"I think it’s so important to have a vision, be bold, and just to take chances and try to experiment new things. That’s so crucial: don’t pitch and hold yourself into one industry. Be fluid. Position yourself from multiple markets and multiple industries, and just have fun and enjoy the ride."

The ability to analyze, understand, and synthesize text is important [in a job like mine]. You get this from essentially every English course you take. Good writing skills are equally important, and English courses that focus on writing (language, composition, rhetoric) equip you with the writing skills to succeed in “the real world.” 

"For English majors, I would say trust yourself … Focus on the skills and the passions that can come out of you from taking a varied course load." Rachel Halpern earned a B.A. in English from UMass in 2014. She now works at Facebook as a content strategist.

"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."

"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."

"[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."