Rachel Hicks, a first-year English BA major at Millersville University, somehow always knew this was where she was going to end up. Maybe not right here outside Amish country, but definitely this more generalized here, at a university full of kind people studying nerdy things like books and language and the true nature of being alive. As a child, Rachel was the type of kid to see the “Summer Library Reading Challenges” as just that, a personal challenge. The library would ask for three books a week? Rachel would read 15. The library only had 30 slots on the Summer Books Tracking Sheet? Rachel would make her own and print out five. Growing up in a family as the oldest daughter meant she had something to prove, and for some reason that meant blowing her little brothers out of the water when it came to books and reading. Her love for literature stems from picture books, YA novels, poetry, high school English classes, and the idea that humans will never be able to explain or understand everything, though we tragically, doggedly try.

Now as a pretend-adult in college, Rachel is involved with the English Club, George Street Press, and WIXQ. More recently, Rachel works with the English Department collecting alumni profiles, writing stories about current students, and managing the department’s social media. Listening to the stories of past and current students is inspiring – an English degree from Millersville unlocks unlimited potential for creativity and career trajectories.

Not all people who love to read as children become English majors, or even continue reading as adults. English majors have this need to not only devour books, but to let those ideas marinate in their brains for the inevitable creation of their own works. Writing takes the intangible and makes it concrete for the reader, opens doors for possibility and revelations that a person might never have on their own. Rachel, like other people in this major, feels that innate need to explain the world and the strange nature of humanity, even if most of life feels frustratingly ineffable.