The last few weeks of classes here at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UWL)  have arrived .The 2021-2022 school year comes to a close and it comes time to put a spotlight on those who are graduating and talk about the amount of work they have put in. Here at The Racquet in particular, we have a few graduating staff members and editors that are ready to take their next step outside of university. One of those staff members is Julia Wille.  

Wille has been a General Assignment Reporter at The Racquet since winter of 2020. According to Wille, the reason she joined The Racquet, besides one of her friends, Morgan, involvement, was because, she enjoyed writing. “It’s just super easy for me to just crank out papers; so, writing and reporting was really interesting to me,” said Wille.

“I didn’t even know what The Racquet was my freshmen year,” Said Wille. “But sophomore year is when Morgan joined, and it looked like so much fun.”

After becoming more interested in joining, Wille describes how she eventually applied for a position as the social justice reporter; but was given the position as the student government reporter.  

“I was just excited to have any position in The Racquet. But I also thought it fit well because I love politics so much. It is nice to be able to report on school politics,” said Wille. While she didn’t get the exact position at The Racquet she was applying for, Wille ended up finding that being the government reporter was still helpful. Being a part of The Racquet is just one snippet of Wille’s tenure here at UWL.  

Wille is an economics and business major with a minor in political science from Grafton, Wisconsin. Wille decided to major in economics because, as she describes, “I took the AP classes in high school and was just naturally good at it. The business side of it was mostly a natural fit for me.” There were some changes along the way for Wille, however. Originally, Wille’s major was political science.  

“It (political science) was my major at first. But since I am graduating in 3 years, I dropped it so I could be done on time,” said Wille. “I have always wanted to get into policy and politics kinds of things; so, I wanted to get a little bit of a background in that.”  

In addition to her class workload, Wille has involved herself around campus in numerous ways. Along with being a reporter at The Racquet, Wille is the President of the Finance Management Club and a member of Delta Sigma Pi, the professional business co-ed fraternity. Along with this, Wille also had a yearlong internship with Johnson Controls.

 Wille enjoys spending her free time running. “Going for runs and taking hikes are kind of my thing,” said Wille.  

“I used to do cross-country and it’s kind of why I came here to UWL,” said Wille. “I was supposed to run for the team here, but it didn’t end up working out.”

With the time constraints that come with taking 18 to 19 credits a semester and the goal of graduating in three years “The schedule just wasn’t going to work with sports,” said Wille.

Wille already has a job lined up once she leaves UWL. “I did recently get a job in the pricing department at Johnson Controls,” said Wille. “I was originally in payroll for the internship, but I didn’t want to do that anymore. So, I was just applying to other pricing positions because I wanted to do remote work so I could travel and do other things. So, I applied to some pricing positions, but I got moved around to the deal desk position, which is the job that I got.”  

As the deal desk analyst Wille will work with the sales team to approve, disapprove or adjust items if that sale is over a certain amount of money based on Johnson Control’s profit margins, pricing goals, and other aspects. Wille getting this job is commendable because “they (Johnson Controls) don’t really give this position to kids out of college.”

Wille hopes to return to academia with time spent in graduate school. “I am not entirely sure where I want to go, so, that is why I am taking these two years to work and figure it out,” said Wille “I know that Duke has a really cool economic development program, which is like economics and policies in developing countries that can help them grow as a country. So, that is something that greatly interests me for grad school.”  

Wille is ready to graduate. “I am very excited to graduate. I am a little bummed out that it isn’t with all my close friends because everyone is a year behind me, but I am excited to get into the workforce and keep going,” said Wille. In some departing words for future classes, Wille leaves us with two pieces of advice:  

“First, get involved your freshmen year. People always feel so overwhelmed with college at first, but it’s not that overwhelming once you get used to it. So, get involved with all these different things so when your sophomore year comes you can pick specific things you want to be heavily involved in. From this, you can learn more about what you like and meet some new people along the way. Secondly, college is overwhelming, and people can get very down on themselves. So, make college what you want it to be. If you have a good attitude and are always looking for positives, you are going to have a really good experience here at UWL or wherever else.”  

Gallery • 5 Photos

Photo taken by Henry Anderson