Student Profiles
Sarah Summerhill
Life beyond Reed
Sarah is the owner and shop manager of Birdhouse Books, an independent bookstore in Vancouver, WA, also her hometown. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Washington State University in 2020. While an undergraduate, Sarah produced radio pieces for KBOO’s Old Mole Variety Hour and also worked for several years as a production assistant on films such as Our Bodies Our Doctors and the NECESSITY Series. She resides in Vancouver where she practices urban homesteading and volunteers on various local, accessible community agriculture projects.
Academic interests
Sarah’s interests and undergraduate academic work in English literature converge to a unique intellectual interest in the intersections of natural science and literature. At Reed, Sarah is particularly interested in comparative mythological and symbolic analysis in historical texts. At Washington State University, she focused largely on 19th century British literature and developed an interest in the supernatural and connections between science, religion, and history.
Why MALS?
“I was excited by Reed’s heavy emphasis on interdisciplinary studies, which would allow me to stretch my learning and knowledge over many disciplines. I met with the dean of admissions and attended a few book clubs for prospective students and felt an overwhelming energy of welcomeness from the Reed community. I knew it was somewhere where dialectics and intellectual discourse would thrive, and where I would find a strong community of academics to push me to learn, grow, and achieve. In short, I knew the Reed classrooms were where I wanted to be.”