![\"Mackenzie](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/09\/Crew2.jpg?w=621&h=621&crop=1&ssl=1\" "\\"Crew2\\"")
<\/a> ![\"Mackenzie](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/09\/Crew3.jpg?w=471&h=310&ssl=1\" "\\"Photographer\\"")
<\/a> ![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/09\/Crew4.jpg?w=471&h=307&ssl=1\" "\\"Photographer\\"")
<\/a> ![\"Early-morning](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/09\/crew7.jpg?w=382&h=286&ssl=1\" "\\"crew7\\"")
<\/a> ![\"Mackenzie](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/09\/Mackenzie_HP-1.jpg?w=710&h=286&ssl=1\" "\\"Mackenzie_HP\\"")
<\/a> The tone serves its purpose. She\u2019s up. In a race with the sun. Off to meet crewmates at Alvey parking garage at 5:30, be out on the water by 6.<\/p>\n
Growing up in Colonial Williamsburg and on Jamestown Island, Hard was as absorbed in water as she was in history. UMW would revive her passion for both. Now a crew member and English major pursuing a master\u2019s degree in education, she hopes to teach high school, helping steer students toward their own college adventures.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such a tough and busy time of my life,\u201d Hard said of that 12th-grade transition. \u201cI want to be able to tell them, \u2018I know what you\u2019re going through. I know it\u2019s hard. You\u2019ll get through it. Let me help you.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
When she wasn\u2019t playing the snare in the Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums Corps or learning open-hearth cooking as a young volunteer, she\u2019d spend long summer days on the James River. Then the air would turn crisp, and she\u2019d go with her mother, a teacher, to help prep her second-grade classroom. Hard would play with the old-fashioned projector and sometimes, just sometimes, pretend to be a teacher, herself.<\/p>\n
In high school, instructors she touts as \u201cflawless\u201d inspired her further, fueling her love of English. A fan of\u00a0Harry Potter<\/em> and The Hunger Games,<\/em>\u00a0Hard played basketball and edited the yearbook before turning her thoughts to college. The first time she saw \u201cUMW\u201d on a T-shirt, she Googled it. She liked what she saw and scheduled not one but five visits to campus.<\/p>\n \u201cI love our community. I love that we\u2019re small,\u201d she said during an interview at the Hurley Convergence Center. \u201cI love that I have friends who walk in here and I can wave at them while we\u2019re doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n She was just meeting some of those friends when she showed up at that first Club Carnival freshman year, set to play basketball. Instead, she was coaxed into crew, where she found an unexpected camaraderie.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rowers tend to develop some pretty close relationships,\u201d said Rich Adams, who coaches the team. \u201cIt requires a lot of discipline. The people that are not so tough very quickly decide it\u2019s not the sport for them.\u201d<\/p>\n But Hard has a soft side, as well. She cried last December to miss Williamsburg\u2019s Grand Illumination, watching it live-streamed, instead, while she studied for finals. But her on-campus commitments leave little time to be homesick. She’s a resident assistant and Washington Guide who’s involved with Best Buddies. And, of course, there’s crew.<\/p>\n \u201cThe power and muscle and strength of eight girls in a boat?\u201d she said. \u201cIt blows me away.\u201d<\/p>\n English major finds passion for crew<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":19336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"umw_cb_additional_links":[[]],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_advisory_expires_time":"","_advisory_meta_include":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[150,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brand-stories","8":"category-show","9":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFind your purpose and watch your future take flight. Apply for admission to UMW today. Visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/admissions\/undergraduate\/<\/a> to learn more.<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"