During spring break, many USC students relaxed on a beach somewhere, trying to forget that books ever existed. Elizabeth Cook is different. While classmates crafted their tans, she was hard at work inside the Rockefeller Library in Colonial Williamsburg, Va.

Cook is a senior with a double major in history and theater and a minor in business. This semester, she chose to take a class for history honors students researching and writing their undergraduate theses. When choosing a topic, Cook managed to combine her three main areas of academic interest and wound up studying theatres as businesses in 18th-century Williamsburg.

When asked about her choice of subject matter, Cook becomes quite animated, explaining that she got into theatre management because “everybody thinks of theatre as strictly art, and nobody knows how to run it like a business. But I found out I had a knack for the business side.” It seemed natural, then, to mix in her historical interests and consider how early Americans made their theatres profitable.

Why did she sign up for this class? In a semester when most seniors slip into low gear, Cook and her classmates are working on the most challenging project of their undergraduate years.

In part, her motivation was that she needed a written piece to submit as part of her graduate school applications. “Instead of a slapdash paper for class, I’d rather submit something substantial,” she said. “But when I got into [the project], I started to realize that this is a topic nobody has ever done before. And that’s really exciting.”

For Cook, this is much more than just a research project – it’s a passion. She belongs to a Facebook group titled “People Who Argue About the Relative Merits of the Founding Fathers.” When her cell phone goes off during an interview, its ring tone is a fife and drum.

And how does Cook see her future? She is not quite certain what will come after her Ph.D., but she’s keeping an eye on Williamsburg. The former British colony now operates as a living history program in which actors re-create the town as it would have been in the 18th century – to the delight of tourists and visitors. “I would love to take over Williamsburg,” Cook said with a smile. “Getting people engaged in real history – it’s one of my pet projects.”

Do you know of someone who takes undergraduate research and learning beyond classroom walls? If so, please e-mail Professor Mark Kann at mkann@usc.edu to suggest a feature for this column.