plans of joining Honors. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to have two great advisors that encouraged me to apply. Originally, my Project was going to be a research paper about the evolution of shellshock from World War I to the present, which eventually turned into a paper on the Holocaust. These would be fine projects, but the issue was that these were more history focused and I really wanted to find a way to incorporate Library Science as well since it is such a big part of my education. With the help of my boss, Karen Wanamaker, the education librarian at Rohrbach, we came up with the idea of making a LibGuide that would combine my interests of historical fiction books and libraries. Thus, a LibGuide on the portrayal of the Holocaust in young adult literature was born. As someone very interested in archives and cataloguing, this project was perfect in teaching me so much about organization, accessibility, research, outreach, and much more! While I have no desire to go into teaching, I do believe in order to be a well-rounded librarian, it is essential to understand that librarians are educators for all ages. This project taught me an incredible amount about how libraries and schools go hand-in-hand, specifically when teaching about the Holocaust. I was also able to become a better advocate for banned and challenged books, as the Holocaust is a very sensitive in libraries everywhere right now.
