Explore your passions and build your perfect life
It's the beginning of your freshman year, and you've just spiked a mud-soaked volleyball into your biology professor's team. After the game, he slaps you on the back and says he can't wait to see you in the classroom. This is not a dream. This is life at Ohio Northern University — where you'll learn to expect the unexpected.
Bethany Schreck didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do when she started at ONU – just that she wanted to do a lot. The design student quickly became involved with the Delta Zeta sorority, student senate and other organizations around campus. All the opportunities to socialize with students and faculty outside her major fueled her passion for school and enriched her time here.
But when she was invited to become Klondike the Polar Bear, ONU’s mascot, she went from passionate about life on campus to downright fanatic.
Once she put on the suit, she came alive. She loved meeting people from the community, getting fans pumped in the stands and the responsibility that came with being Klondike. As she puts it, “I was never not smiling inside that suit!”
These days, she works as a designer in her hometown of Pittsburgh. And in her free time, she works to bring birthday cheer to underprivileged children. Her time as Klondike taught her that everything in life is worth doing with passion and to never be afraid to get a little silly.
But most of all, it showed her the power of the Polar Bear.