Rachel Hubly can be easily spotted by her quirky, short hairdo and her Zenni green frames.
The 23-year-old has changed her major since starting college, but her ambitions never veered too far off course.
“It had always been a rule in my family that you had to do a musical instrument for at least a year,” she said. “I started doing piano and singing…so that got me into show choir.”
She planned to major in musical performance education in Tucson because she also really enjoyed teaching. Hubly had it all planned out, and was supposed to graduate early, when she decided to help a middle school choir teacher with choreography. This led to a dance class, a transfer and taking quite a risk.
When she arrived at New Mexico State University, Hubly made the leap from music to dance, with a minor in physical education, and joined the university’s Dance Sport Company.
Around this time, she injured her ankle, yet continued to try and push herself. After about nine months, doctors figured all the continued strain (overextension in ballet, heels in Dance Sport) bruised the bone and wore out the cartilage connecting her leg and foot.
Resigned to her fate, Hubly changed dance to a minor, quit the team momentarily and switched to a major in Applied Mathematics.
“Currently, I’m the dance director at Gym Magic,” she said. “Right now I teach dance to little kids. I just love that age where they’re curious and still exploring.”
Hubly is also a private math tutor mostly for college students. Even with these older students, she said the best part of the job is seeing them understand and occasionally learn to like the subject.
Her future isn’t set in stone, but inspiring students to discover new parts of themselves will always be Hubly’s motivation, wherever she ends up.
Photo by Chris Hubly during the Manhattan Amateur Classic