Contact:
Mike Ferlazzo
570-577-3212
570-238-6266 (c)
mike.ferlazzo@bucknell.edu
LEWISBURG, Pa. (December 18, 2025) – Quincy Saadeh ’27 fell in love with acting at a young age. She started out her career in commercials for brands like BODYARMOR and GoGo SqueeZ. As a teenager, she found herself drawn to the complicated roles offered by indie film projects and horror movies. “I really like to challenge myself by pursuing roles that are the opposite of who I am,” says Saadeh, an English — literary studies and early childhood education double-major from Westfield, N.J. “Playing a role allows me to understand someone different from me on a deeper, more profound level.”
When she arrived at Bucknell, Saadeh quickly found that literature inspired the very same feelings that acting did. A seminar in ancient history and Greek classics exposed her to the enduring power of compelling narratives and strong characters. Then, a course in young adult fiction, taught by Professor Virginia Zimmerman, English, revealed the critical role that stories play in shaping a person’s understanding of the world and themselves.
“Reading children’s literature from the perspective of an adult is what made me want to pursue education,” says Saadeh. By examining works like Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time and Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X, she was prompted to consider how books introduce children to new ideas, perspectives and lived experiences. “Reading is such an impactful way of teaching children about the world, and I want to pursue a career that recognizes that.”
While her education major has given her the resources to understand better how literature shapes both culture and childhood development, it’s her literary studies courses that have supplied her with the skills to analyze the formal elements of literature and the contemporary publishing landscape. This is especially true in her internship with West Branch, a nationally recognized literary magazine published by the Stadler Center for Poetry & Literary Arts.
As an editorial intern, Saadeh performs close readings of short fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. Every week, she meets with her fellow classmates to discuss the formal elements of each submission and to decide how to construct the upcoming issue of the magazine. “Bucknell’s reputation for creative writing is one of the things that originally brought me here,” she says. “I’m very privileged to be able to offer my opinions on unpublished pieces of literature and participate in the editorial process.”
Saadeh’s experience with West Branch has opened up the possibility of pursuing a career in publishing, and her education studies have shown her a future in which she introduces young readers to the transformative power of the arts. She can imagine herself in either role. And that’s what acting has prepared her for. It’s one of the reasons she’s so drawn to literature in the first place. “You’re able to use your imagination to enter a world or a life that isn’t your own,” she says. “With acting, but with reading too — I can step into a role and better understand other people and myself.”
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