Student Stories
At Hollins, there's more than one way to pursue what you love.
Research
Liberal arts research in Jamestown uncovers new conclusions and self-discovery
Liberal arts research in Jamestown uncovers new conclusions and self-discovery
Research
Meaghan Harrington ’19 once believed her inability to focus on one interest or a single area of study reflected poorly upon her. “I labeled that as uncertainty, and in a lot of places there’s really no space to be indecisive,” she recalls. “It’s viewed as a negative thing.”
But at Hollins, Harrington says she was able to immerse herself in a liberal arts environment that encourages exploration and self-discovery. “It always frustrates me when people talk down the liberal arts, because the opportunity to do whatever I want and dabble in all these different fields has opened my eyes to new conclusions. Eventually, I found a mishmash of things that work for me.”
Internship
Goal is to open a maternal health education center in Jamaica
Goal is to open a maternal health education center in Jamaica
Internship
Two summers ago, Roshaye Graham ’18 returned home to Jamaica to face a family crisis: her grandmother, a woman she considered to be her “second mother,” was terminally ill with cancer. For the biology major, the experience was both heartbreaking and infuriating.
“I witnessed firsthand the critical need for healthcare providers to not only devote time and care to their patients, but to also adequately and accurately inform caregivers of their loved one’s condition,” she recalls. “I had presumed the doctors would have informed my family about my grandmother’s condition, but found that they knew relatively little except that her body was rapidly deteriorating. When I finally heard from a doctor, I learned that her oncologist had continued chemotherapy irrespective of the fact that after each treatment my grandmother showed significant and continued decline of memory and overall physiological function, and the appearance of her ulcerating tumor grew worse.”
Told there was little more the medical community could do, Graham and her family were advised to take her grandmother home. “So that’s what we did. Every day for the next nine weeks, my grandfather and I fed, bathed, dressed, and comforted this beautiful woman until she passed. While I felt liberated to know I was helping her, I was frustrated that I had not been given any clear understanding of her treatment and continued to be concerned that she had not received the best medical care.”
Study Abroad
Art internship in London changes everything for this studio art major
Art internship in London changes everything for this studio art major
Study Abroad
Meera Chauhan can pinpoint exactly when the trajectory of her life altered. It was the summer after her first year at Hollins. Thanks to the recommendation of Elise Schweitzer, associate professor of art, she got into the six-week painting intensive at the Mount Gretna School of Art. The experience “changed everything for me,” she remembers. “It was like eight hours a day painting and drawing.”
Before she started at Hollins, Chauhan had her life planned out. She would double major in psychology and art, with the expectation that she would get a master’s degree in art therapy. After that transformative summer in Pennsylvania, however, she reversed her emphasis, with a major in studio art and a minor in psychology. “My parents were skeptical at first,” she says. “I told them, ‘I want to do art.’ Now they’re fully on board.”
