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."
Emily Cerri '19
"My English major is kind of my saving grace. I love being an English major."
Emily is currently finishing an honors thesis that analyzes the action role-playing video game NIER. Her project looks at gender and sexuality in NIER and uses queer theory to show how the game critiques traditional fairy tales.
Syki Barbee '20
"I am an African American woman, who has an invisible disability and is married to a Puerto Rican woman. I would have loved to read characters who I could see myself in, but unfortunately, I didn’t get that. So, I want to help create that space for people like me."
Rachel Halpern '14
"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.
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."