Amber R. Essenmacher - NMU Admissions

aessenma@nmu.edu 

(906) 250-0110

Schedule a Meeting with Amber

I came to college with only one goal in mind: to get that degree. I remember telling my mom that I didn’t want to make friends, wasn’t going to join clubs, nor get attached to Marquette. My plan was to graduate and go home! Well, as I am sure you can see, NMU’s impact on me changed all of that and more.

I was immediately welcomed to campus when I arrived in the fall, and I couldn’t help myself from that moment on – I was a super involved student who cared a ton about making a difference at NMU. I worked, lived, and played on-campus. I had to stick around!

 I graduated from NMU in 2021 with an Associate’s degree in Art & Design, then again in 2023 with my Bachelor’s in English-Writing. After graduating, I worked in Housing & Residence Life for a few years before making the move to the Admissions Office. Some wonderful people helped me write my story, and I am looking forward to doing so for someone else.

I was a Resident Adviser (RA) on-campus in Magers Hall. Being an RA was in and of itself one of the best things to happen to me here. One moment does stand out more than others though:

I was a part of a student organization that was hosting a huge cowboy-themed bingo event. I asked my residents (let’s be honest, we were just great friends) to go with me and to dress up for it. I only had one issue… I didn’t have a hat! So, after extensive online searching, I found someone who was selling a cowboy hat. I didn’t want to meet the gentleman alone, so my residents and I made a “hat roadtrip” playlist, hit the road, and spent over an hour driving to get to my hat.

When we got there and I was speaking with the gentleman, I shared that we were buying it for an event at NMU. He immediately got excited, asked if I was an RA, and then told me that his wife used to work for Housing & Residence Life at NMU. He told me that NMU had changed their lives and he was so happy to see us doing something so wholesome and fun together; he said that the best things to come from a degree are memories like the ones we were making. He sent me home with the hat, told me to keep my $50 & to pay it forward someday, then thanked me for making a difference to others.

I can’t remember his name or where we went that day, but I do remember laughter and my friends and I singing together during the car ride home. The hat has been hung up in every home I have lived in since.

Anything I get to do during Marquette’s Fall. The weather is perfect, the lake is still warm, and Marquette gets the most wonderful warm glow. Really, a perfect day here to me would start with some thrift shopping, a cup of 231’s coffee, and would end with a walk along our beautiful Superior shore.

Someone told me when I came to college that I needed to pause every time I was asked if I wanted to be a part of something, and to check in with myself. If even a little bit of me wanted to say “yes”, then I should say “yes” and just take the opportunity. They told me I would think later on in life about all of the things I said “no” to but should have given a chance, and I would probably never wish I had said “no” to the experiences that I did have. They were pretty darn right.

My advice? Much sillier! Bring rain boots. Almost everywhere that exists gets rain, and no one wants to sit through class with wet socks.