Mikkaela Bailey - '17
When Mikkaela first stepped on campus as a freshman in 2013, she thought she was going to be exploring her options as an “undeclared” major. Nervously, she stood in line for her student ID card and residence hall keys, stopping finally at the academic check in desk to collect her finalized class schedule. Across the top of that schedule? “Major: History.”
While she had always had a love of history, and had admittedly mentioned that it was her favorite school subject to the admissions counselor in conversation, she had not exactly planned for this to be her path. Yet, it was clear that this would be the right path to walk as professors like Dr. Myers and Dr. Keaton invested in her interests and even offered special topics classes.
Not knowing that someone could pursue the study of history as a profession, Mikkaela’s eyes were opened to new possibilities through conversations with faculty about their own paths to a career in academia. Dr. Myers encouraged her to pursue the Honors Program and write a thesis which was – against her own expectations – funded by the South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities undergraduate research grant. This was the first of several grant-funded trips to the UK for Mikkaela’s scholarly work.
Reflecting on the impact of her SWU days on her current research, Mikkaela had this to say: “I really loved my time at Southern Wesleyan because of the strong relationships I built there. I know if I need something, even just a bit of a pep talk, I can reach out to my former professors and I often keep in touch with them. They prayed for me and believed in me, all this time, and I am so grateful for that.”
These days, you can find Mikkaela working on her dissertation about material culture and parish guilds in late medieval England. When she’s not archive-hopping looking at medieval documents in person, she’s back in SC reading digitized medieval documents and writing about the history of average, everyday people and the institutions they built to bring them together in a faith-based community. Maybe she got a few ideas about that from her time at SWU, too.