Senior Spotlight: Abbegail Rank

By: Caia Bevins

Abbegail Rank is a senior here at Defiance College and will graduate this spring. She will have not one, not two, but three majors when she leaves in the spring. Why you may ask? Well, when she first came to campus as a high school student, she was a Criminal Justice major. While she enjoyed the subject, she realized that the world of law enforcement wasn’t for her, so she added Social Work when she came to Defiance during her Freshman year and added Psychology later on. Also, because she didn’t have enough classes already, she added a minor in Autism Studies. This, to her, was her most significant accomplishment so far. She said that, even though people doubted her a little bit, “I still pursued it, and I’ll have three majors.”

Abbegail was very active outside of the classroom as well, joining both the Soccer and Track and Field teams as well as being a part of SAAC, and the Service Leader Program. She also worked as a peer tutor and a writing consultant. As I’m sure you can imagine, she was a very busy person and admitted that she probably forgot a few things, but wouldn’t we all? She did share a little bit about her time in the McMaster Program, however. Her group was supposed to go to Belize, but it was unfortunately during Covid, so she wasn’t able to go. Initially, she wanted to focus on “nutritional hydration and exercise,” but it evolved into “focusing on stress relief because Covid was stressful.” However, the experience was still incredible, and she was incredibly grateful for the opportunity.

When I asked her what advice she would give her Freshman self, she immediately said, “I would focus more on my own self-care. For the first two years, I just focused on my classes and stuff, and I just got burnt out. So definitely self-care.” She also pointed to how focusing on self-care also helped her in the classroom.

But enough about the past; let’s talk about the future. When I sat down to talk with her this week, she was excited about her future and about grad school. She told me that she is going to the University of Northern Texas to get her Master’s degree in kinesiology (the study of human body movement). After graduating from there, she plans to get her doctorate in counseling psychology, focusing on sports psychology. In terms of career goals, she wants to change how mental health is seen in sports and help athletes develop good mental health and physical strength and ability.

So please join me in congratulating Abbegail for her incredible accomplishments over the last four years, and wish her the best of luck in grad school and beyond.