Riding at Mount Holyoke is one of the best decisions you’ll ever make. It’s a community. It’s friends. It’s a team. And most importantly, it’s pursuing a passion alongside an inspiring group of people who share your love for horses. Here are 12 more reasons why.

In February 2017, you may have spotted members of the Mount Holyoke College rowing team erging for 12 hours in Blanchard Campus Center. We’ll repeat again for emphasis: erging for 12 hours. Their goal was to row 400,000 meters — and to raise funds for both Neighbors Helping Neighbors, a South Hadley food bank, and their team’s March training trip to Clemson, South Carolina. They even offered free rowing lessons to other students.

In January 2017, the prestigious American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, comprised of dancers ages 16 – 20, came to perform at Mount Holyoke. In addition to performing three shows that included U.S. and world premieres, the company also held a master class for advanced Mount Holyoke dancers.

As most players know, there comes a moment when you realize a game is lost. When you realize that time is not on your side—and that no last-ditch effort can close the gap.

Saturday, November 21, MHC rugby played for the 2016 New England Collegiate Rugby Cup for the first time in over a decade. And that moment came to me with about 15 minutes left on the clock, when we were down 30 to 7. We still continued to give it everything we had, but it was too late.

Ever since I chose Mount Holyoke, I have had a little dream stirring around in my brain. This dream was to combine my two greatest passions, journalism and horses, into a career. For a while my goal seemed almost like a fairy tale: magical to think about but nearly impossible to achieve. But thanks to my experiences at Mount Holyoke this summer, I am even closer to making my dream a reality.