MaKayla Denise Lorick, Class of 2020

MaKayla Lorick, from Clinton, Md., is an English major and a Creative Writing minor who has taken full advantage of the many varied opportunities that have been available for her at W&L. She has been an intern with the literary magazine Shenandoah, a Summer Research Scholar with history professor Ted DeLaney, and a Digital Humanities Fellow.

Since last summer, MaKayla has been working on a project that is funded by the Associated Colleges of the South and is in collaboration with Centre College, Furman University, and Rollins College. The project’s goal is to create a shared online digital archive relating to the history of desegregation at the collaborating institutions. MaKayla has collected oral histories from African-American alumni, faculty, and staff who were at Washington and Lee in the mid-1960s when the university integrated, and she has developed a website where her interviews and other materials help tell the story about that period of our history.

MaKayla served as a member of the search committee for the Dean of the College and was among students who helped evaluate candidates for the Director of Inclusion and Engagement. She served as president of both the Student Association for Black Unity and the Tau Zeta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She has been a member of the Working Group on the History of African Americans at W&L.

MaKayla won the Emerging Leader of the Year Award in 2016, the John M. Evans English Scholarship in 2017, and the Alexander Thomas Boehling Class of 2010 Memorial Award that honors seniors for their campus leadership.

MaKayla will complete her degree requirements in December and intends to pursue a Ph.D. in English in the future. I would be remiss if I didn’t add that MaKayla’s daughter, Zara, may be as well known on campus as MaKayla.

Sources: file, personal information
Written by: Jeff Hanna, jhanna@wlu.edu
Updated: May 22, 2019