Abbie Kavouras ‘22, got to where she is by embracing every opportunity that came her way during her time at Gustavus and since she left the Hill.
When she first got to Saint Peter, Kavouras knew she wanted to do something related to archaeology or history, but she didn’t think an archaeology career path was feasible at first. That all changed when History Professor Greg Kaster told her about a visiting professor in the Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Department, Will Bruce, and put the two in touch. Bruce’s advice? He urged Kavouras to start taking Greek as soon as possible: “That’s how I wound up taking J-term Greek that winter and how I fell in love with Classics,” Kavouras said.
She found immediate satisfaction in translating English sentences into Greek, memorizing the vocab and meaning, and understanding the puzzle of a language so notoriously complicated it’s a synonym for indecipherable complexity—in other words, it wasn’t Greek to her. “The methodology of it was so systematic in my brain, it just made sense, and I wanted to keep going with it,” Kavouras said. “[The practice] really toned my memory, my attention to detail, my problem solving.”
The summer after her first year at Gustavus, Kavouras had the opportunity to participate in Santa Susana’s field school, a site which had never before been systematically excavated and contains artifacts dating from the 1st century B.C.E. through the 5th century C.E. The Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies department awards the Kehm Smith Scholarship, which funds a student to attend the SSA project, and is an example of the kind of Signature Experience opportunity available to all Gusties. Kavouras won the scholarship that first summer and returned to the project in subsequent years, a ritual that ended up launching her career. “I would not be where I am today if it were not for the generosity of the Kehm Smith Scholarship,” she said.
She spent nearly all her “free time” at SSA teaching herself about ancient pottery typologies, including their physical and chemical makeup. Her diligence made an impression, and she was eventually offered a supervisor position. She’s periodically returned to the site ever since. “I will continue to go as long as I can,” Kavouras said. “Those couple years at Santa Susana are what landed me my current job.”
Kavouras has also worked at an Iron Age site in Portugal, a medieval mass grave in the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain, and on 18th and 19th century shipwrecks in the Caribbean. (Yes, under water.) These experiences supplemented her Classical Languages degree, and she now works in cultural resource management (CRM), a subfield of archaeology dedicated to managing and preserving historic cultural artifacts and objects.
While grad school in archaeology may be on the horizon, Kavouras said, “I love where I am right now. I plan to continue my work in CRM and venture around the world when I can, to continue to grow as an archaeologist, in the field and at my desk. I’ve gained so much field experience outside of my College classes, but if I hadn’t gone to Gustavus, none of this would have happened.”