Palmer Trinity graduate Lindsay Kerdyk is enjoying her college classes at Auburn University where she is majoring in interior design.
“Auburn has the best interior design program,” Kerdyk says. “That’s why I chose it. It’s a lot different than being at Palmer, but I like it.”
This first semester, Kerdyk is taking general education courses and one interior design class. She didn’t have room for an art course, although art is one of the passions in her life.
While in high school, Kerdyk was a board member and vice president of the Symphonettes, an organization that raises money for music organizations and provides volunteers to usher at concerts. Her position as vice president included overseeing the members’ community service.
“I set up the community service events and made sure that they took part,” Kerdyk says.
She organized events at Fairchild Tropical garden, turned in necessary paperwork and then had the girls sign up. When an event occurred, she made sure they all showed up and that all the girls met their service-hour requirements.
“I actually ran the fashion show in the ninth grade,” she says. “It was when we had the huge recession and everything was crashing. I think we made $20,000.”
Kerdyk says being in Symphonettes taught her responsibility. She also realized there was a domino effect.
“I have to do what I have to do so everyone else can do their part,” Kerdyk says.
Being a student at Palmer, Kerdyk had the opportunity to go on the mission trip to Nicaragua each year. She says she went twice, in 10th and 11th grade.
“It was such a great experience. I’m so glad that Palmer has that. If not, I don’t think I would have ever gone; it was such a great experience,” she says. “I have been to bad places, impoverished places in the world. Being there for so long and meeting people and hearing the stories affected me. You make connections with people who live such different lives than you.”
Kerdyk says she doesn’t have the words to describe the visits to the Managua Dump.
“It was so hard, having what all of us have here, then seeing the dump; but they were so happy,” she says.
At Palmer, Kerdyk was involved in Operation Smile. She was in charge of making posters for the fundraisers – the bake sales and garage sales.
When the Japanese earthquake happened, she and a friend started Junior Golfers for Japan. They used their connections in the golf world to raise $20,000. They had connections because their fathers have the Toyota World Junior Golf Team Championships, a junior golf tournament in Japan.
She says her dad was involved the Junior Orange Bowl and then he and his friend came up with the idea of having countries compete against each other.
“A lot of really good golfers have played there. There are around 15 countries that participate. Through those connections we sent letters and called them and those organizations donated money,” she says. The money was sent to the Toyota Relief Fund.
Golf is important to Kerdyk. She played golf for Palmer, both on the men’s and women’s teams. Originally she was playing with the guys because there was no girl’s team, but this past school year a girl’s team was added.
Kerdyk decided against playing in college because she would rather concentrate on her studies. Playing golf is not unusual in her family; she has an aunt that played professionally.
