Profiles

Kristen Forscher '18
"[T]he research skills that I learned from both the English major and PWTC have made every challenge a little less daunting. Thanks to the program, I know how to write for an audience—my job now is to find out what exactly that audience knows and more importantly, what they don’t know."

Rachel Halpern '14
"For English majors, I would say trust yourself. Trust that you know what you’re doing. … Focus on the skills and the passions that can come out of you from taking a varied course load. … If you’re still exploring what you really want to do with your English major, take the time to try a bunch of different things and decide."

Gwendolyn Gustavson '09
"Go live in the real world. Seriously. It will give you a tremendous sense of perspective, and help you both survive law school and perform better as an attorney. Lawyers are called “counselor” for a reason: we are supposed to counsel our clients. To do that, you need empathy, understanding, and an ability to see the big picture."

Rebecca Tarr Thomas '10
"The joke about being an English major ending up as a well-spoken homeless person is stupid. There are so many opportunities available to people with the ability to communicate clearly: it’s a rarer skill than you may imagine, and remarkably valuable in many fields. But you need to go looking for it; you have to start by giving yourselves the marketable skills to succeed."

Yashika Issrani '20
"The English Department is phenomenal … I appreciate that the professors are accessible and the rest of the department is also easy to approach. The Department makes many efforts to support students, especially through career-related events."

Tess Halpern '19
"I just knew that I loved to write and wanted to keep practicing and pushing myself as a writer. ... I am pursuing a specialization in the Study and Practice of Writing (SPOW). ... The classes I’ve taken for SPOW are some of the best English classes I’ve taken, and they have definitely given me the most marketable skills."

Warren Charleston '19
"English classes offer so much room for discussion and critical thought, and when I joined the English major, I immediately felt that. I felt like my voice was heard, and that I was more than just a number."