Friday, 13 October 2017
https://www.facebook.com/marshalluenglish/posts/1976910479258842
Abigail Feldman is a Yeager Scholar from Lyndonville, New York. Abigail, or Ab, moved from political science to anthropology to, finally, studying English here at Marshall University.
Ab’s had an eventful undergraduate experience. Last spring, she had the opportunity to study abroad in Lyon, France, where she says she “learned so much, not only in an academic sense, but just in life.” During a break in her studies, Ab visited Italy, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany.
Venice’s unique layout and canals, Ab says, makes it feel like it’s “not of this earth,” and Florence stands out for its history and art. Despite so much, she notes that they’re often quiet, compared to London, Paris or New York. Though she loved them all, her favorites were Italy and Ireland, and the kind people and wonderful sights.
She says she soon realized “how many different ideas are out there,” a concept she’s found essential to her success in our department, her travels bringing her from a rooted fascination with language to thinking about the ways we allow in, and contribute certain messages to, our culture. “In Montpellier, France,” Ab recalls, “an Italian woman thought my friend and I were German, but we all spoke together in French, and everyone understood one another.”
Ab likes to ask “why we, as a population, make the decisions we do” and, maybe more importantly, “why these things matter to us.”
Her passion for critical thinking comes naturally with her curiosity and appreciation for things she may not have first understood. She had considered herself a creative nonfiction writer, but has recently found herself writing fiction, too. She tries new things constantly, both in and outside of our department, and will undoubtedly be doing so long after she graduates. She’s currently looking at graphic design programs, a field which not only provides a brand new challenge, a new direction, but requires a keen ability, she says, “to make and understand meaning,” a skill she honed both abroad and with us.
“As cool as every place was, at the end of the semester, I was more excited to come home to Huntington than I had been for anywhere else. To me, it’s home. I am surrounded by so many influential people, in such a close, kind and creative place.”