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When Kate Vavra ’26 looks back on her ���챬�� journey, she sees a common theme: “Mount Holyoke taught me that I was capable of doing hard things,” she said. That understanding of her innate grit has led Vavra to expand her definition of what she’s capable of, leading her to fill leadership roles on campus and beyond.

Vavra played tennis in high school and was recruited to Mount Holyoke as a student-athlete. She knew she wanted to play tennis, preferably on a close-knit team like the one at Mount Holyoke, but Vavra chose the College for its renowned International Relations program. “I knew that [international relations] was something I wanted to study from the get-go,” she said.

And while she never strayed from that plan, she added French as a second major in her sophomore year. “I loved that there were many different opportunities within the French department and that there were so many different kinds of classes to take, from film to literature to culture,” she said.

When Helen Day Gould Professor of French Samba Gadjigo encouraged her to study in France, Vavra worried that she might not be able to navigate university-level classes in French. Gadjigo reassured her, and she took the leap, enrolling at Paul-Valéry University Montpellier. She excelled in her politics, French literature and international business classes. “It was definitely a hard experience adapting to a whole different part of the world, but it was very fulfilling that I was able to thrive in a very different environment,” she said.

Over and over again, Mount Holyoke has taught Vavra that she can thrive in any circumstance. When she signed up for Associate Professor of Politics Adam Hilton’s Research Methods class, she was worried that she might find the course too technical. “I ended up enjoying the process so much that I decided to do an honors thesis,” she said.

For her thesis, she chose to examine agricultural data because COVID-19-related market shifts distorted economic data on Brexit. In her thesis, she examines how Brexit affected agricultural exports from European Union member states. “Agricultural data is generally more stable than other types of economic data,” she said. Vavra hopes that her examination of trade data before, during and after Brexit will contribute to existing literature on the economic effects of the UK’s exit from the European Union. “[Writing a] thesis hasn’t been the easiest process, but it’s been very rewarding,” she says, adding that the support she received from Associate Professor of International Relations and Politics Christopher Mitchell, her thesis advisor, helped her tackle what might otherwise have felt like an overwhelming challenge.

But she has not only developed inside the classroom; she’s also discovered a new respect for her resilience outside it. As publisher of Mount Holyoke News, she manages the publication, printing and distribution of the paper. In the summers, she interned at Harvard Law School’s Legal Services Center. She learned to work hard even in difficult circumstances when one of her clients had a court appearance shortly after Vavra had her wisdom teeth removed. She remembers sitting on the couch, puffy-cheeked and sore, drafting a hearing memo while feeling a tiny bit sorry for herself. Although she was fueled by nothing but apple sauce, “it ended up being a very good written piece of work that I’m very proud of,” she said.

And when she looks back at her Mount Holyoke tenure, she can’t ignore the grit she developed on the tennis court. “A moment on the tennis court that made me especially proud of my ability to do hard things was when I won my singles match against the highest-ranked team in Puerto Rico,” she remembered. They were two hours into the match in100-degree weather. They each had a set, so it was winner-take-all. “In the tiebreak, I lost the opening point only to lock in and win the next ten consecutive points to close out the match,” she said.

Vavra was disappointed when Mount Holyoke ended its varsity tennis program in May 2024. But, she decided to do what she’d done so many times as a Mount Holyoke student: She embraced the challenge of building a tennis club. “We currently have more than 100 members, and it allows more people to enjoy the sport and utilize our facilities,” she said. Vavra hopes the club will continue to grow after she graduates.

As she looks toward the future, she’s looking for a job at a law firm, but she wants to explore the types of law that interest her before applying to law school. One thing she does know is that she’ll choose an area of law in which she can help people. Whatever path she chooses, she knows she’ll be resilient enough to handle the challenges along the way.