Ellen Summerlin is one of four workers in the Berry College Ceramics Department. She also works for Oak Hill and the Martha Berry Museum. Ellen’s creative and determined personality makes her a loyal and intuitive friend, and HC Berry invites you to get to know her too!
Name: Ellen Summerlin
Year: sophomore
Major: studio art and psychology (double major)
Hometown: Rome, GA
Hobbies: Campus Cursive, watching Netflix
Fun Fact: “I am the fifth person in my family to go to Berry.”
Favorite Show: “Friends”
Favorite book: “Goodnight Moon”
How would you like to change this campus?“If I could change the campus, I would like to see more parking. I would definitely renovate the [art] building because it is literally falling apart and maybe give a little more money to the art department in general. And I wouldn’t have made it a tobacco free campus, but that just seems unfair.”
What is your favorite Berry tradition?“Seeing all of the dogs that people bring here, if that counts. If that’s not a berry tradition, then I guess it would be the colors that we wear on mountain day because I love our history, and I think that’s a great thing to keep alive.”
How did you decide on Berry, and what is it like going to school so close to home?
“I decided on Berry mostly because it was a family school. Going to school in Rome isn’t that weird. A lot of people from my graduating class think I’m crazy for staying at home. Most people think that your first instinct when graduating is to get as far away from home as you can, but I think that is a fallacy; it’s the people that you’ve been going to school with for 12 years that you want to get away from.Going to school in Rome is great. The Berry Bubble is a real thing- so most of the time it doesn’t feel like I’m in Rome. But when I need to be in Rome, I can be easily.”
What are your favorite things about Rome?
“I really love the Moon franchise, like Harvest Moon [the restaurant], Honeymoon Bakery and Dark Side [the bar]. Chiaha Harvest Festival is my favorite weekend of the year. It’s an art festival, so I get to see all of the artisans in town and eat delicious food. I also love the rich history that we have and how prevalent it is in our daily lives, as you can see on Broad Street and the clock tower.”