Carrie Stallings ’19

Potential is the only prerequisite.

“I was radically changed by Grinnell, it was the start of being in an environment unlike anything I’d experienced.”
— Carrie Stallings ’19

Carrie Stallings ’19 grew up in one of the poorest parts of Jackson, Mississippi, and almost didn’t take the ACT. At one point, she only had known of two colleges: Harvard and the University of Mississippi.

Fast forward four years later. Stallings is giving a speech at Grinnell’s baccalaureate ceremony during Commencement weekend that brings the crowd to tears.

“I was radically changed by Grinnell,” Stallings says. “It was the start of being in an environment unlike anything I’d experienced.”

Stallings credits the great mentors and advisers at Grinnell that worked with her. They reaffirmed that she was meant to be here.

“I learned to believe in myself because I had people that believed in me,” Stallings says. “By the time I graduated, I was one of the best students in all my classes. Grinnell radically changed how I think about life, about learning, about everything.”

Grinnell College continues to meet the full demonstrated financial aid need of admitted and continuing students. As of 2019, 86 percent of students receive aid to help pay for their studies. This contributes to a diverse student body and a welcoming culture no matter where students come from.

“I never felt sympathy that I was a poor, first-generation student, without a strong educational background,” Stallings said. “My professors would say ‘what do you want to take next? Where do you want to go?’ And despite not having the robust education like other students who could afford that privilege, I never felt inferior or inadequate at Grinnell.”

Her first semester, Stallings took a sociology course “because it ended in ‘logy,’ and I thought it sounded like science, and I wanted to be in pre-med. I saw pre-med as a way out of poverty.” Every semester thereafter, she took sociology courses. It opened her eyes to a new pathway.

Stallings recalls her first paper, receiving a “C.” Her professor admitted he should have failed her, but he saw her potential. He took the time one-on-one to teach Stallings how to write scientifically. “I had people that were immediately and mentally committed to helping me be a good student,” she says.

Carrie’s personal exploration, along with a multitude of experiences she had at Grinnell, have paved the way to places she could never have imagined, including the Ph.D. program in sociology that she is now enrolled in at Northwestern University.

“I hope to be a professor, to do my research, to keep learning and have my mind blown on a daily basis,” she says.