Major: English
Sarah Kueking has two passions—animals and writing—and initially hoped to become a veterinarian.
“I discovered that I liked to heal animals when one of my betta fish fell ill,” she said. “I doctored him myself with aquarium salt, allowing him to live for over a year after that. I healed several fish the same way in the following years, and I imagined how cool it would be to save an even bigger animal one day.”
Kueking chose College of DuPage because it allowed her to stay at home without spending a lot of money to live in a dorm, plus she could fulfill most of her general education requirements before transferring.
“Also, the difficulty of the classes really helped me excel,” she said. “I earned straight A’s, and while the classes were definitely more work than high school classes, they were not so difficult as to overwhelm a student new to college.”
The faculty provide everything for their students, from fun activities to meeting new people, proper recognition of a job well done and educational help when students need it.
Sarah Kueking
In 2020, Kueking was recognized by Mathematics faculty for excellence during the annual Celebration of Academic Excellence. It’s a subject in which she actually fell behind during elementary school because her family moved often but eventually excelled in it through high school.
Kueking also loves writing fiction and poetry. During her first semester, she won $500 for placing in the top three during the Black History Month Expressions Contest. She also participated in the Camp Nanowrimo contest by attempting to write 25,000 words in a single month, exceeding the challenge by writing 27,000 words.
After earning her Associate in Science degree, Kueking transferred to the University of Illinois at Chicago but found herself back at COD, this time pursuing her passion for writing by pursuing the Creative Writing certificate. She split her time between both schools, serving as the managing editor for COD’s student newspaper, The Courier, and the production editor for the school’s literary magazine, Prairie Light Review, which included two of her works in the spring 2023 issue.
At UIC, Kueking had a lyric essay published in Graphe, the English department’s journal of writing and art. In 2024, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with concentrations in both creative writing and professional writing and a minor in biology.
As for COD, Kueking loves that everyone wants to help the students.
“The faculty provide everything for their students, from fun activities to meeting new people, proper recognition of a job well done and educational help when students need it,” she said. “COD has something for everyone, whether it be a class, a club or an event.”