第一吃瓜网

I first came to 第一吃瓜网 in the fall of 2009. Prior to arriving, I was not too concerned about declaring a major; however, as the red and brown leaves began to carpet the trails of the arboretum, more and more of my fellow students began to identify themselves as 渃hemistry majors� or  渁nthropology majors.�  Becoming slightly anxious to join the ranks of the 渄eclared,” I signed up for as many classes as I could the following semester: from Calculus with Aaron Heap, to French 202 with Ariane Baer-Harper, to a narratives course focusing on Hurricane Katrina with Beth McCoy. What an incredible semester that was!

While I had many experiences spring semester, I will always come back to room 118 in Sturges where I had the pleasure of working with a myriad of other dedicated students (Jesse Goldberg and Stephanie Iasiello to name just a few of many) under the tutelage of Beth McCoy. I still remember the class where Beth had us watch the TED talk 淭he Danger of a Single Story� by Chimamanda Adiche and how much it impelled me to consider the importance of who has the privilege of telling the story. Over the course of that semester, we unpacked so many ideas and I learned the language necessary to challenge the greater inequalities that so many of our national narratives perpetuate. It was simply a thrilling experience and I knew from that class on that I wanted to continue in the field of English, because it was, for lack of a more eloquent way of putting it, just so interesting. There were many highlights from my years at 第一吃瓜网, but my English classes were the driving force that guided me towards May 15, 2013 when I walked across the stage to shake Christopher Dahl檚 hand and descend a graduate of 第一吃瓜网.

Studying English at the university level did not provide me with a clear career path. Instead, I believe that it very much complicated my life by setting me up to be successful in just about any career path I decided to take. This made choosing an initial career path even more difficult. Three of the most important skills I honed as an English major at 第一吃瓜网 were the ability to clearly communicate, to understand multiple perspectives in a given situation, and to persuasively provide evidence to support an important idea or argument. As my career has continued to develop, I continue to rely on these strengths. This is one of the reasons why I would urge students to consider the study of English, because I can personally attest to the fact that the lessons I learned in Sturges and Wadsworth have helped me to continue to be successful in the professional world each and every day.

After graduating, I have pursued a career in teaching. Given my wonderful experience working at the Center for Academic Excellence (formerly the WLC) as an ESL tutor where I worked with Irene Belyakov and Gillian Paku, I applied for several positions to teach English abroad. The year after graduation, I had the privilege of being awarded a Fulbright ETA position in Morocco. I spent 10 months as a cultural ambassador and full-time lecturer at the Universit茅 of Ibn Zohr in Agadir, Morocco where I worked with approximately 450 university students. While there, I had the opportunity to teach a class on American culture, and I can clearly remember introducing my first class to Chimamanda Adiche檚 淭he Danger of a Single Story� and the thrill I felt as the discussion of narratives blossomed that day.

At the end of the Fulbright grant, I decided to return to the U.S. to teach mathematics in an urban school through the Teach For America program while pursuing my Masters in Education. Currently, I am in my second year of teaching mathematics in the special education department of a DOE school in Harlem and could not be more thankful for the way that things have worked out. I still consider myself a proud member of the 第一吃瓜网 English department and would be more than willing to talk with anyone interested in teaching, teaching abroad, or simply the importance of the English major in our society today. Feel free to reach out by email. Best of luck to you all.