Commencement Spotlight: Lucy Thompson

Lucy Thompson
Honors Tutorial College
Geography and Environmental Studies
Wealth and Poverty certificate
Morgantown, West Virginia

What are your next steps or plans for the future?
In the fall I will be attending Penn State to pursue a 5-year MS/Ph.D. program, getting degrees in Geography and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Over the summer I am excited to take a bit of a break; I'll be living with my parents in West Virginia and spending time biking and knitting!

What memory stands out from your time at OHIO?
Presenting my Honors Tutorial College senior thesis "Motherhood and Environmental Justice in Appalachia: A Critical Analysis of Resistance, Care, and Essentialism in Our Mountains" at the Appalachian Studies Association conference. The conference this spring was hosted at OHIO, so many of my friends and mentors were able to attend my presentation. It was a wonderful culmination of all my work this year, as well as an exciting celebration of Appalachia.

Why did you choose OHIO?
I initially fell in love with OHIO due to the beautiful campus and the feeling of excitement from the people I met on campus tours. Then, I was admitted to the Honors Tutorial College, and was ecstatic about the program! It fulfilled my wish for a small, academically rigorous program that would help me build relationships with faculty, and I felt that the Honors Tutorial College environment would prompt me to grow and change in ways that other programs would not. The scholarship attached to Honors Tutorial College admission also made it possible for me to afford out-of-state tuition. 

Who were your favorite professors and how did they make an impact on your life?
I have been so lucky to find so many gracious and kind mentors here at OHIO who have helped me grow! Dr. Rachel Terman was my advisor for my Honors Tutorial College senior thesis project, and I couldn't have done it without her! Dr. Julie White, Dr. Geoff Buckley, and Dr. Edna Wangui have also been wonderful supporters and friends over the last four years. 

What was the hardest hill you had to climb (not counting Jeff Hill) at OHIO? And how did you overcome challenges or obstacles in your path?
Dealing with the isolation during my sophomore year due to COVID-19. I was on campus during the 2020-2021 school year when almost nobody else was, and it was very lonely. During that time the relationships I had with my few friends on campus got so much stronger; I am incredibly grateful for those people that helped carry me through that time. I also got really good at asking for help from my professors! I used to feel like needing help made me a failure, but the unconditional support I received from my professors during those two semesters totally changed my mind. 

What are your favorite OHIO memories?
This is so hard; my time at OHIO has been filled with joy! Some highlights are: being admitted to the Margaret Boyd Scholars Program, doing grant presentations with my Voinovich School team, drinking coffee on the front porch of the HTC house, traveling to Minnesota to lead a canoe trip with Outdoor Pursuits, seeing live music at the Union, studying abroad in Scotland, meeting Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, taking a ceramics course, making soup and watching movies with my friends, playing pool at Lucky's, the list goes on and on!  

What’s the one thing you would tell a new OHIO student not to miss?
Don't miss out on the connections and friendships you can make while living in the dorms! I might be a minority in this, but I found living in the dorms to be a really funny and fulfilling experience. You get exposed to so many different people, who are each doing really different things with their time in college. I did so many activities and learned so many things by just leaving my door open that first semester. Maybe dorm life looks better in hindsight, but I miss having so many friends a 10-second walk away from me.