Greg Boone '09 (Photo by Chen Mengxing)
By Lindsay Lelivelt ’11
Since graduating from Gustavus, Greg Boone ’09 has not wasted any time getting involved in things about which he is passionate.
He currently lives in the Ilsan district of Goyang, South Korea, where he works as an English teacher for students in Korea POLY School. The students are immersed in the English language and receive a challenging education that conforms to American national curricula in a variety of subjects. Boone works with children to help them learn proper English grammar and pronunciation, among other things.
“Perhaps the most important people on campus during my senior year were the people encouraging me to go work abroad. They knew, as I know now, that more than anything else, that is where my passions lie,” Boone says.
Before graduating and moving across the Pacific, Boone studied abroad at United International College in Zhuhai, China. While there, he created podcasts (or audio diaries) that were broadcast across campus airwaves and posted to the Internet.
“I asked myself how I could capture the study-abroad experience in a different way,” Boone recalls. “There’s something audio can capture that is more intimate than a blog or a photo diary.”
Passionate about the world, social media, and communication, Boone devoted much of his time at Gustavus to working for the campus radio station, KGSM. Boone was involved with the student-run station throughout his four years on campus and transformed it from a music-only station to a source of news and information. “[I] tried to make KGSM something that the whole campus could appreciate,” Boone says.
While serving as KGSM’s general manager, Boone reported on Gustavus’s annual Building Bridges conference on diversity and produced the station’s first major documentary on the conference. He also reported on news and current events, including bringing in political candidates for on-air interviews.
“Greg’s real influence came from moving away from a world that used to be oriented toward broadcasting, and more into one of micro-media. He is one of the most talented narrowcasters I’ve come across on campus,” says Associate Professor of Communication Studies Phil Voight, who worked closely with Boone throughout his four years.
Gustavus helped Boone to participate in experiential learning and cultivate his interests. “The most important lessons learned on the hill were not taught in a classroom. Vocation was a big part of my time at Gustavus, and it’s a hard thing to define. The person who said it best to me was then Provost Mary Morton during a radio interview I did with her: ‘Vocation is building your life around that which you do passionately, and putting those passions and talents into your work and your community.’ Since graduating, finding and pursuing a vocation changed from a worthy goal, to a creed,” says Boone.