The Beginning of A New Chapter in History

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me, well, us, your eyes!

Welcome to our lives as history majors at Washington College! We can't guarantee that our lives are interesting, but, to be quite frank, we think our lives are quite fascinating, and we hope that you will agree.

I guess I'll go first. My name is Brenna Bychowski and I'm a junior. I'm from a small suburb of Chicago, IL. Why did I choose to go to school in Maryland? Well, I put an interest in Creative Writing on one of my standardized tests, and I got a mailing about the program here. I came to visit and fell in love with it. I'm also a Creative Writing minor. Besides my love of history, I'm very interested in crafting, specifically in knitting, crocheting and cross-stitch. I dearly love my classical music, especially Beethoven and opera. I'm in WAC's Vocal Consort and I am in Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society. I also am completely addicted to chocolate in all of its forms, especially hot cocoa. I work for the Office of Information Technologies, babysitting one of the computer labs. I kind of want someone to try and steal something so that I can chase them down, screaming, "Give me back the mouse!" I love movies and reading, especially the works of Laurie R. King and Edgar Allen Poe. I plan to go to grad school and get my Master's in Library Science so that I can be a rockin' reference librarian. This makes me the black sheep of my family, both of my parents and my sister being scientists. And now, I turn this over to...

Me. I'm Gillian Bourassa, and I'm from Baltimore. I didn't think I would go to school in Maryland, and it wasn't until my senior year in high school that I started looking at WaC. At the suggestion of one of my high school teachers (and a WC alum), I talked to an admissions rep at a college fair and then visited the school, and I really liked it. I was impressed by the history and education programs and just loved the campus. When I left after my overnight visit, I couldn't wait to come back 10 days later to the Open House, which was my first introduction to some of WaC's amazing professors. I am pursuing secondary education certification in social studies, but I'm not quite sure what I actually want to do in two years when I graduate. At the moment, I want to go to graduate school, and, among other things, I would love to be a college professor. On campus, I am in the Sting Ensemble and Early Music Consort, Vice President of Phi Alpha Theta history honor society, President of Catholic Campus Ministry, and have been involved in a bunch of other things. I enjoy writing, I work as a peer consultant in the Writing Center (WC students--come to the Writing Center!!!!!), and I have earned the nickname Ten Page from one of my professors because of the extended length of my papers. In the little empty time that I have, I love to read, play my violin, watch movies, and, like Brenna, do needlepoint.

Both of us absolutely love the history major and the school in general. We have amazing professors, both in the history department and in our other classes as well. We love the personal relationships that all students here can have with their professors. Every school says that, but it's really true here. Professors frequently eat in the dining hall, often joining students, and stop to talk to students around campus. The faculty here truly cares about the student body and about each individual as an individual, not just as a student. Stay tuned for more of our exploits and adventures!!