Merrill Stabler ’08 knew St. Lawrence was
the place for her the first time she walked on campus.
“Both my parents graduated from St. Lawrence, and I
wasn’t sure if I wanted to follow in their footsteps,” she
says. “After coming to St. Lawrence and seeing it for
the first time, I knew this was where I belonged.”
Merrill, who is a speech and theatre major and a Spanish minor,
was a gymnast at Manchester Essex Regional High School. When she
came to St. Lawrence, she knew she wanted to continue gymnastics
in some way. She first learned about the Dance Team at Matriculation
and was impressed by their performance. When she attended the
Student Organization Fair a few weeks later, she signed up for the
Dance Team and has been a large part of it ever since. “It’s
a great group of girls,” she says. “I really enjoy
it because it is a student-run program. We
all have a lot of say in what we want to do.”
The Manchester, Massachusetts native was also interested in becoming
involved with the Canton community. “I remember getting
a lot of emails about the SLU Buddies program,” she says. “I
love kids and thought this would be a great opportunity to help them.” Through
her work with SLU Buddies, Merrill was also able to find an opportunity
to work in a 7th grade Spanish classroom. “Working
in a Spanish classroom has been exciting for me,” she
says.
Merrill has discovered a deep interest in Latin and South America. “The
classes I have taken at St. Lawrence have made me become interested
in Latin and South America because of the differences in political
and economic backgrounds,” she says. She is interested
in taking advantage of St. Lawrence’s International Studies
Program and studying in Costa Rica at some point
during her college career. When she graduates, Merrill is interested
in traveling and is also interested in film. “I would
like to be a location scout for Central American films.”
