Out of the Box

Don’t make any assumptions about Julia Manaraze. The humanities major can take you down in unarmed combat just as easily as she applies eyelash extensions. She chose Washington College because she wanted to explore lots of different subjects at a college close to home; a healthy tuition aid package and the Mixed Martial Arts Club clinched the deal.

 

“My dad told me he wanted me to ‘be lethal,’ says Julia, who was homeschooled in a conservative Christian household. “He started me in mixed martial arts—boxing, wrestling, Jiu Jitsu—in my second year of high school. It’s nice to be strong and feel safe, and it’s nice to challenge the common misperception that women can’t defend themselves against a bigger, stronger attacker.”

Julia’s experiences in the workplace illustrate similar juxtapositions. She has worked as an Instructional Design intern for a healthcare audit company, an English teacher for an online Chinese-based company called QKids, a dental assistant, and a janitor. She now has a part-time gig running social media marketing for Raw Combat Mid-Atlantic in Easton, and she was recently certified as an eyelash technician.

Her academic experiences are just as varied.

“I wasn’t interested in only one thing,” Julia says, “and I don’t like doing things that people automatically make assumptions about it. I like economics and art. I like English and philosophy. And I found through an internship I did one summer that I really like business. After graduation I plan to work for a couple of years and then enroll in an MBA program.”

 Until then, Julia will focus on her Senior Capstone thesis, for which she will use Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” to explore present-day interpretations of Biblical concepts such as environmental stewardship, virtue ethics, and the fecundity of reproduction. “That text has everything I need for a thesis.”