Harvard bound: Meredith Stolte

Columbia Falls native Meredith Stolte has been accepted to Harvard graduate school. Stolte will pursue a master’s degree in religious studies. She received her undergraduate degree in religion and psychology last spring from St. Olaf’s College in Minnesota.

The 2015 Columbia Falls grad said she applied to Harvard last fall and learned she was accepted earlier this year.

“They offered me a full tuition waiver,” she said during a recent interview.

While she’s studying religion, she said she has no plans on becoming a preacher. She grew up Lutheran, but jokes, “I’m the most Catholic Lutheran ever.”

One prong of her studies will focus on women in fundamentalist conservative religions. Another subject of interest is the connection of religious conservatism and white supremacy, some of which is happening right here in the Flathead, she noted.

“It’s pretty explicit,” she said. “They don’t try to hide it anymore.”

Other mountain states have similar issues, she noted.

Eventually she hopes to write books on these and other subjects.

“I’d love to write something that no one ever reads,” she joked.

But on a more serious note, she said she’d like to write op-eds for newspapers and raise awareness on some of these issues.

Stolte will begin her studies this fall. She also would like to teach college someday and will move to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the fall. She’s currently living in Columbia Falls with her family, while working remotely from home.

Stolte is the daughter of Trever and Camie Stolte. Her sister Madison, is a forester for the U.S. Forest Service and her brother Sutter is a Forest Service firefighter.