Talent and Learning Development
What year did you graduate? What majors/minors did you have?
Answer: I graduated in 2013, majoring in English and Secondary Education.
Where did the English degree take you?
Answer: Although I went to SUNY Oswego with the goal of being a teacher, I completed my degree with more questions than certainties. So, I applied to PhD programs,
which led me to the University of Iowa. While there, I completed my doctoral studies, where I also gained invaluable experience outside my coursework understanding how people achieve a sense of belonging - especially those of us who hold oppressed and underestimated identities. While I did hold a teaching position for a year after finishing my dissertation, I have now since transitioned to an adjacent role in Learning and Talent Development. It's a field of work that blends my love of research, storytelling, and empowering others to co-create the world in which they and others can thrive.
What from your English classes shapes how you engage in the world today?
Answer: How to ask questions in a way that does not invalidate the story at hand, but rather makes sense of the story alongside my own. To be a person in the world is confusing and messy and so many other things. It is invaluable to be able to hold two truths at once, and to be curious about how and where those truths overlap, diverge, and provide clarity during even the murkiest of times.
What do you especially remember from the major?
Answer: I remember many things, but especially important to me was the mentorship from two of my professors: Maureen Curtin and Patrick Murphy. Maureen spent many hours with me, helping shape my voice as a writer and a changemaker. Perhaps most importantly, Maureen was my first teacher in how to listen to understand. Pat had the arduous responsibility of leading the Friday Discussion Group I was in with a few other colleagues. That discussion group was a space to experiment with ideas and gain confidence speaking through complex ideas. Pat was the first teacher who gave me permission to study stories about my life as a queer person struggling through shame.
Tell us about the challenges you face(d) after graduation (getting a job, etc). How did you navigate those challenges?
Answer: The biggest challenge has been getting back to confidence with my voice. There have been many competing narratives about what I should do and be: be a teacher, be a professor, go back to school, write in this way about these things, want these things etc. When you're not in school, it can be easier to let those currents take you where others say you should go. Recently, however, I've been reflecting on the lessons I learned in places like Oswego in an effort to return to my stories and my truth.