Rachel Spencer (formerly Rachel Blum) married Jordan Spencer in July 2010 and moved to Arlington, Virginia. Originally, she hails from Denver, Colorado, and  recently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Theory from Patrick Henry College. Rachel was a highschool debater with aspirations to political office when she came to Patrick Henry College. Thankfully, she took courses out of order and registered for introduction to political theory her first semester. The ensuing two semesters with Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Augustine, the social contract theorists, and Alexis de Tocqueville resulted in a “turned head” and an insatiable desire to learn more about the permanent things.

Outside of coursework, Rachel constantly seeks different venues in which to engage with ideas and to increase the breadth of her experiences. In 2008-2009, Rachel was an Honors’ Fellow with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. That same year she travelled to France (where she enjoyed local markets, walkable cities, and good manners) and studied for part of the summer at the University of Strasbourg. This fall, Rachel will begin pursuing her PhD in Political Theory at Georgetown University. She spends the rest of her time running on outdoor trails, cooking from scratch, and reading about human nature, distributism, and anything to do with Augustine. She is thrilled to work as FPR’s managing editor.