Kemper Koslofski has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Decaturian for two years, and his experience has taught him an extremely valuable lesson: he doesn’t want to pursue journalism in the future.
“Originally, working for a paper was a goal, and then I kind of realized I didn’t want to do that after running a paper,” Kemper said. “But I feel like that’s kind of led me to photography.”
The Decaturian invested in a camera this year, and Kemper has taken that opportunity to explore photography. However, his journey with photography did not start when the Decaturian bought the camera.
It started last year when a Decaturian staff member allowed him to take a picture at a Millikin football game.
“We were at a football game, and I was on the sideline with Donovan, [and] he was taking pictures,” Kemper said. “And I was like, ‘Dude, let me get the camera for one drive.’ I think I took like five pictures; I looked at him, and I was like, ‘Okay… this is the best thing I’ve ever seen.’ If I looked back at it now, it would probably be so bad, but I took that picture, and then it was kind of just in the back of my mind. And I was like, ‘Okay, this is kind of fun. I kind of enjoyed that.’ And then I just kept doing it. Now, it’s taking me to places that I never thought I’d go… It’s just been really cool to see the opportunities that having a camera in your hand can give you.”
Photography has become one of Koslofski’s passions in life, and his friends and family can clearly see this passion, even if they don’t completely understand where it began.
“He would show me his portfolio and say, ‘Here’s my edited photos,’” Kolby Koslofski, Kemper’s twin brother, said. “He would scroll through 300 photos, and I would look at them, and then he would get into the editing and post them on Instagram. But he’s had a really good drive and passion for that, and it’s been really neat to watch.”
Alayna Schultz, Kemper’s girlfriend, has also seen firsthand how photography has changed his life. Although he isn’t telling stories through writing much anymore, she can clearly see how his photos tell a story.
“I like seeing him be able to tell a story in a new way now, and he just keeps getting better and better,” Schultz said. “He started doing senior pictures instead of just sports photography, because I remember I mentioned that to him a while ago, and he was just like, ‘I’d never do that,’ but now he is, and so I just like seeing him grow and see him try out new things with the camera. So I just like seeing him passionate about it.”
Kemper’s career journey has taken many twists and turns, and before he found his love for photography, his plan was to go into sports writing. The first step to that was majoring in journalism at Millikin, and that experience ultimately led him to writing articles for the Decaturian.
At first, he only wrote about sports. But as he climbed the ranks to Editor-in-Chief, he was forced to write more than just sports stories.
“The Decaturian has been fun,” Kemper said. “I mean, junior year was obviously kind of the peak of it for me… There was just so much going on on campus. [But] it’s been a really neat experience, kind of being a leader of people, in a way, trying to figure out what that’s like, and obviously not like putting myself on a pedestal, because I don’t want people to approach me and think like, ‘Oh, that’s the editor in chief,’ or whatever. I want people to be able to come to me with hard questions, or just how their day was, [or] stuff like that.”
He might not want to pursue a career in journalism, but the practice has taught him invaluable skills he can transfer to other careers.
“[Journalism] has definitely taught me patience; it has taught me gentleness,” Kemper said. “When someone messes up, you can give them a second chance and understand where they are coming from.”
Not only did he learn how to be a more compassionate person from this experience, but he also improved his listening and writing skills and learned how to skillfully tell a story.
After he got burnt out with writing, he decided that he wanted to pursue a career in ministry.
“[Kemper] kind of switched from wanting to write to wanting to do church stuff, to wanting to do photography full time, and like, obviously, he still loves his church stuff, but I think he just realizes that part is not necessarily for him, like actually working in the church,” Schultz said. “So I’ve seen him go through different career changes.”
As his first post-grad job, Kemper will be serving as the College Ministry Director at Renaissance, a church in Decatur. Over this past semester, Kemper has been serving in this position and has found joy in serving his community.
“Right now, the plan is for me to work full-time at… Renaissance in downtown Decatur [and] do young adult and college ministry there,” he said. “I did college ministry last semester, and I had a young adult [group] this semester, but I feel like I’ve really connected with the students in a deeper way here on campus, because I get to sit down with them on Sunday and lead a Bible study and then also see them throughout the week and check in on how they are.”
Kemper was raised Lutheran, but it wasn’t until college that he really found his place in Christianity. Religion has played a huge part in Kemper’s college career, and now he will be able to transfer his passion for religion into his professional career.
His journey back into religion started when he joined FCA early in his collegiate years.
“Jarius Ingram… was the leader of FCA my freshman year, and really getting to know him made such a big impact in my life,” Kemper said. “These people actually have genuine relationships with Jesus and with God and with the others around them, and that really inspired me and played a huge role in where I’m at now. So that’s kind of been my journey, and that led to me being an FCA leader, and that obviously led to me working at a church now, so it’s kind of been a cool snowball effect.”
During his time as a leader in FCA, he has successfully led the Week of Worship and utilized the skills he learned through journalism in his planning process.
“The Week of Worship that we’ve been able to put on, I kind of [led] the one that happened at the beginning of this semester, which was really cool to kind of coordinate that,” Kemper said. “And once again, being an Editor-in-Chief has helped with that a lot because you’re more knowledgeable on how to coordinate a bunch of moving parts. I [even] wrote up little scripts for each day.”
No matter where Kemper is in life, he says that “it all kind of comes back to Jesus. I mean, it comes back to my faith.”
Photography isn’t always a concrete job, though, and Kemper understood the challenges that would come with getting into the industry. To help him solidify his choice to pursue photography, he prayed.
“I went home, and I just prayed,” Kemper said. “[I said,] God, if this is not what you want me to do, I prayed that he would take it away, that he would give me something else that is more tangible. Because photography is very competitive. It’s not necessarily stable. But I prayed, [and] ever since then, my page has grown a ton [and] I’ve met so many people and made so many amazing relationships.”
However, his passion for photography is only a small portion of his life. Kemper doesn’t only devote his time to his future career; he likes to play video games, spend time with his brother and girlfriend, and explore buildings on campus.
“Some of my favorite memories include… sneaking into the old gym my freshman year,” Kemper said. “We opened a window and snuck in there and walked around before they tore it down.”
Not only did he get into the old gym on campus, but he also made it to the top of Shilling and Leighty-Tabor.
When Kemper is not traveling around campus, he is playing video games and spending time in his off-campus house, which he and his brother reside in.
There are many perks of not living in the Woods, but even though he likes to have his own room, Kemper loves the sense of community his home creates.
“That house has been a huge blessing,” he said. “It’s kind of been like a second home for a lot of people. Funny enough, my buddy Cohen, whenever we play MLB: The Show, his WiFi at the dorm doesn’t work for that game, so he has to come over. So it’s kind of been like a second home for him in that way, and then just really opening it up to anyone who needs like a space to just feel comfortable. So if people just need a place to go, they’re always welcome in our house.”
Kemper and Kolby may live together, but they don’t often see each other due to their busy schedules.
“I see [Kolby] more on campus than I see him at home, because we’re always super busy,” Kemper said. “We’ve had a couple of honors classes together, but he’s a finance major, so I never had class with him. We lived in two very, very different worlds; that’s for sure. The English department is way different than the business department. So, hearing his stories about what life was like over there, it felt like a whole different world than what we had over here.”
Although the twins don’t see each other often, their brotherly love is evident in all that they do.
Originally, Kemper and Kolby were going to attend Richland Community College, but when they got the opportunity to play sports at Millikin, they decided to go the four-year route.
Being able to attend Millikin together has allowed them to spend more time together before entering the real world.
“If we are at someone’s house or at our house, that’s usually when we hang out,” Kolby said. “But the busyness, and especially two different schedules, conflict a lot with [my] personal time with him… Finding the moments in a short time seems like [it’s] pretty necessary for me to spend time with him. I just love being around him, and I think it’s sometimes uncommon for brothers to be like, ‘Man, I just really need to be around him all the time,’ but he’s a hard guy not to be around, I guess.”
Finally, a relationship that Kemper holds dearly to his heart is him and Alayna.
“She’s really connected with my family, and her family has done nothing but welcome me into theirs as well, so that has been really amazing to experience,” Kemper said. “I’m going to be around these people for the rest of my life, so I’d better hope I like them, and I can confidently say that these are some absolutely incredible people that I have had the opportunity to meet.”
After being together for two years, they have been able to build a strong connection with each other’s families.
“Both of our families have similar but totally different dynamics, but we both fit into those really well, and I just love his family, and I know that he loves mine,” Schultz said. “So it’s just been really sweet to see how he interacts with my family, because he just loves them so much.”
Throughout his time at Millikin, Kemper has been able to form and strengthen relationships, figure out what he wants to do in the future, and have fun. But one unmistakable thing about Kemper is that he is an incredibly passionate person.
“What I’ve learned [from Kemper] is, if you’re passionate about something, you’re gonna go the next mile, or you’re gonna go beyond, and I think he’s really embodied that with the photography, writing articles, and even sports when he was in it,” Kolby said.
