Nicole Robinson

You may have seen her campaigning for the mock election or organizing events around campus. You may even have seen her giving you a morning cup of coffee on Saturday or picking up trash around the community daily. If you haven’t seen her face on campus, you should ask yourself, ‘Where have I been?’

Senior Lisa Huftel is an active person around UW-Eau Claire. From the Blugold Bash to Student Senate, she continuously gets her feet wet in the university’s sea of organizations.

Where it started
Huftel came to Eau Claire in the fall of 2001. She was planning to attend for just one year and then transfer to McAlister College (Minn.) or to Emerson College in Boston. She never intended to stay for entire college career.

It all started at the Blugold Bash, where she got a foot in the door of activism and joined the Student Life and Diversity commission of Student Senate. Since then, activism has become her top priority she said.

Since her arrival on campus, Huftel has been a teacher’s assistant and Freshman Year Experience mentor, and she is involved with various organizations at Eau Claire – the Conservationists the College Democrats, the New Voters Project, Pi Sigma Alpha, the Progressive Student Association, Society of Politics, Student Life and Diversity commission, Student Senate – she’s served on and off as a student senator – and United Council. She organized the Sept. 11 vigil in 2002 and two years of the human rights awareness conference, and she’s introduced an international student chair to Student Senate.

She currently is working as the environmental affairs chair for Student Senate, a campus ambassador and the College Democrats’ secretary.

Huftel also works two part-time jobs.

She spends her Sundays at the Coffee Grounds Caf‚, 745 Kenney Ave., and takes various shifts helping people with disabilities through Rem Wisconsin III Inc., 800 Wisconsin St.

“My involvement with this campus is simply for my true devotion for this university,” she said.

Chancellor Donald Mash has noticed her numerous contributions and has become accustomed to her upbeat, outgoing personality.

“There are so many students on campus, I get to know a small number of them personally,” he said. He got to know Huftel through Student Senate and later through a political science class project.

Huftel has a goal after her December 2005 graduation that is unlike most others. One day, she would like to become a U.S. senator. Her goal is a challenging one to reach, but also a very achievable one, said political science professor Geoff Peterson.

Huftel says her activism is preparing her for a future as a senator.

“I think this is only just the beginning grounds without running my own campaign,” Huftel said.

This fall, she was able to experience campaigning firsthand through a mock election in Peterson’s Political elections and voting class. Huftel was selected to be her groups candidate and off she went, campaigning around campus. Huftel said she loved campaigning because she loves meeting new people. She won the mock election by a large majority.

Mash was even in on the action, and he made it seem real, Huftel said.

Mash said she made a good candidate because she is so energetic and outgoing.

“Too often people are so busy, they forget or don’t make time for the things they let go by the wayside,” Huftel said.

Where it comes from
Huftel gets her inspiration from her No. 1 fan, her father.

Harland Huftel has been a prominent figure in her life since she was a little girl. He told her a story when she was young that has remained in her head ever since.

He told Huftel it didn’t matter if she owned a chain of grocery stores or had all her possessions in a shopping cart, because he still would love her the same, she said.

“He gave me the gift of understanding,” she said, “not just yourself, but other people.”

Her relationship with her dad is the closest relationship she has. Yet he lives the farthest away.

She is able to visit him in Carlsbad, Calif., every three to four months, and they also talk on the phone every day, Huftel said.

He is extremely supportive of her activism.

“He’s so interested in my life and my involvement on campus and what I do,” she said.

Now that she is older, she is more appreciative of what he has given her and is grateful he has helped her become who she is today, she said.

“Even if he wasn’t my father, he’d be my friend, because our relationship is so important to me,” Huftel said.

Her friends and peers are very important to her as well, she said. In general, Huftel loves people, she said. She added she believes there are two things people need daily: hugs and compliments.

“I love receiving and giving hugs,” Huftel said. She is in love with being in love, she said and she even shares her birthday with the national love day, Valentine’s Day.

Although Huftel has learned a lot from her father and friends and is always keeping busy, she said she still realizes there is a big, big world out there.

Going outside the box
Huftel decided that she would see parts of the world by studying abroad. She originally wanted to study in Switzerland through UW-Oshkosh, but the program was cancelled, Huftel said.

“I knew I had to go someplace, and it happened that the (UW-) Milwaukee program was open,” she said. “I was interested.”

In January of 2004, Huftel arrived in Derry, Northern Ireland, with seven other women and began her travels, she said.

Huftel had no previous knowledge of Ireland before she booked the last-minute trip and experienced culture shock firsthand, she said.

“I tried to adapt as best I could,” she said.

She attended the University of Ulster at Magee College and didn’t have much to do there on campus.

Huftel wasn’t assigned any books, and the school didn’t have any organizations to get involved in, she said.

She met the Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume, who won for the Good Friday, Belfast agreement.

She also was there during the St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Dublin and said the experience was awesome.

While in Ireland, she received an opportunity to work as an intern for the Social Democratic and Labour party. She spent one month networking and working on voting registration.

Although she doesn’t like to admit it, Huftel said she was homesick and missed Eau Claire.

She said she was ready to come back to campus and intertwine her experience abroad with her daily life.

“However, trite this sounds, all students who do come back from studying abroad can attest in that they do come back a more gracious person,” Huftel said. “And I’m no different.”

Returning to comfort
Since Huftel has been back, she said she feels like she has returned to balancing a life of school, organizations and relationships. She is more involved with campus this semester than ever before, she said. She has 16 credits, which she has taken in previous semesters, and still finds time to give more on a global level.

Huftel adopted a manatee eight years ago and encourages others to do the same. Her manatee is named Rosie, and she said she loves her deeply. She also promotes saving the whales and cleaning up the environment.

“I try when I am out walking to pick up one piece of trash, whether I am on campus or on Water Street,” she said. She does it because it’s her way of contributing toward cleaning up the environment. Huftel said she hopes that it will become contagious and others will follow in her footsteps.