I graduated from Winona State University in Minnesota with a degree in Social Sciences and History Teaching as well as a Coaching minor. During my senior year, I was fortunate enough to participate in a travel study that focused on the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s in the deep south. I was able to meet several veterans of "The Movement" including Sarah Collins Rudolph who was a victim of the 16th St Baptist Church Bombing in Birmingham Alabama. She and her husband continue to be an inspiration to me to this day.