{"id":15448,"date":"2020-12-17T13:11:33","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T18:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/?p=15448"},"modified":"2021-01-25T09:25:46","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T14:25:46","slug":"now-at-harvard-alumna-traces-her-metamorphosis-through-transylvanias-classrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/2020\/12\/now-at-harvard-alumna-traces-her-metamorphosis-through-transylvanias-classrooms\/","title":{"rendered":"Now at Harvard, alumna traces her metamorphosis through Transylvania’s classrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"For
Transy\u2019s welcoming community encouraged a self-described introvert to become an involved leader in a variety of organizations, from Greek life and honors societies to SGA and the Writing Center. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When Katie Tucker ’18 first imagined her college experience as a high school senior, she was convinced that she would: 1) study pre-med at a large school; 2) learn primarily from her professors; and 3) definitely not<\/em> attend her parents\u2019 alma mater. For the self-described introvert, the idea of being smitten by the humanities, of leading a variety of student organizations and pursuing a Ph.D. at the Harvard Kennedy School never crossed her mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Transylvania University has a unique way of revealing deeper truths and inspiring students to pursue their most authentic self. It offers opportunities for complete and surprising metamorphoses. If there\u2019s a \u201cpublic policy\u201d butterfly in a cocoon briefly misidentified as \u201cpre-med,\u201d it\u2019s going to be discovered, nurtured and released into the post-Transy world, ready to thrive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately for Tucker, her parents, Lance \u201991 and Jill \u201990 (Crouch), managed to sway their daughter into touring their alma mater. And, as so often happens, once she set foot on Transy\u2019s welcoming campus, no other college would do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI loved the small campus and the way that everyone interacted and how the professors and students all seemed to know each other,” said Tucker, who is from Oldham County, Kentucky. “I couldn\u2019t fathom going to a big school after that. I pretty much crossed everything else off my list.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn\u2019t take long for her to see how that level of connection would translate into an intimate, dynamic classroom experience. It would become the heart of her evolution, the place where she would find academic rigor, the revelation of her true passions, and the invaluable discussions with peers who offered an array of perspectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The classroom, Tucker says, is \u201cwhere the magic happens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her very first semester in the classroom, she discovered an unexpected interest in the humanities, her curiosity piqued by professor Carole Barnsley\u2019s Introduction to Religion. The subject, she says, \u201ctook me totally off guard.\u201d Her enjoyment of the content, the open discussion and diversity of opinions encouraged her to take more humanities and social sciences classes, including political science, history and law. \u201cAnd I just loved all of them,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of what drew me in.\u201d By her second year at Transy she\u2019d changed her major to international affairs and religious studies \u2014 \u201cabout as far away from pre-med as you can get,\u201d she adds with laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Transy\u2019s classrooms Tucker developed her academic chops, elevated by the high expectations of her professors. \u201cI think Transy professors are really, really good at making the classes rigorous enough to teach you, but not too rigorous that you feel you\u2019re drowning or that it\u2019s impossible,\u201d she says. But she admits to not fully appreciating the value of doing all that homework or striving to meet the bar they set, until she attended the University of Southern California for her master\u2019s and then Harvard for her Ph.D. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI found that Transy went above and beyond preparing me for graduate school,\u201d she says, describing a fairly seamless transition. \u201cA lot of my classes at Transy were harder than classes in my master\u2019s program,\u201d she notes. \u201cI was really well prepared because of how rigorous Transy is.\u201d This includes the writing skills she developed in class and as a patron and consultant in Transy\u2019s Writing Center, all of which put her ahead of the game in grad school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Headshot
Classroom exposure to political science sparked Tucker\u2019s interest in student government and her role as vice president and constitution chair.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWriting papers for history, politics and religion classes, and the feedback the professors give you on how to make them better, is really transformative,\u201d she says. \u201cIn graduate school, the difference between the students who have the capacity to clearly communicate their ideas and those that can\u2019t is amazing. And I can\u2019t say enough about what Transy did in that realm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But perhaps most important of all her classroom experience was having the opportunity to engage for the first time with people from so many backgrounds and belief systems. \u201cThose discussion-based classes taught me to listen to viewpoints other than my own,\u201d she says, adding, \u201chow important that was and how much I would learn from them.\u201d The quality of those interactions with her peers was key to her education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power of those open, productive dialogues perfectly served her growing interest in public policy. And it provided the model of behavior for Transy\u2019s student body during one of her most significant memories as an undergraduate. As a sophomore during the presidential election season of 2016, she helped to organize a series of roundtable discussions on political issues, co-led by the College Democrats and the College Republicans. Part of what made the series work, she remembers, was that the leadership of both political groups worked together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLooking back,\u201d she says, \u201cthat series was incredibly meaningful because we were able to engage a large portion of the student body in discussions that were very respectful, intelligent and academically oriented. Everyone respected one another\u2019s beliefs. And a lot of people really learned about the other side and what their opinions may have been.\u201d In the context of 2020, she says, \u201cand how divided our country is and how partisan everything has become, that remains a really special moment for me.\u201d And it\u2019s something she\u2019d like to replicate.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experience, she says, \u201cmade me believe in politics and the power of public policy, and in people to be able to come together for the betterment for society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Tucker\u2019s master\u2019s at the University of Southern California focused on homeland security, an interest sparked by classes at Transy.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

By the time she graduated from Transy, Tucker\u2019s interest in conflict and security had led her to apply to USC. There, she specialized in homeland security as part of her master\u2019s in public policy, tackling issues ranging from active shooters to wildfires and climate crisis. Being at USC helped confirm her path and her desire to be in an academic environment. \u201cI <\/strong>found that I loved the intellectual life and the feeling of life on campus,\u201d she notes. \u201cThat led me to the decision that I did want to pursue a Ph.D.\u201d At Harvard, she\u2019ll be a teaching fellow as well as taking classes and working on her dissertation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Tucker, public policy is all about making decisions that better other people\u2019s lives \u2014 \u201cwhether that\u2019s a political decision or the decision of a business or a think tank,\u201d she says. She\u2019s drawn to conducting research that has tangible, measurable goals and is responsive to the changes in human society; for example, responding to technology companies as they collect massive amounts of personal data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love the idea of a field whose sole devotion is basically: \u2018How do we make existing policies better and how do we make the best new policies that we can make?\u2019\u201d No doubt, creating successful public policy requires knowledge and compromise and the ability to listen and debate multiple points of view \u2013 the hallmark of her Transy experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the small classes cannot be oversold enough,\u201d Tucker concludes, \u201cbecause so much of what I got out of Transy was not just the wonderful, smart professors, but getting to have in-class discussions with everyone in the classes. In bigger classes, you just can\u2019t do that. It just doesn\u2019t work. The ability to learn from each other really is where a lot of the magic happens at Transy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a Ph.D. candidate studying public policy, all pathways to the University of Southern California and the Harvard Kennedy School lead back to \u201cwhere the magic happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":15461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"4555,1908,1787,878,12376,1916","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25,12,49,190,8,4],"tags":[629,61,630],"feeds":[577],"class_list":["post-15448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-admissions","category-alumni","category-alumni-outcomes","category-campus-life","category-campus-visit","tag-classroom-experience","tag-top-stories","tag-variety-of-perspectives","feeds-outcomes"],"yoast_head":"\nNow at Harvard, alumna traces her metamorphosis through Transylvania's classrooms - 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