Matt Snell-
Danielle Magnuson (Sr, Chanhassen, MN) is a member of the UW–Stout cross country and track and field teams. Even though Danielle spends her athletic time in the fall as a distance runner, she is mostly a pole-vaulter in the spring. As interesting as her competition combination is, the person behind the athlete is even more interesting.
Danielle is a student in the Cross-Media Graphics Management major and loves working with photography. It was actually a photographer who pushed Danielle towards coming to Stout.
“The photographer who took my senior pictures in high school went to Stout, and she really pushed me to look into Stout because of their strong design programs. I visited a couple times with my family and I fell in love with the beautiful campus and the overall atmosphere. The track coach also contacted me to talk about pole vaulting, and thinking about being a part of the track team was really the final push I needed to make my decision to come to Stout final,” Danielle remembered.
The athletic path that Danielle took is pretty interesting. Danielle actually started out competing in gymnastics and was a gymnast for most of her life. So when asked about her favorite athlete, it came as no surprise that it was former Olympic gymnast Carly Patterson. Danielle idolizes Patterson and even has a signed copy of Patterson’s book that still sits on her dresser to this day.
Like many other student-athletes, Danielle has many other hobbies and interests that she likes to find time for outside of her school and athletic schedules.
“I’d love to just drop everything and travel the world. I enjoy experiencing different cultures, and I love road trips, hiking and exploring. I do freelance photography and videography, and my dream job is to make music videos.”
Danielle’s love for travel is apparent. She spent a decent portion of this past summer traveling abroad in Europe. However, one of the more interesting facts about Danielle involves burping.
“Definitely one of the weirdest things about me is that I haven’t burped since 2010… June 10, 2010 at 10:19 a.m., to be exact (no shame for keeping track! That’s how rarely it happens). This is going to sound odd, but my throat makes these gurgling noises all the time.”