Alexandra Howard ’18
Major: Psychology Minor: Music
Hometown: Memphis, TN
Her Campus: How did you end up at Rhodes?
Alexandra Howard: I had been looking at a lot of small liberal arts schools. My top choices were Rhodes and Berry. Berry is pretty much just like Rhodes but located in Rome, Georgia. The more I thought about it, the more I realized Rhodes was able to give me a lot of opportunities to do what I really wanted. Rhodes also gives me the opportunity to explore the city I grew up in. I didn’t realize how little I knew about Memphis till I came here.
HC: How do you feel your psychology major is helping you towards your future?
AH: I hoping to either get into music therapy or do research into the effects of music therapy or effects of therapy on abuse victims and ways of recovering and ways of preventing. I’m very passionate about it. So obviously psychology is the best way to achieve that goal. Psychology exposes you to a lot of things that you wouldn’t expect. Some people think that because it’s part of the social sciences that it’s not as tactile or stable as a subject like biology. Biology is very much like these are facts, these are things that happen, and this is how it builds. Whereas psychology is actually very similar. There are statistics in psychology. You learn basic psychology and then you learn how to critically think and apply those things to real world scenarios. The psychology department also has classes that allow you to go deeper than that and help give you an understanding of why all those things work. That kind of learning process is what this college stands for because it helps you take what you’re learning and the way you’re learning things and then apply it to real life situations where you can break them down and have a deeper understanding of whatever your passionate about, whether that’s psychology or art or biology.
HC: This year you have an officer position in the Rhodes Outdoor Organization (ROO). How did you initially get involved in that?
AH: My older brother, who graduated this past May, was involved in ROO and helped to make it much more focused on high adventure activities than it was before. Once I came to campus, I knew I really wanted to be a part of an outdoor club because throughout high school I was really involved with scouting and would always make time to find a way to enjoy the outdoors. Also, during the summers I work at the Boy Scout camp in Arkansas. ROO, then, presented the perfect opportunity for me to continue purposefully enjoying the outdoors during the school year. I went on a lot of the trips this past school year, and I hung out with a lot of the members of ROO’s leadership team. So when elections came around I went ahead and ran. I started off as an event manager during second semester last year and then became Vice President.
HC: What does your position as Vice President entail?
AH: VP pretty much makes sure that the President, Mary Grace, is okay by trying to back her up when she has too much on her plate. I try to make sure all the other positions have what they need and that everything is running smoothly. I also deal with issues involving allocations and trip logistics like when we’re trying to figure out if we have enough food to feed the twenty people who came on our trip.
HC: In addition to ROO, you also happen to be a member of Lipstick on your Collar (female A Capella group). How has that experience been for you?
AH: Lipstick is amazing. I really enjoy it. It’s a really cool communal singing group. I auditioned first semester of freshman year, and once I got in, I came to really enjoy it. All of the girls are so great, and I love them all dearly. Lipstick gives us an outlet to do a lot more creative things by figuring things out for ourselves. Being in Lipstick gives me a really good opportunity for people to bond and be able to connect through music outside of the academic music programs that are offered by Rhodes.
HC: How has being in these groups transformed your Rhodes experience?
AH: Lipstick has helped teach me how to connect with people through common interests in a way that I wasn’t expecting. It’s the thing that everyone talks about when they come to college like “oh you’re going to meet people in your major and field of interest that you’re really going to connect with and you’re just going to hit off”. I feel like Lipstick gave me that experience, and I really love it.
And ROO has shaped so much. Obviously, the outdoors is a huge release for me. It’s a safe place. ROO not only let me go out into the woods and recharge whenever I need to, but it helps me stay grounded and helps remind me how to do things like stay organized. It also helps me make connections with a lot of different businesses in the area as well. Like ROO has a couple of connections with Outdoors Inc., Lifetime Fitness, and Bridges. Aside from helping me do official stuff like that, I also get to have a lot of fun and meet a lot of people.
HC: What are you looking to achieving before you graduate from Rhodes?
AH: A ton! There is so much I have to do! I’m really looking forward to officially declaring my major, and seeing the way that I grow as far as like my interests go and if I decide to change my major or minor. I’m excited about building even deeper relationships with a majority of my instructors. Like with teachers in my departments and in cool other departments. And building deeper relationships with other students as a whole. Cause I really like it when I see seniors walking around and they’re like “hey” and everyone else is like “omg hey.” And it’s like, you genuinely know everyone, and I think that’s really cool and I think that’s a really cool community aspect of this campus that I’m really looking to enhancing and growing more. Finally, I’m really excited about finishing the nine things you have to do before you graduate. Rhodes traditions like swimming in the fountain, ringing the bell, finding the underground tunnel, and other things.