Student Profiles

Jenna Rice

What was your major?

History

Graduation Year?

2012

Hometown?

Evansville

Things you did while attending UE?

I was a member oh Phi Alpha Theta, Phi Sigma Iota, Pi Gamma Mu, and Phi Kappa Phi as well as a tutor for Greek classes.

Most impressionable experience at UE?

At our senior dinner, Dr. Byrne asked me this question also, and I had to say that it wasn't a single experience, but a pair of them that established a sort of framework. As a freshman, I took Dr. Thomas' "Myths of the Greeks" course and did my first college-level term paper on Alcestis. I recall very distinctly thumbing through the play in the UE library to read the notes and preface to it, though the actual text, being a copy in the original Greek, looked like a series of incomprehensible squiggly lines. In my final semester, I had the privilege of taking Greek 411, and the assigned play was, ironically, Alcestis. I thought re-reading and analyzing the material with which I had begun my college experience was a fitting way to end it, and I am still very happy to be able to look at the play and see more than a series of squiggly lines.

Favorite professor and why?

I couldn't choose just one--but Dr. Ware and Dr. Parks both assisted me so much during my time at UE and always answered the unending plethora of questions I managed to come up with. They were both excellent professors from whom I learned a great deal and to whom I am very, very grateful.

Favorite class and why?

My Greek classes were my favorites; I am fascinated by the expressive and complex nature of the language as well as the people who spoke it, but I don't know that I would have found it quite so interesting without a professor so dedicated to teaching it and so knowledgeable about all of its facets. Also, I would have to say Dr. MacLeod's WW1 history course was a favorite of mine also, mainly because I did not expect it to be. While I had had and loved Dr. MacLeod's History 290, any point of history more recent than the fifteenth century was so far outside of my interest zone that a course dedicated to it intimidated me. I took a class set in the 20th century to push myself and to become familiar with an era I knew next to nothing about, and I ended up loving it! It made me realize that the interest students take in a class is often proportional to and contingent upon the interest of the professor in the topic he or she is teaching, and Dr. MacLeod was clearly very passionate about the often neglected study of WW1.

What did you like best about the Honors Program?

I liked having the opportunity to branch out from my study of ancient history and explore 19th and 20th cultural history through my Honors Program project at the end of the year. In this, I was able to combine personal experience running a business with historical research to produce a presentation on the restoration of antique jewelry and its presence in the modern market.

What have you been doing since graduation?

I am beginning my graduate studies at the University of Missouri (Mizzou) in Columbia, MO with a major in history and a secondary field of study in Classics.

What are your goals (career, education, life, etc…)?

My goal is an eventual PHD in ancient history with a special focus on ancient Greece and Macedon.

Do you think your Honors Program experiences have helped/will help you reach your goals?

I think the extra work that I did in the language courses which I took for honors credit especially helped me by pushing me out of my comfort zone and challenging me to go beyond the tasks of textbooks. Language skills, both the knowledge of a language and the knowledge of how to learn one, are invaluable no matter what route one takes in life.