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Behind the Scenes with Isabella Regan '27

"I told my mom I wanted to be an actress when I was two," she says with a laugh. "So, when I got accepted into Rice, I committed immediately."

Now a junior, Isabella has woven herself deeply into Rice's humanities and arts community. She is pursuing a major in English and creative writing along with a minor in theater and a certificate in Spanish. "The humanities have always been important to me," she explains. "They offer so many ways to express what being human means to me, and they help me understand what it means to others."

At Rice, Isabella has embraced the performance and production sides of theater. She has performed in "Comedy of Errors" with the Rice Theater Department and "Twelve Angry Jurors"with the student-run Rice Players. Behind the scenes, she has also taken on technical roles, including stage management and design. "Every time I try something new in theater, I fall in love with it and add it to my list of things I want to do professionally," she says.

For Isabella, the connections she's made at Rice have been just as meaningful as the creative opportunities. "It really does feel like a family," she shares. "I have professors who know me by name, who show up to support me even when they aren't teaching, and friends across colleges who feel like family. For students far from home, like me, it means everything to have that support system."

Scholarship support has been an essential part of her journey. Isabella received the Barbara Chilton Long Memorial Award in Theatre, which provided funding that supported a transformative summer abroad at the Rice Global Paris Center. "It was an amazing opportunity," she says. "I studied Romanticism and got to learn in museums and historic sites around Paris — places I'd only read about. That experience was a turning point that deepened my passion for the humanities and reaffirmed my aspirations in life."

As she looks to the future, Isabella is excited to keep creating. "I want to pursue theater professionally — acting, stage management, design — and I also want to be an author," she says. "Because of the support I've received, I've been able to build the foundation for the career I dream about."