Name: Sophia Fortmeyer
Major & Minor: International Studies & French
Year: Senior
DJ Shift: Wednesdays 3-6pm
GM: How did you originally get involved in KJHK? Were you always interested in DJing, or did that interest come about after joining KJHK?
SF: I actually co-DJ with Danielle [Schablitsky] and we started DJing in August. We studied abroad together last spring and that’s when we started making collaborative Spotify playlists, and we were just like “hey, we should look up DJing.” It’s definitely something that has been on my bucket list.
GM: So how is it DJing with Danielle? Do you enjoy being able to work with someone you know?
SF: Oh it’s been good. It’s also nice because it’s kind of a fallback scheduling wise. If someone has something crazy come up, like if I have some intramural games to play or she has something to do, the other person is still there to fill it.
GM: As far as chemistry in the booth, do you notice that working with a close friend makes things run smoothly?
SF: Oh yeah, definitely. We actually have pretty similar tastes in music, but we also go off a bit too. I really like beats, so I’m more hip-hoppy and she’s more twangy, I guess you could say. But that has actually really worked out, because we like to do random twenty minutes segments of just jazz or hip-hop or whatever.
GM: So I’ve heard that you played your intramural basketball games in Allen Field House. How did that go?
SF: Great, we won both of them!
GM: In no small part to you, I’m sure.
SF: Oh yeah. MVP.
GM: How did it feel playing at such a historic venue, on a court where so many of the all-time greats have played?
SF: It was crazy! I actually got there early, on Wednesday, when we played in the semis – I was the only person in the building – and I just sat on the chairs that the players sit on, and absorbed the moment. I was just like, “oh my god, this is crazy.”
GM: That sounds like a scene out of a great sports movie. A mix of Rudy and Glory Road.
SF: Basically, yeah. But it was actually pretty weird playing, like with your depth perception, you know? Because they didn’t have the bleachers pulled out. I wasn’t expecting this; I thought it was going to be this magical kind of thing, but in every game, for the first five minutes, nobody scores. They don’t have the bleachers pulled out, and you’re just on this court, and there are lights streaming down on you, but there is so much space around you. You look around you and it’s just two-hundred feet by two-hundred feet of empty space. They make people sit in the end zone stands, so they can’t even get that close. But actually there was a men’s Greek game before ours, and they had their entire frat there, and they were yelling the whole time. They were shouting, “thirteen year virgin” when the other team was shooting free throws and stuff. It got pretty wild. But yeah, for the women’s game, no one was really there, but it’s whatever.
GM: What position do you play, and what’s your playing style? When I play, it’s all about how you look when you play the game – the final score doesn’t matter. So I’m all about the unnecessary no-look passes and all that. Kind of scrappy too, you got to do what you got to do.
SF: Definitely, especially when your playing in the championship game. But I’m a point guard/shooting guard. And what’s my playing style? I’m probably smooth-scrappy. Like I’ll throw an elbow and I’ll dive for a ball, but at the same time, I’m chill with it.
GM: And you get away with it. That’s the smooth part.
SF: Oh I get away with it. And I also really like shooting threes. I hit a few in Allen Fieldhouse, so that was pretty cool.
GM: What hobbies do you have outside of KJHK?
SF: Recently I’ve taken up cooking, which is actually a lot of fun. Apparently, I make a mean pizza. I enjoy being active. I ran a marathon a couple months ago, and I’m running a half-marathon in two months. I also really like music – that’s probably the basis of why I DJ to begin with. I enjoy happy hour…a lot, and I’m actually writing a senior thesis right now, so that’s probably one of my hobbies right now: researching, reading it, that kind of thing.
GM: What’s the topic of your senior thesis? I’m sure that is the last thing you want to talk about, but with your major I feel like that could be pretty interesting.
SF: Geez, I definitely don’t want to talk about it. But I’m writing it over conflict minerals in Central Africa and mining regulations.
GM: Interesting. Have you seen that DiCaprio movie?
SF: Blood Diamonds? Yeah, I cried at the end. Great movie.
GM: I’ll have to add that to my list of great movies I haven’t seen.
SF: Oh, movies! That’s another one of my hobbies. I really like watching movies, and I’d say war movies are my favorite.
GM: Do you have a list of your favorite movies?
SF: Number one – well, it actually changes – but right now, it’s a movie called Little Boy. It’s actually an indie film, but it’s a world war two movie. I absolutely love war movies – not documentaries, those make me feel awful, but like war movies that make you cry. Number two is Les Miserables, but I can only watch that like once a year, because it’s so heavy, and so long, and there’s a lot of singing. Let’s see, The Big Short is number three. And then after that, I don’t know. I only keep a top three. But I do like Harry Potter a lot.
GM: Yeah once you start to round out the top five, it gets tough. There are just a bunch of good movies.
SF: I’ll always watch a movie and think, “dang, this is such a good movie.” But then I’ll watch another one that replaces it.
GM: So out of all of the places you have traveled, which place did you enjoy visiting the most?
SF: Well I studied abroad with Danielle for a semester in France, and that was a lot of fun. But out of all the places we visited, the craziest was the Faroe Islands, which is north of Scotland, west of Denmark, and it has a population of 52,ooo people and 80,000 sheep.
GM: Uh-oh, so you guys were outnumbered.
SF: Yeah, and that was craziest place I’ve ever been. It was just raw beauty. We backpacked all of Scandinavia, but we were up there for like five days, and we camped in a tent and walked around and hitchhiked. It was crazy. We lived off granola bars and instant coffee. Then we eventually bounced into the one cafe that they had, and I accidentally bought the most expensive thing on the menu, because they didn’t understand my english. I bought a $45 salmon dinner for breakfast, and it was absolutely amazing.
GM: I bet that was good after all of the granola bars and instant coffee.
GM: Here’s the question that every senior hates to be asked. Where do you see yourself in ten years? Ideally, where would you like to live, and what type of work would you like to be doing?
SF: Oh God Garrett, don’t do this to me! I actually haven’t thought ten years down the road. Right now I’m just like, “let’s get this next year figured out.” But hypothetically, I see myself working for an organization like the UN. I want to work in sustainable development – I specialize in African development, but I do not want to live in Africa. I’m not sure why, but I just don’t. But if I lived in the United States, I’d want to live on the east coast. I’m east coast over west coast all day. But I don’t want to be super specific, because I’m really open to anything that comes my way. Really, for me, I want to be working in some type of capacity where I’m helping people, and I can see myself making a difference, but where I’m also constantly challenged.
GM: If you could sit down with one person, past or present, have a meal with them and talk about life, who would you choose?
SF: That’s easy. Louis Zamperini. If I could just meet anyone too, it would be him. He was a World War II veteran, who was an Italian immigrant. He also ran in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and Hitler called him “that fast kid” or something like that. But he got drafted into the war, became a POW in a Japanese internment camp, all because his plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean. He survived in a raft for like forty-seven days, and then he was picked up by the Japanese and brought to a POW camp. Then, when he came back after the war, he was an alcoholic because of PTSD. But he eventually had a spiritual revelation and cleaned up. And then, at like ninety four, he started skateboarding and stuff. So his story is amazing, but he also showed a lot of resiliency so I think that conversations with him would be mind-blowing.
GM: If you could know the answer to any question, what question would you ask?
SF: I would want to know what happens after you die, but I don’t know. I feel like I should ask something about the stars, because I really like the stars. I guess, to be more philosophical, I would ask, “Are people inherently good? And if not, what can we do to make them better people?”
GM: Not bad. What do you think the answer is?
SF: I think people are inherently good. Which is pretty interesting, because I’m a born pessimist, but I think people are inherently good.
GM: Final question. For people out there who might be reading this, and are thinking about joining KJHK, maybe even being a DJ, what would you tell them?
SF: Do it! 110% do it, even if it’s the last semester before you graduate. I’m a testament, especially, if you think that you don’t have enough time. I have a packed schedule, but honestly, it’s the best three hours of my week. You get to take a break from everything, listen to great music, and if you work with someone, then you get to talk about life with your friend!