From college pause to PhD graduate (opens in new tab)

Growing up in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Sara Crance was taught early on that community was everything.Her hometown of Ironton, Ohio, had a population of just over 10,500 in the 2020 census. That’s less than half of the number of students graduating from Arizona State University alongside her this May.In such a tight-knit place, people look out for one another, and as she got older, Crance inherited this sense of responsibility.