Rebecca Franklin

Rebecca comes to academic advising with a rich and varied background in higher education, having served in admissions, as an Upward Bound advisor, and as a freshman composition instructor before joining the advising team at Virginia Tech. Her work in Upward Bound gave her a deep appreciation for the unique challenges facing first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students, and that commitment to equitable, personalized support has shaped her advising philosophy ever since. She holds both a bachelor's and master's degree in English, and believes that background in close reading, critical thinking, and communication has made her a more thoughtful listener and guide for her students. Whether she's helping a student navigate a course plan or think through what comes after graduation, Rebecca brings the same intentionality to every conversation.

Rebecca believes advising is most powerful when it starts with genuine listening, understanding not just where a student is academically, but where they hope to go and what might be getting in the way. Grounded in the advising as teaching philosophy, she especially loves working with students on course planning, career exploration, and those bigger, sometimes harder questions about life after graduation, helping them see that the path forward doesn't have to be perfectly straight to still lead somewhere meaningful. Her approach is rooted in the belief that students already have more clarity and capability than they often give themselves credit for, and her job is simply to help them find it.

Outside of work, Rebecca is a proud mom and loves spending time with her husband and daughter. She also has a genuine love of cooking and is always experimenting in the kitchen, whether that means trying a new recipe or putting her own spin on an old favorite. When she is not in the kitchen, you can find her curled up with a good book or diving into a video game, and she will be the first to tell you that both count as a perfectly valid way to spend a weekend.