Rachel is originally from Texas, but moved to Amherst, Massachusetts for her B.A. studies. She finished her degree in German and History at Amherst College in 2010. In 2011, Rachel received the Internationales Parlaments-Stipendium and for five months interned at the Bundestag for the Green Party.  With funding from DAAD, from 2011-2012 she conducted an independent research project on the Cuban contract workers in the GDR. Since the fall of 2012, she has been enrolled in the Global History program and is particularly interested in the Black Atlantic, the construction of identity, diasporic cultures, and the role of supranational organizations in global and national politics.