I chose Heidelberg because of the welcoming atmosphere and the AJY Junior Year program. I really wanted to be able to study abroad for a whole year, as opposed to only a semester. I also liked the small campus atmosphere.
I majored in English because reading and writing have always been my main academic interests, as well as recreational hobbies. It also paired well with my German and Political Science minors and my future desires to do something with languages and writing.
It is incredibly cliché, but a major challenge I encountered while at Heidelberg was the pandemic, which started during the spring of my sophomore year. I had already submitted the paperwork to participate in the AJY Junior Year program but as the summer progressed and the virus was still rampant, I chose to defer my study abroad experience to my senior year. I had intended to study abroad in the 2021 Winter Semester and the 2022 Summer Program but the combination of the stress of senior year and other circumstances, I changed my German major to a German minor and not to participate in the summer program. This required a lot of mental fortitude, advice from a number of mentors in my life, many of them Heidelberg faculty. Frankly, I think it ranks very high on my list of “most difficult decisions I have ever made.”
Above all, Heidelberg prepared me to be adaptable.
Outside of the classroom, I was involved in the local sorority, Zeta Theta Psi. I joined in Spring 2019 as a freshman. The society’s goals to empower women through academics aligned with so many of my personal beliefs. The support I have received from this society has been invaluable and connected me to lifelong friends.
My favorite extracurricular activity was International Coffee Hour because I love getting to know other cultures and trying their food, as well as talking about my own study abroad experience.
I have two faculty mentors who impacted my ‘Berg experience. The first is Dr. Emily Isaacson because she has continuously encouraged me to follow the path that best suits my needs, both mentally and academically. She is a level-headed professor who understands the struggles of university life and how the pandemic has affected students’ mindsets. The second is Dr. Barry Devine for always believing that my academic work is worthy of recognition and encouraging me to participate in presentation conferences that I did not feel confident to present at. He has encouraged me to pursue areas of academia that expand upon interests I already had and found programs that will build on my goals and make me a more well-rounded student and academic.
My advice to new freshmen would be to be willing to change your goals. I went into college with a very one-track mind about what I wanted to be post-graduating but I ended up changing my goals often, especially once the pandemic started, and my majors and minors reflected that but it was a struggle mentally and psychologically to accept that where I thought I was going was no longer the route I could take.
My favorite Heidelberg memory is when I was able to travel to Paris to meet with my best friends, Victoria Bunevich, Emma Baughman, Isabel Chasney, Clay Bowden and Jurnee Starks, who were also studying abroad in other countries at the same time I was in Germany. It was so much fun to catch up and talk about what all we had experienced while studying abroad, on top of traveling to a beautiful city and eating crepes in front of the Eiffel Tower.
My plans after graduation are to take a gap year and possibly find a job that allows me to utilize some of the technical writing skills I have been developing and seeing if that career path is what I want to do. I am also interested in pursuing a master’s program in either publishing or translating.