Here for the Hill 2025

🦁 Once again our community stepped up to support students, and it will make a real difference to the Oles in these organizations!

From all the clubs, teams, and other orgs that help make life on the Hill the vibrant experience that it is - THANK YOU! 🦁

Thank you so much for supporting EMPTY Theater! With your help, we will be able to produce a full-scale musical, a new plays festival, and a 24 hour musical this year!

Welcome to the last day of Here for the Hill!! Today we have a video from the 2025 Companydance Spring Concert! Emma Linder ‘27 choreographed this piece to ABBA’s Voulez-Vous and it was performed by 6 other Ole Tap Collective members. 

Here are some more reasons why our dancers love OTC!:

“Ole Tap Collective has strengthened my confidence and skills in tap dance… Some of my favorite things about OTC are the team bonding we create, the fun rhythm patterns and dances we can perform for each other, and being able to continue tap dancing in my life.” - Sam Suro ‘28

“I appreciate Ole Tap Collective because it provides me with a space and time to decompress during the day and put my energy and focus towards something that I love, which is tapping! The impact this collective has had on me is it has brought me closer together with people that I never would have met before, if it weren't for our shared love of tap.“ - Kira Cupp ‘28

Thank you again to those who have donated thus far! We are excited to be able to fund more masterclasses for our dancers, as well as costumes for future performances!

A foundation of Ballet Club's activities are our weekly classes! We offer weekly, 1 hour classes that enable people to get extra ballet, movement, and community in their week! For some, the classes are ways to maintain the intense training they had in high school, for others, it is their first time trying the style! Our classes are open to everyone, and entirely student taught providing members with both a variety of classes and teaching opportunities! 

Hear from several of our members about why they love Ballet Club classes!

"As someone who has danced ballet her whole life, I really struggled to leave the world of ballet behind when I came to college. Ballet Club classes help me feel at home and provide an opportunity for me to express myself in the art form I love most" - Magdalena Bubar '29

"I like being able to dance and practice my ballet skills in a low-pressure environment" - Lily English '26

"I appreciate ballet club classes because they give me the opportunity to attend a weekly ballet class in a fun environment with people I enjoy dancing with! It is student led which allows for an additional sense of creativity and self passion between the dancers" - Lucy Smith '29

"I greatly appreciate ballet club because it allows me to continue my ballet technique, especially when I’m unable to take ballet class due to scheduling... it’s a good stress relief for me" -Sam Suro '28

"I love ballet club classes because I always want some more ballet in my week! It's amazing to have a community of people who love ballet as much as I do. I also taught my first ballet class through ballet club, and I've learned a lot and become so much more confident in my teaching" - Sonja Ebey '27

We greatly appreciate all the support that we have received thus far, THANK YOU!!

Boo! Did we scare you? We know we are scared by how fast the Here for the Hill challenge went! In order to celebrate all of your support these past few days, we wanted to share with you the cheer we made to start every game. One of our Captains came up with this special rendition of Um Yah Yah! 

We also wanted to show off some of the best costumes we had at this year’s annual Halloween practice! Thank you again for all of your gifts and support over these past few days, with your help we will be able to keep growing our team to bigger and bigger levels, while always having a blast! 

Oles, you are the best - more than 600 of you helped to unlock additional funds for the Co-Curricular Opportunity Fund! 

Keep going! 

The Pilates Club is a relatively new addition to campus, but it is a great space for people to try out this form of exercise, dedicate some time to themselves, and grow in community. 

We would love your help to expand our impact by making a gift! Through your efforts, we would be able to enhance our workouts with more equipment, set forth on group trips to Pilates studios in nearby areas to expand our community engagement, and overall enhance the vocation of our club!

Ole Tap Collective offers regular classes to students, many of which are student taught! This video shows one of our student taught combos! These classes are great for practicing tap skills, offering teaching opportunities, and building community! We also love to offer master classes to our club members taught by professionals from the twin cities. To offer these classes we need your support, and hope that you will make a gift today!

Also, hear from several of our club members about why they love OTC!

"I appreciate the Ole Tap Collective because it gives me a place to continue practicing tap after leaving my home dance studio. I really enjoy spending time with other members, challenging myself, and the fulfillment from finishing a piece!" - Abigail Egerstrom '29

"Tap was such an integral part of my home studio and I really appreciate how Ole Tap Collective provides a space to create work, take class and dance with others who love to tap" - Joy Meyers '26

Frog fundraiser: We collected information in the St. Olaf natural lands under our advisor (Professor Maie) to map pathogen spread among amphibian populations here in Northfield and elsewhere in the US this year!! 

What a difference a day makes - more than double the gifts from this time yesterday. 🎉🎉🎉 That is a lot of support for student orgs, no matter how you count it!

Keep going - tomorrow might be the spookiest day of the year - but we are so close to hitting the goal.

Will we fall short? Nevermore! 🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛

Last year, EMPTY Theater produced the musical Big Fish! The show gave over 30 students opportunities to form new connections and test their abilities as actors, designers, producers, and pit musicians. Highlights from the production are featured in the video below. If you want to support more theater like Big Fish, please please consider making a gift today!

Hello! We are the Ole Tap Collective, and we are so excited to participate in Here for the Hill this year! In OTC, our goal is to provide a welcoming community for tap dance. As a group, we hold student-led rehearsals and choreography sessions that prepare us for a variety of performances during the year. We also hold drop-in classes that provide more dancing and teaching opportunities for students, offering both student-taught classes and master classes. We aim to provide tapping opportunities and a dance community on campus!

Here for the Hill gifts will help us to fund masterclasses with professionals and costumes for our dancers. Thank you for your support!

Hey again Oles! For day three, we wanted to celebrate by showing off some of our team’s favorite cellys!! That's hockey slang for celebrations, and our team gets pretty creative after scoring goals. With your support, we will be able to go further and face more teams to show off these awesome cellys! Thank you to everyone who helps us create this fun, laughter-filled environment for all of us hockey players! 

The Magic: The Gathering Club is St. Olaf's official club for playing the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. We love the strategy of the game, learning about the history of the cards, and sharing our love of Magic with our fellow players that we've met! Your gift will help our club gain more reach in the St. Olaf community, while also helping our club support Special Events like our Learn to Play Event and upcoming Prerelease Event happening in November. Any support would make a huge difference, so please consider supporting our club! Here is a video of some of our club members telling their name and one of their favorite Magic decks!

Good morning Oles 🦁!

We are getting started on day 3 of Here for the Hill - the last full day of giving your support to student orgs. It might be a foggy morning on the Hill - but that's not going to stop us. 

Be sure to check out those matches above⬆️ and support your favorite orgs as we 🚗to the goal!!

Zerks want to keep winning and creating memories - help them do that today! 

Pilates Club is brand new this year and provides a great outlet for students to build community and think about their wellness! 

EMPTY Theater is St. Olaf's student musical theater organization! We are currently working on a full-scale production of Little Women, a beautiful story about love, family, and connection. Watch the video below to learn more and mark your calendar for November 19th through 22nd! 

To keep telling stories and creating opportunities like this, we need your support. Please consider making a gift today to support students' artistic ventures!

Your support would allow us to get more paddles and balls. A gift of any size would make a big impact for us! Here is a video of some of our members sharing what they love about Pickleball Club!

Happy Day 2 of Here for the Hill! St Olaf Women’s Club soccer is dancing through today, feeling all the excitement and love from all of you supporters! We are currently in game preparation mode for our last game of the fall season against the College of St Benedict this weekend! This includes running, passing, shooting, and a little dancing, of course!

Support us today and keep us moving forward!

Hey Oles - It might be quittin' time here in central time, but we are just getting started in our support for students orgs on the Hill! 🦁

With 175 gifts and more than $21,300 - we are almost 30% to the goal, and just getting started! 

Keep it going and we will check in later!

Deep End is the oldest student theater organization at St Olaf. Our goals are to provide students with opportunities to learn and grow in theater, and to have new experiences while fostering a sense of community together. Donations will go towards funding our production and helping us obtain scripts, rights, costumes, sets, props, and more! You will help us fund the following projects for this year...

The King in Yellow, A Radio Play 

This is a staged production of a script written by a current St Olaf senior. It will be directed, produced, and performed by all St Olaf students under the advisement of St Olaf Theater Faculty. It will lean into Gothic Horror themes inspired by the book of the same name. There will be a staged reading, as well as a recording as a radio play, this December. 

New Year New Play 

This is a play festival we are doing in collaboration with EMPTY Theater. After being a huge success last year, it is coming back even bigger. This festival puts musicians and playwrights together to write comedic musical one-acts that are then produced and performed by all St Olaf students over J-Term. It's a great way to make something new alongside your peers. 

Spring Student Directed Production 

We are currently in the process of reading director applications to select the play. However, this will be a fully produced, fully student-run production. This is Deep End's big project that gives students opportunities to get involved with a full-fledged theater production, outside of department theater. Our past productions have included A Midsummer Night's Dream and Clue! 

Thank you for all of your support, and come see our freshman musical theater cabaret, Freshfaces, this Sunday (November 2nd) in the Pause at 7:30 PM! 

At Ballet Club, in addition to our weekly classes we offer performance opportunities! We regularly perform in 'Fresh Space', a performance opportunity hosted by the Dance Department, giving our dancers the chance to be on stage! 

In the past we have had to rely on dancers' personal belongings for costumes, but with your support we can have hair pieces, our own stock of skirts, and the ability to purchase leotards and tights for dancers who may not have them. This enables us to be self-sufficient as a club, and not rely on the financial abilities and existing pieces of club members. 

Hear from some of our club members about their experiences performing! 

"I love getting the opportunity to perform ballet on stage again! I haven’t had the chance to do so since high school, but it holds a special place in my heart" - Hailey Frank '26

I strongly believe performing brings us dancers closer together with a deeper meaning. Being able to work with one another to create movement for self reflection or just for enjoyment is an important part of ballet" - Sam Suro '28

"I appreciate the opportunity to showcase this amazing art form. I also love building community through the rehearsal and performance process" - Sonja Ebey '27

At St. Olaf Boxing Club, we provide a space for members to learn the fundamentals of boxing, no matter previous experience. We take members from beginners to participating in their first fight. Our members participate in an annual spring showcase that has attracted 200+ audience members. 

Our goal at Boxing Club is to be accessible for all. We provide all equipment, such as gloves, mitts, and heavy bags, to keep boxing affordable and accessible for all our members. This year, we are continuing to save up for a standing boxing ring, which would provide a safer, more professional environment for our boxers to participate in our showcases.

We greatly appreciate your support!

One of our primary goals at Aspiring Educators is to create learning opportunities for future teachers! Every year, we go to conferences, host guest speakers, and offer alumni connections to ensure that future educators have opportunities to learn from experienced teachers and experts. Traveling to conferences and paying guest speakers, though, gets expensive. A gift to Aspiring Educators allowa us to keep creating opportunities that equip future educators for success in the classroom!

Today we want to showcase an Ole Tap Collective performance that was both choreographed and performed by OTC members. If you want to see more of what we've been up to, you can also check out our Instagram @oletapcollective 

Thank you everyone for your support so far!

This is the APO Execs passing the phone to their bros!

Hey there Oles, Women’s Club Hockey here! We just wanted to remind everyone that we aren’t just puck heads! Us Oles can have a lot of skills out on the ice, check out our favorites… well actually maybe we should just stick to hockey! While we are a well-rounded team with such a variety of interests off the ice, hockey brings us all together to keep doing what we love. 

We’re very excited to share with you this wonderful opportunity; and give you more insight as to what we do as a student-led newspaper for the campus community and beyond. At St. Olaf College there is no journalism department, major, or even a minor. So, The Olaf Messenger is the sole place for aspiring journalists to learn the important reporting skills, build our portfolios, and gain experience. We try to provide our staff with important experiences and seminars such as attending the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists’ Intern Night, but these events can be hard to attend for our staff due to transportation costs and other fees that we don’t have in our budget to cover. So, one of the reasons we are partnering with Here for the Hill is to have more funds to support our staff’s professional development.

Secondly, we’re raising money for print funding. In the past few years, our budget has shrunk, but cost of printing physical copies has stayed the same. This has led us to having some issues be online-only instead of both physical and online. Because of this, it has made it difficult for us to reach the campus community as many students love having a physical copy to read weekly.

Finishing up Day One of Here for the Hill with 130 donors and almost $13,000 raised for Student Organizations!  

Great Job Oles! 🦁🎉

Good night 🌃 and see you tomorrow for a busy Day 2!

We are the St. Olaf Figure Skating Club, and we are so excited to be participating in Here for the Hill! We teach beginners how to skate at weekly lessons, perform at hockey games, and put on an ice show each semester. Your support will help us continue to make these experiences possible for every student! Thank you!

100 Oles made a gift to support Students on the Hill!

What's stopping you from making your gift today?

This is our APO families in matching outfits!

Hey Oles!

We are Trek & Tea! A small, but steadily growing organization that gets together to share our love for all things Star Trek, Sci-Fi and of course, Tea! We are so excited to be a part of this challenge; it’s a wonderful chance to invite others to join us and share the fun with everyone on campus and off!

This time last year, we started as a tiny group of friends meeting in a dorm, but we’ve slowly gained more members (and friends!). We welcome everyone to join us, whether they are a longtime Trekkie or have no idea the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars. We strive to be a space at the end of the week where anyone is welcome to come, wind down and just talk about goofy sci-fi shows, play games or just enjoy a hot beverage and cookies.

Our goal this year to have an end of the year campus wide movie night. We’d love for everyone on campus to be able to join us, take a break from finals and just kick back, relax and enjoy one of our favorite old, silly, space movies. Unfortunately, movie rights are expensive, and we would still like to be able to take our members on fun outings to planetariums, comic cons and more.

With your support, we could do all of this more, so please watch this video. I promise there's a lot more goofy ones where that came from! Thank you!! 

The St. Olaf Dance Team needs your help!  We want to bring all our dancers to DTU Collegiate Nationals in Orlando, Florida, this spring. At Nationals, we will compete in both jazz and pom routines against other Division III college teams. This year, we have doubled in size and talent, meaning we need your help more than ever as we fundraise! 

The Dance Team provides students with opportunities to continue in recreational and/or competitive dance while supporting St. Olaf athletic teams and engaging in intercollegiate competitions. We are an inclusive, competitive club offering equal opportunities to students with less experience as well as those coming to St. Olaf with years of dance experience. There are two teams split by experience and commitment level. The Gold Team offers a space for newer dancers to experience Dance Team in a low-stress environment, while the Black Team allows experienced dancers to continue to maintain their skills and compete. 

The Dance Team also provides halftime entertainment at the homecoming football game in the fall and at home basketball games.

Hear from the Mock Trial team on their experience at Drake this past weekend and how your support got them there! 

Welcome to Day 1 of Here for the Hill! In Alpha Phi Omega we focus on providing service to the fraternity, campus, community, and world. This means participating in events in our community and creating our own events here on campus. Your donations enable us to offer these opportunities so that we can continue to provide meaningful service.

Ballet Club is excited to share more about Here for the Hill this year! Take a peek into one of our weekly classes in this video! At Ballet Club, we aim to provide a welcoming, relaxed dance environment that gives students opportunities to continue doing ballet, or even try it for the first time! We regularly hold classes taught by club leadership and club members to offer a variety of class styles and promote a community-based environment. Additionally, we offer performance opportunities for students, when ballet performances after high school are often hard to find!

Here for the Hill gifts would be used to help us purchase costume pieces and ballet clothing for performances. We have relied primarily on our member dancers' closets for skirts, leotards, and tights, however having additional costume pieces such as hair pieces adds to performance value (and is fun!) Having our own stock of base costume pieces as a club makes a difference in equity, making sure that everyone feels welcomed and supported. Thank you for your support!

We are Students for Justice in Palestine, an activism-based organization at St. Olaf looking to spread Palestinian causes to campus. 

We are a small, non-hierarchical organization currently working towards goals such as bringing awareness about and inspiring activism for Palestinian causes within the student body, as well as the college’s total divestment from Israel. 

We have been holding events such as chalking displays in front of Buntrock Commons, planning a Palestinian film festival, and holding fundraisers. To continue the work we do on campus, we are asking for support from alumni, parents, and families to make an impact and share our campaign with others. You can find more information about our organization on our Instagram or ask questions to boyd4@stolaf.edu. 

Stay tuned for videos and more information to come. Thank you and Free Palestine!

Hey Oles, 

St. Olaf Women's Club Hockey is so excited to be a part of the Here for the Hill campaign again. With the generous gifts we received last year, we were able to schedule more games against all sorts of new teams! We just finished our first weekend series against UW-Stout at home, where we won both of our games! Um! Yah! Yah! 

Check our Instagram @stolafwclubhockey for more updates about our club and what we've been up to this year, plus over the next few days, we will be introducing each member of the 2025/2026 team, starting with the class of 2029! 

We appreciate all of your support in helping our club grow, making our sport more accessible, opening doors for us to compete with more teams, and building a larger network of women's club hockey! 

Hey Oles, 

St Olaf Women’s Club Soccer can’t wait to be a part of the Here for the Hill campaign again! We are a club whose focus is all about creating a welcoming, competitive, and fun environment for people to play soccer! 

We have a wide range of players, from those who played their whole lives to players who wanted to pick up a new sport in college. With all of the amazing support we received last year, we were able to get new balls, get a team speaker, get brand new jerseys, and add more games against some new teams! Plus, as we have begun the fall season, we have improved our refereeing staff to a full team of three certified referees. This helps us make sure home games run smoothly, safely, and are fair for everyone involved! 

Your support will help us keep up the awesome progress, grow our team even more, and take the next step of joining the official league! Also, don’t forget to check out our Instagram page @stolafwcs, you can check on what we have been doing and stay tuned for more fun content to come all year long! 

Meet the team: 

Class of 2029

Class of 2028!

Class of 2027

Class of 2026

EMPTY Theater is a student musical theater company. We have three main goals:

1. To provide opportunities for students to take ownership over all aspects of musical theater production, including direction, stage management, choreography, design, financial management, construction, pit orchestration, and acting.
2. To facilitate an uplifting environment for meaningful collaboration and community building.
3. To reach St. Olaf and the local community with quality musical theater that entertains, inspires, and challenges.

This fall, we have already produced a 24 hour musical (Yes, an entire musical in one day...), and we are currently working on a full-scale production of Little Women. It has been such a joy to watch students develop their skills onstage and behind the scenes and to see so many relationships form.

We have a lot more that we hope to accomplish. We intend to put on a new plays festival in the winter, another 24 hour musical in the spring, and at least one full-scale show next academic year. 

Cumulatively, these projects will create over 100 opportunities for students to explore and develop their abilities as playwrights, directors, designers, and performers. Unfortunately, though, putting on a quality show is expensive. We will need funds for licensing and materials, sets, props, costumes, and lighting equipment. 

In order to make this happen, we need your support. Please watch the video below to learn more about EMPTY and consider making a gift today. Your gift will allow us to build community, grow leaders, and explore theater’s limits. Thank you so much!

Thank you - and come back for more from the St. Olaf Bio Club!