March 2017: Student Spotlight featuring Luke Hensley
On English and Humanities
Luke onstage as Phil in Lagan
Senior English and Humanities double major Luke Hensley has chosen to finish his undergraduate career with a big workload, both in and outside of the classroom. In addition to taking 21 credits (7 classes), Luke appeared in the American premiere of Stacey Gregg’s Lagan at Vasey Theater, where he played Phil, a chain-smoking, lovesick teenager from Belfast, Ireland. He was one of two undergraduates cast in the performance, and it was his third show on the graduate school stage. He hopes one day to translate his passion for theatre into directing high school students in his capacities as an English teacher.
Luke traveled to Dallas at the end of February to compete in the 2017 Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Championship, where he and four other Villanova teammates debated against other premier universities about some of the most pressing ethical questions of our time. This is Luke’s third year with the team and his first time qualifying for the National Championship bracket. He will be personally tasked with researching and presenting arguments on topics as wide ranging as environmental preservation, abortion laws, international diplomacy, and even NCAA student-athlete policies.
Meanwhile, Luke has allotted two of his seven classes to preparing himself for his future career path. He is currently serving as a Teaching Assistant under Dr. Jean Lutes, a role that will allow him to observe the teaching process firsthand while simultaneously earning him the opportunity to teach a class of freshman students on Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Shakespeare’s Othello. Luke is also in the process of writing an Honors Thesis on Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, and the French philosopher Henri Bergson as he pursues his passion for academia, his second career choice after teaching high school. Completing the thesis will allow Luke to graduate with a third “Honors” degree which, combined with summa cum laude distinction, should make him a competitive applicant in either graduate school or the workforce.This summer Luke intends to return home to Silver Spring, Maryland to immediately begin teaching in underprivileged Baltimore or D.C. area schools. He believes that firsthand experience with some of America’s most disadvantaged students will provide him some much-needed perspective as he advances in his career as an educator. After some time as a teacher Luke hopes to attend master’s school and eventually earn a Ph.D. in modern American fiction.
