Reflections Magazine Issue #60 - Fall 2003 | Page 22

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Alumni
Profile

20

I

From Chem Lab To Cancer Research:
Karen Erickson’s Career Began With “M2”
By Jennifer A. Hamlin Church

t was a long way from the Upper Peninsula to Siena
Heights College in 1956.

Traveling from Sidnaw, a tiny town of 200 at the base
of the Keewenaw Peninsula, to St. Ignace, across the
Straits of Mackinaw by ferry (no bridge back then),
then down the long road south to Adrian, was a major
excursion. But 17-year-old Karen Erickson was ready.
Tired of “being treated as a second-class citizen” in an
environment where “everything revolved around the
boys,” Karen was excited by the prospect of leaving
home to attend a women’s college.
As it turned out, leaving home was only the first step
into a distinguished career in chemistry. The trip from
Sidnaw to Siena was the beginning of a journey that
would lead Karen Erickson ‘60 into H\