Educational injustice isn’t just something Lucy Lansing has studied in a textbook. After 13 years attending a Title 1 school, she left frustrated, angry – and curious about how she could make a difference. With the help of Asian studies professor and mentor Katherine Kaup, at Furman she found a way by discovering her passion for advocacy.

“I believe each of us is here to better the circumstance of those around us,” Lucy says. “And I have an obligation to advocate on behalf of those who cannot advocate for themselves.”

Kaup was the first person who told her she could ask for what she wanted, and, if something frustrated her, she should do something about it. That’s why Lucy is returning to a Title 1 school in Charlotte, North Carolina, as a member of Teach for America. Starting in the fall, she’ll teach English to middle schoolers from the important perspective of someone who understands both where they are and where it’s possible for them to go.

Lucy did a lot of “going” at Furman. She had an internship in Washington, D.C., studied abroad in the British Isles and spent half a semester in multiple Latin American countries. She also explored her Appalachia roots by presenting English research in Cincinnati and studied social activism and the rhetoric during a May X in California.

“My internships and study away and abroad trips were things I couldn’t have done somewhere else – and that’s not to say look at me, but look at Furman,” she says. “It has inspired me to give back.”