Rachel Anderson has been selected as the 2020-2021 recipient of the Dr. L. Jill Loucks Memorial Scholarship in Anthropology. This scholarship is awarded to an anthropology major who demonstrates outstanding academic achievement.
"Since I was a child, my adoration for languages and literature has never waned. My father, like most parents, advised me to choose a path in something I love to mold a career around. But it’s hard to do that when you seem to be interested in everything.
When I sat in my first anthropology class my freshman year, I knew I had found what I wanted to spend my life doing. It wasn’t that I was interested in everything, it was that, when I boiled it down, I was interested in us. In humans. I chose anthropology because I wanted to study us in our pursuit of such things like these paths we mold our lives around, in our endless endeavour in articulating the world that we experience through language in its many forms, and how our languages become a liminal home we can tuck away into when we are seemingly far away from home. This department has not only enabled me to study this, but it has supported me in my research and my questions, and at times yanked me out of my perspective like a fish out of water, and asked me to look at an ocean that I couldn’t see while in it: glittering and lovely, and sometimes dark and terrifying, as it is.
Receiving the Dr. L. Jill Loucks Memorial Scholarship in Anthropology is a blessing and an absolute honor, as it lends me indefinite opportunities to continue in my career in anthropology, and allows me the chance to ardently thank every single professor, friend, and librarian who has supported me in this intellectual pursuit, with their many book recommendations and their patient ears for listening to me ramble about stumbled-upon findings. I don’t think I would be where I am now without them, and I am so grateful for being where I am now, happily studying anthropology and having the chance to be accepting this scholarship. This scholarship has bolstered my anthropologic aspirations and I am eager to continue my education here in this department."
About the Department of Anthropology
The Department of Anthropology offers a comparative and holistic approach to the study of the human experience. The anthropological perspective provides a broad understanding of the origins as well as the meaning of physical and cultural diversity in the world – past, present and future. With nearly 200 undergraduate majors, the department offers numerous research opportunities for students including field schools, internships, lab projects and independent studies at home and abroad. Students may earn B.A. and B.S. degrees with concentrations in sociocultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, and social practice and sustainability. Learn more at http://anthro.appstate.edu
About the College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences is home to 16 academic departments, two stand-alone academic programs, two centers and one residential college. These units span the humanities and the social, mathematical and natural sciences. The College of Arts and Sciences aims to develop a distinctive identity built upon our university's strengths, traditions and unique location. Our values lie not only in service to the university and local community, but through inspiring, training, educating and sustaining the development of our students as global citizens. There are approximately 5,850 student majors in the college. As the college is also largely responsible for implementing Appalachian's general education curriculum, it is heavily involved in the education of all students at the university, including those pursuing majors in other colleges. Learn more at http://cas.appstate.edu
About Appalachian State University
As the premier, public undergraduate institution in the state of North Carolina, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The Appalachian Experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and to embrace diversity and difference. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System. Appalachian enrolls more than 19,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.
