Katy Bendewald ’00 likes Huron’s great sense of community

10/22/2009

Katy Bendewald ’00 likes Huron’s great sense of community

Katy Bendewald says she likes to talk to her clients about life challenges and moving beyond them.

Bendewald, 31, is the new social worker with Community Counseling Services, joining the staff
on Sept. 1.

A native of Sioux Falls, she graduated from Sioux Falls O’Gorman High School in 1996 and got her bachelor of arts degree in elementary education from the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph’s, Minn., in 2000.

After graduation she was employed for one year as a first grade teacher with Americorps in the Bronx, N.Y. She moved to Florida where she spent one year working in child protection case management and one year with elderly senior case management.

She also took time out to get her master degree in social work from the University of Southern Florida in 2006.

After getting her master’s, she moved to Arizona and worked in the Northland Family Help Center in Flagstaff for one year.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR FAMILY TREE: She was born in Brookings to Gaylen and Lois Bendewald.

She has two brothers and two sisters. They are Sarah (Tom) Rygh of Anchorage, Alaska; Frank (Margo) Bendewald, who are attending medical school in Sioux Falls and Indianapolis, Ind.; Mike Bendewald, Boulder, Colo.; and Jenny Bendewald of Chicago.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT YOUR JOB? “I like working on a one-on-one basis with someone in an authentic way.”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT LIVING IN HURON? She says Huron “ is a pretty city with many nice trees.”

“There is a great sense of community,” she added.

When asked what three people who are no longer living she would like to invite to dinner, she selected Jesus, Buddha and Carl Jung.

Jung was a psychologist. She would like to talk to the three as to how psychology relates to spiritual truths.

Her hobbies are reading, going for walks, yoga and having conversations with her friends.

In five years she would like to be continuing to learn to be a better therapist.

BY: ROGER KASA Huron Plainsman

Institutional Advancement
College of Saint Benedict
St. Joseph, MN 56374
(320) 363-5682
(800) 648-3468