OHS speaker credits activities to career goal

Erin Baker has always been a self-described overachiever. 

Growing up, being a doctor, attorney, or engineer, were the only career paths, in her mind. 

But being involved in a number of different activities in high school has landed her a new career goal, becoming a foreign ambassador one day. 

“My career goal is to be a foreign ambassador,” Baker said. 

Her first stop to achieve this goal will be Costa Rica this winter. 

To foreign country 

After graduating from high school, Baker plans on taking a gap year, working until the end of November, when she takes off to Costa Rica to be part of Maximo Nivel, which will allow her to volunteer for six months. 

It's not part of any accredited college but there, she hopes to become fluent in Spanish, which is part of her long-term goals. 

“I’m taking a gap year mostly so I can become fluent in Spanish,” Baker said. 

From there she hopes to be able to go to college in Puerto Rico, studying for two years, in political science, or a public policy type degree program. 

She said the idea would be to then move back to the states where she could earn her degree in international relations, with her eyes set on becoming a foreign ambassador to a Spanish speaking country. 

“Obviously it's a very politically tense time and I love the idea of trying to be able to mend tensions and being a problem solver in those regards and I love working with people,” Baker said. 

She knows her goals are ambitious, but noted there are many different professions that are considered foreign ambassadors, without the official title. 

For example, she said the peace corps is one example. 

“There are plenty of people who are foreign ambassadors without the title of foreign ambassador,” Baker said. 

For Baker, her journey of landing on a career goal, can be credited to her involvement in different high school activities. 

New passion found

Going into high school, Baker had her eyes set on becoming a STEM major one day, so she joined the robotics team, as a programmer. 

But she quickly realized it wasn’t something she wanted to do, so she joined the business team instead. 

“I really loved that,” Baker said.

Meanwhile, she finished up Spanish 1 her first semester of high school, and instead of taking computer science second semester she opted to take Spanish 2 instead. 

She fell in love and took all five levels in high school. 

“I have a very deep love for the language and want to become fluent in it,” Baker said. 

While in high school she also thought one day, she would become an attorney so she joined the mock trial team “and I said I don’t want to be a lawyer this is terrible.”

But despite not wanting to become an attorney Baker said she still wanted to work with laws 

 “I feel laws control our everyday lives.”

Eventually she realized a foreign ambassador would be something she could do. 

“I don’t have to be a lawyer to be a foreign ambassador,” Baker said. 

Baker said her passion for Spanish has also helped her in real life. 

Since she's been younger, she's worked at Mineral Spring Brewery, and said being able to talk to customers in Spanish has been a major asset. 

“Getting to connect on that personal level that they might now immediately expect to have from a brewery establishment has definitely been very satisfying,” Baker said. 

In high school, Baker has also been able to use her love for politics and social issues. 

For two years she served as President of Gender Sexuality Alliance and was a student representative for the School Board among other activities. 

Most of her work on the school board in terms of political issues have stemmed around LGBTQ issues, an issue which has been prevalent in schools of late, particularly under the President Donald Trump Administration. 

In fact, just the day before an interview with a Steele County Times reporter for this story, she was at the school board meeting which quickly became contentious around whether or not the school district would renew its membership with the MSHSL. 

“Making sure students can be heard and be represented in that regard has always been important to me,” Baker said. 

As one of two commencement speakers, Baker’s speech will also touch on her classmates and her time at Owatonna High School.

“I succeeded in school not because I was good at math or writing; I succeeded because I nurtured my relationships with those around me,” Baker said. “When I joined robotics as a ninth grader, I never expected it would change the course of my life. The team welcomed me with open arms, and practices became the best part of my day. The activity didn’t change me; it was my teammates.”