Ashley Boucher, from Beaverton, Oregon, is majoring in creative writing, focusing in non-fiction, and minoring in French. Though it took her a while to find her major, she settled on English because she always got good grades in this area (improving her graduate school options) and had always enjoyed English and literature. Ashley says she is minoring in French because “Je suis francais and I love the culture and language.”
Since her time at Seattle Pacific University, her favorite classes have been Elements of Narrative with Dr. VanZanten because it is a chance to get into the “nitty-gritty” of story-telling and Shakespeare with Dr. Reinsma because of the emotion and–“what else?–tension” created by the plays.
Outside school, you will probably find Ashley dancing, which she has been doing since she was 12. For her, Ashley says, dancing “is a release, like writing can be, and I definitely could not live without it.” Her dream job would be as traveling yoga instructor, writing about yoga retreats, and later editing either a fashion or a dance magazine, so she plans to move back to Portland for the first step in that direction: training to be a yoga instructor.
Her advice to students, “It is important to balance being a student with being a person, which is surprisingly easy to do.” She also recommends taking advanced grammar and to study abroad as many times as possible. “Now is the time to go. So GO!”