Casey Schaefer ’16

I made choices that were sort of unexpected and I found my path by making random choices that happened to work out.

Casey Schaefer ’16

After graduating from Mid-Pen in 2016, Casey attended Foothill College with a tentative plan to spend two years at the community college and then transfer to a four-year university.

Alan Cameron’s history classes were some of her favorites at Mid-Pen, so Casey thought she'd major in the subject. After taking a few college-level classes, however, she realized that history was not her passion. “I bounced around from major to major with no idea what I wanted to do,” she said. “That changed in 2018, when on a whim I signed up for an Archaeological Field School in Ireland through the Anthropology department at Foothill. For an entire month, I got to excavate the 14th century Ballintubber Castle, and over that time I fell in love with the field of archaeology.”

Returning for her third year at Foothill, she knew what she wanted to study and immersed herself in anthropology classes. By the time the college admissions season rolled around that fall, she was ready to apply.  

“I got into every school she applied to, which wouldn’t have happened directly out of high school,” said Casey. She is currently finishing her junior year at her “dream school,” William & Mary in Virginia, where she continues to study anthropology as she pursues her bachelor of arts degree.

Reflecting on her path after Mid-Pen, she said, “I made choices that were sort of unexpected. I found my path by making random choices that happened to work out."

Casey Schaefer ’16 participated in Mid-Pen's virtual roundtable, Alternative Paths: Life after Mid-Pen, on Thursday, April 23, 2020.