Rachel has the tenacity of a bull dog wrapped in a culturally-sensitive and thoughtful mien. She always listens carefully but questions everything she's taught and makes revealing connections between sometimes obscure ideas. Rachel worked as Professor Matthew Bampton’s research assistant throughout the 2020-21 academic year and with her a quick grasp of abstractions and good writing, she contributed significantly to his work.

While one of the quietest students most of us have ever taught, Keariel consistently produces excellent, graduate-level, written work that is clear, concise, well-organized and always stunningly innovative. Little escapes her attention and her follow-up questions to any reading or classroom discussion push her professors and classmates to think more carefully or differently about an idea.

Definitely one of the most valuable experiences I had is when I could use what I learned in the classroom and apply it to a project I was passionate about. This particular project was done in collaboration with one of my cybersecurity professors, and in it we had to use GIS to help us identify what groups of people in Maine might be most susceptible to cybercrimes. It really opened my eyes to how GIS can be applied to virtually any field, especially my main concentration – cybersecurity.