Hannah is excited to start her new life at Work Forrest North Carolina.
Hastings High senior Hannah Reynolds is heading off to Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on an $16,000 scholarship while adding it on to some of the other merit and need-based scholarships she received.
Reynolds had the opportunity to apply for the Presidential Musical Theater Scholarship. She has to write two short essays explaining her interest in theater and Wake Forest and submit contrasting monologues. A few months later she found out she was a finalist and had to perform two more monologues following an interview. During the end of the school year, Reynolds got a callback and was soon accepted into the program. In the middle of a musical season where Reynolds was the lead in Matilda, she received the acceptance letter of the full ride scholarship after waiting a couple months after applying. It was a sigh of relief for both Reynolds and her family.
“I found out I got the scholarship right during our last dress rehearsal for Matilda. I went backstage to check my phone during intermission, and it was the first notification I saw! I started yelling because I was so excited, and I was immediately surrounded by people congratulating me. It was one of the most exciting moments of my life. My parents were also super happy. They were just as nervous as I was for the whole college process, and it was a huge relief to know that I did it!” Reynolds said.
Although Reynolds has spent her entire life living in Hastings, she is ready to get out there and expand her knowledge with a higher education at Wake Forest.
“I’m a little nervous to go out-of-state and I’m really going to miss my family and friends, but I ultimately feel like this is the right decision. If I stay in Hastings forever I’m never going to know what I’m missing out on in the bigger world around me, and since my aunt and uncle work at Wake Forest, I won’t be completely alone,” Reynolds said.
Before applying, Reynolds explored the college with the help of some of her family members who live in North Carolina. This eventually helped with the decision of applying and attending the school.
“I decided to apply to Wake Forest after I visited campus last April. My aunt and uncle both work there, so I had a campus tour while visiting them, and I absolutely loved it! All of the students and professors seemed so genuine and caring, and I really felt like it was a place I could belong,” Reynolds said.
She will be studying both Theater and English as her majors while attending Wake Forest. In College Factual’s most recent rankings for the best schools for theater majors, Wake Forest University came in at #11. This puts it in the top 5% of the country in this field of study.
“I didn’t apply to a ton of other schools, but one thing that set Wake Forest apart was its size and emphasis on the arts…I’m super excited about Wake Forest because not only does it have a fantastic English program, but also an amazing arts program, and I’ll be encouraged to study both my interest in English and in theater. Wake Forest is also smaller than many of the schools I applied for, which I think will be good for me, since I don’t want to get lost in the crowd,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds will be on her way to North Carolina at the end of the summer, moving her life across several states. She is ecstatic to be taking her studies further and going into a subject she has great interest in.
“In college, I’m really excited to learn about what I love in even more depth. I’ve never actually taken a theater class, so it’ll be really cool to learn more about something I’m so passionate about! I also hope to do some more things that get me out of my comfort zone, like studying abroad or getting involved in a wide variety of activities. College is all about the experience, and I want to make sure mine is as rewarding as possible,” Reynolds said.
