Campus involvement assistant director enjoys adding to alma mater's vibrancy

St. Cloud State University alumna Anna Lehto has been passionate about education her entire life.

"I always knew I wanted to work in education," she said. "Ever since I was a little girl, I would pretend to be a teacher on the playground and teach all of my friends different fake lessons."

Lehto grew up in the St. Cloud area and her father is a fellow Huskies alum. She enrolled in SCSU's Spanish education program, earning her bachelor's along with a license in K-12 education and certification in teaching English as a second language in 2022. As Lehto wasn't able to study abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided to move to Madrid, Spain, after graduating. She taught English to students ranging in age from 12 to 22 years old.

"I loved my experience there. I became really passionate about working with older students," she said. "That made me interested in working in higher education — still in the field of education, but a different capacity from K-12 education."

Lehto returned to her alma mater and enrolled in the college counseling and student development master's program, which she completed in 2025. During graduate school she worked in several different internships and graduate assistantships on campus, before accepting a position as assistant director of campus involvement at SCSU following her master's graduation. Lehto primarily oversees student organizations and Greek life through her role.

"I love working with students. I love their vibrancy, their creative ideas that they have. I have the absolute pleasure of being able to advise a number of different organizations, so really getting to delve deep into students' ideas for how they can make St. Cloud State a fun and active campus," she said. "I'm right in the center of the engaged, vibrant campus. I see that energy our students bring and I get to work with students every single day and help their big ideas and their dreams come true."

With roughly 120 student organizations available, Lehto assured there's something for every SCSU student.

"Literally any category you could think of; we have it. I always say if a student doesn't think there's a student organization for them, they're not looking hard enough," she said. "However, if they ever want to start one, they just need a couple friends and then they're more than welcome to come to me and we can start whatever they want to start."

In addition to the variety of student organizations, Lehto advises the sororities and fraternities that make up SCSU's Greek life community.

"I think there's many misconceptions about what Greek life is — what it looks like, how it operates. We're really trying to break down the stereotypes, as our chapters really are meant to be a professional network. They're meant to build leadership skills, give you leadership opportunities. They do a ton of work with local and national charities and philanthropic organizations," she said. "It also gives you a social network, of course, but it really is an incredible opportunity for students to go Greek and join Greek life. It's really cool and exciting and it looks very different here. It's very open and accepting and welcoming to new people who want to join."

Helping students enjoy their college experiences to the fullest and gain valuable skills along the way is one of Lehto's favorite parts of her job.

"The reason I come to work every day is because I have the chance to help develop leaders. It looks a little bit different because it's outside of the classroom. When students are involved on campus, they gain so many professional leadership skills in the work they do with their student organizations or on-campus employment or Greek life or whatever the capacity is," she said. "The impact of it is we're creating lifelong learners. We're creating students who are ready and excited to join the workforce outside of the academics, with those transferable skills, social skills, communication, organization, all of the fun leadership skills that are so essential to future leaders of our world. It's really incredible to be able to watch those students grow from the day I first meet them until they graduate at commencement. It's really special to see them grow in such great lengths in such different ways."

When Lehto was an undergrad student at St. Cloud State, she was involved with the University Program Board — which is now the Huskies Events and Activities Team. While the global pandemic put a damper on a portion of her time as a student, Lehto's experiences working at her alma mater have more than made up for it.

"It's so special to be able to pour back into the students at my alma mater. The core of who I am, the work that I do — I just want to support students and I want to see students succeed and become lifelong learners. It's really fun to be able to meet and see all of the vibrant leaders we have on our campus and to show them they can all be part of something greater than themselves, especially with our student organizations," she said. "Them realizing the impact they have spreads far greater than who's in their club or the other clubs we have on our campus or the students on our campus; there's community impact, there's national impact, sometimes international. It's been such a pleasure to be able to witness that and support that, especially in a place that's so special to me. It's really, really incredible to see that excitement, that Husky pride."