Major Moment: Lucia Engelhardt '27

Lucia Engelhardt '27 is a Linguistics major and a Dance minor. They can often be found in the Makerspace in VCAM (the visual studies building at Haverford) or in a Bryn Mawr dance studio practicing for a performance. Below, Lucia '27 tells us about their academic journey at Bryn Mawr. 

Entering Bryn Mawr, which departments interested you?   

When entering college, I knew I wanted to study languages. My father had recommended that I take a linguistics course, so the spring of my first year I took Introductory Linguistics and loved it! As I’ve continued taking courses, I’ve learned that Linguistics is a pretty unique major. It is a Tri-College major, meaning that I can seamlessly register for classes at Swarthmore and Haverford along with Bryn Mawr. It also is one of the majors that has the fewest number of requirements (only eight including the thesis course). This has allowed me flexibility to explore my vast interests in other academic fields. I have two concentrations (in Mandarin and Visual Studies) in addition to my minor! 

Which courses helped shape your academic path?

Right now I’m taking a course called Structure of Colonial Valley Zapotec. The course itself is unlike any course I’ve ever taken before; every class we use what we learn and apply it in the real world. We’ve been doing this by translating a colonial era testament of a Zapotec man named Alfonso. We traveled to Oaxaca and spoke with Zapotec activists about the work they’ve been doing to preserve their language. We learned about the importance of language revitalization work, and even got to share the work we’ve been doing on the colonial document.  

Tell us about a time you were able to put learning into action. 

Last summer I interned for a digital humanities project called PTAnnotated (a website dedicated to the study and examination of all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s filmography). As an intern, I learned about website design, how to code, and the possible applications of the field of digital humanities. I even got to create my own project involving writing an essay and creating my own data visualizations from data I collected from PTA’s films! It was cool to be able to combine my interests of film/visual studies with my knowledge of Linguistics (coding, statistics, data cleaning). This internship opened my eyes to the possible ways I can continue to blend my interests without having to sacrifice one for the other. 

"This internship opened my eyes to the possible ways I can continue to blend my interests without having to sacrifice one for the other."

What advice would you give to a first year in the process of declaring a major?

My advice for incoming first-year students is to never fear trying new courses! I think many people get nervous about taking higher-level classes in fields they don’t have as much experience in, but I have found that they are super fun and interesting. I also would say that people don’t realize how many opportunities Bryn Mawr offers you. Make sure to read your email, talk to your professors about their lives, and apply to as many things as possible. I’ve been able to travel internationally three times through Bryn Mawr with no additional costs to my tuition!