“I’ve been a baker my entire life.

I was in Girl Scouts and 4-H [youth organization]. [I grew] up in a farming community—a little town called Abingdon in downstate [Illinois]. I learned how to bake mostly in 4-H and [then] competed at a lot of state and county fairs. My family is Swedish and my grandmother was a big baker. A Swedish Christmas tradition is that you have a huge sweets table with lots of cookies, and so I grew up baking with my grandmother and doing those kinds of things for Christmas and Easter.

I’m a little bit known in the communications and social studies departments for my cookies and my pies. [During] Christmas [of 2020], we were still [in remote learning.] There was just really low morale between the people in my department, and we missed celebrating things together. So for Christmas, I baked a whole bunch of Christmas cookies and winter themed cookies for my colleagues.

I like the feeling I get when I bake for other people and share. I feel like it’s one of my gifts. It’s something I’m good at and it’s relaxing to me. I like sharing, and people always appreciate when I share with them.

When I retire, I plan to have a little side business of baking cookies [called] Grandma Mary’s Cookies.”