What to Do with an English Major 2009
Every year we ask our graduating seniors what their post-GW future looks to be: the class of 2008 reported here, and 2007 here. Here are some of the replies we’ve received from the class of 2009. We are very proud of our majors, and wish them the best of luck no matter what the years ahead bring.
Next year I will be working as a Staff Writer for the Washington Business Journal to pay the bills while I continue to submit short fiction pieces and my Honors Thesis for publication … MFA program at Iowa … I hope to work for AmeriCorps’ Community Health Corps program in a city to be determined. Seattle and San Francisco are top choices. Following that, ideally I will get an MS in Disability Studies from University of Illinois Chicago, an idea inspired by my work with GW English Profs Robert McRuer and Todd Ramlow. And then perhaps a law degree and work in disability advocacy … Law school! I was accepted to five … I’m doing an Americorps program in Boston called “Cityyear” where I tutor inner city elementary school children in the crowded public school system. It’s a year long program, after which I’ll hopefully decide what I would like to pursue next … I was hired by Samuel French, Inc., one of the largest play publishers in the world. I am currently working in their New York City Office, assisting the contracts manager, the managing editor and, occasionally, the accounting department (they apparently didn’t get the memo that I was an English Major.) I’m drawing up contracts, speaking with agents and authors, and I’m also working on putting together a book of monologues for the company … MFA program at the University of Maryland … Ultimately I want to be able to have a job where I’m excited to go into work [nearly] every day, and still have the time I need to be able to write. Eventually I hope to be able to just write. And not starve … Temple grad school, M.A. Creative Writing … As for the future, I may return to GW for another degree, and I have a secret dream/research project that may someday become a class at GW. I’m in DC for life, I love it here and everything that the city has to offer. Being a GW student opened my eyes to many opportunities in my own home here and I hope to share that love and sense of adventure and make a difference in the world. I’m not sure what I want to do yet but I am confident that I will figure it out … I will be a teaching assistant and residential camp counselor at University of Virginia for a high school writing program … Columbia University! … I’m working for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth as a Resistant Assistant (I heard about the program through the wonderful English listserv!!). Then, in the fall, I’ll hopefully be working at a boarding school…teaching English!! After that, I plan on getting my Master’s in Rhetoric and Composition (ideally at U. of Wisconsin-Madision). This will help me get into publishing…(fingers crossed!) Hopefully, all goes well! … I’m going to Michigan State University for an MA-PhD program in English, fully-funded It’s interdisciplinary (a.k.a. way cool) and I’ll get to research American literature and Politics of the Middle East, and hopefully will get to learn better Arabic in the process … Right now, it looks like I will be going to University College London to get a masters in International Public Policy. But, yesterday I found out that I made it to the last round of the foreign service exam, the oral examination, so if by some grace of God I pass it, that’s what I’ll do! … I will be doing Teach For America next year; I am teaching secondary English in Prince George’s County, Maryland … I have been accepted into law school and so three years of studying intellectual property are ahead …
