N: Sugarloaf, Pennsylvania. I’ve lived there all my life.
Q: What is your major?
N: English in Secondary Education. I’m minoring in psychology.
Q: What year are you?
N: A senior.
Q: What are your literary strengths?
N: I think I’m strong at analyzing literature through different lenses, mainly through psychological and historical lenses. Feminist lenses - I’m pretty strong with as well. I just like writing for different purposes, too. I think understanding symbolism in literature is somewhere that I’m particularly strong.
Q: Favorite books, shows, or genres?
N: I really like The Great Gatsby. I used to carry [a Great Gatsby bag] around all the time. I’m trying to think - Pride and Prejudice. I like - it’s hard to choose just a couple. I really like Brave New World. Pretty much any dystopian literature, I really like. 1984. And now that I’m teaching it, I love The Crucible. I mean, I loved it before I taught it, but now - yeah, it’s even better because you get to share the things that you like about the literature with the kids and with everybody else. It’s great.
Q: Why did you become an English major?
N: I became an English major because I thought that would be my favorite thing to teach. Like, my two biggest loves are singing and writing, so I wanted to be able to teach writing. I knew I wanted to teach; it was more of deciding what I wanted to teach. For a while I entertained being a choral director, but I decided maybe that was not a good idea… one, because I’m not the best at reading music - I’m okay at it, but not good enough to be a choral director, or a music major, because that stuff is hard. Plus, I’d have to learn how to play an instrument, and - [laughs] We’re not going down that path.
Q: What is your favorite English class you’ve ever taken?
N: I think I have to say my all-time favorite class - the class that inspired me to become a teacher - was my second grade class. It wasn’t really an English class at the time because it was general, covering all subjects, but, yeah. My teacher I had really inspired me and I went to visit her years after that, until she retired and I graduated. So, yeah - that’s probably my favorite class because it brought me to my current path.
Q: What organizations are you part of?
N: I’m a WALES consultant, and I’m the president of NCTE. I’m the co-president of Kappa Delta Pi. I am in Sigma Tau Delta [the English honors society]; I am also in Phi Kappa Phi. Technically I’m in student PSEA - I have the membership and everything. I haven’t been to a meeting in a while, but that’s besides the point. And, I used to be in the history club and in women’s choir as well. I was in acapella choir.
Q: What do you like to write about, formally and informally?
N: Well, I really like to write any sort of psychological analysis, like I said, but also I love writing about - about writing! [laughs] Writing center pedagogy, like that, and the larger conversations that scholars are having about writing. I hope to be a part of that one day. In terms of stuff that I just like to write in my free time, I like to write poetry. I usually write poetry as a release or expression of my feelings. I feel like a lot of people wouldn’t expect the kind of poetry that I write. [laughs] It’s - I mean, in my opinion, it’s not particularly good. It’s poetry, I guess, and it’s dark. But I enjoy it as well.
Q: What would the title of a book about you be?
N: If it was about me… I guess, if I was going for a one-word title, I would put Trying. Cause, like, I think one of the most characteristic things about me is that I don’t stop trying. I really care about everything, so I’m always trying. Yeah, maybe like: The Art of Trying. I think that’s what I would title it.
Q: What’s your dream job?
N: Well, I guess I would get a little taste of both of the jobs that are my dream jobs, because my dream job for the longest time was to be a high school English teacher. But then, I also want to be a professor, so I don’t know if that would be down the line, I could teach writing. [Or like a director of a writing center;] that’d be cool. And I would also like to write stuff that gets published - all sorts of stuff. If I could publish both writing center pedagogy - but also poetry - that would be fine. Hopefully my poetry would get a little better. I’ve never taken a poetry class… but yet, I keep writing it. [laughs]
Q: Any advice for incoming freshmen or students who are interested in taking more English courses?
N: Well, of course, I would say, “Go for it!” I would tell them that taking English classes helps you understand who you are. You might think you know, but then you find out that you don’t, really, and things that you think are important about yourself, you might find later that they’re not. They’re not - or they’ve changed. I think through reading and bringing yourself to encounter a piece - and really responding to it - as well as writing and expressing your actual thoughts about what you read or just any topic in general could really help you find your path. Find your actual voice that often gets kind of lost in the voices of others.
No comments:
Post a Comment