Many people struggle with selecting a college major and a future career. Not Viterbo student Lexi Vertein.

"I've know since preschool that I wanted to be a teacher, " said Vertein, a junior elementary education major from Reedsburg. "There are 16 teachers in my family including aunts, cousins, etc., so I guess it's in my blood and meant to be."

Vertein is a first generation college student who is very happy with er choice to attend Viterbo University.

"When I toured Viterbo I fell in love with the campus,"she said. Everyone was so welcoming and I felt like I belonged. On my second visit I knew this was the place for me. I don't think I would have been this happy anywhere else."

Today Vertein works as a Viterbo Voyager tour guide, a job in which she goes out of her way to make sure prospective students have the same great experience she did. She is also an officer and volunteer coordinator for the Viterbo Education Club and serves as a peer coach for the university's Student Support Services first generation student support program.

When she isn't busy on campus, Vertein enjoys walking with friends to Riverside Park and around Grandad Bluff, kayaking around Lake Redstone in La Valle, hiking at state parks and natural areas, and helping at the middle school in her hometown of Reedsburg, where her aunt is a teacher and her mother also works. She has also worked as a nanny, which is perfect considering her future career.

"I really like young children," she said."I would like to be a teacher somewhere near the Reedsburg area so I can be near to my family mambers."