Say Hello To: Destiny Lyda

 It's time for another "Say Hello To" blog piece!

Credit to Destiny Lyda 

This week I talked to a creative writing major, Destiny Lyda. Destiny is a sophomore here at Bloom. She originally started out as a secondary education major but was quickly drawn to the creative writing track. She told me that through one of her GenEd classes, Foundations of Writing, she became more interested in the English Department and what it had to offer. Destiny explained, "I had a great professor named Dr. Costanzo who talked about English and linguistics with such a passion, it sparked something in me!" She went on to tell me that she had always had a passion for writing and she had even thought about pursuing it but never thought she could. Destiny mentioned her concern to Dr. Costanzo. From there, he encouraged her to check out the other writing classes offered at Bloomsburg and see what happened. 

But what finally tipped the scales for Destiny was after going through field experience in the education major. She realized this was something she wasn't truly passionate about, so she made the decision to follow her dream of majoring in creative writing. 

The transition from one major to the other was smooth and easy. When Destiny entered the English department, her advisor Dr. Wemple helped her navigate the new major.  He added her with picking classes and gave her access to resources and emails if there was ever a question she needed answered. At the start of Fall 2020, Destiny officially became a part of the Creative Writing track here at Bloomsburg University. She told me, "Every single English class I have taken has been the best. I have learned so much and I get to write and read to my heart's content!"

Here at BU, every department strives for student success and encourages students to share their work with many organizations on and off-campus. The English department is no exception. While Destiny and  I chatted back and forth over email, I asked her what was it about the department she liked the most. She replied that organizations like Warren, the literary magazine here at Bloom, was one of those things that she was drawn to. She also commented on the opportunities that arise for amateur writers through contests put out by the English Department or organizations like Warren. 

Destiny also told me that she cannot wait for the semesters to come. She encourages those interested in literature and writing to consider a major or minor in English.  Destiny explained at the end of our communication that she can attest firsthand that English is not just books and writing.  The English Department includes degrees in professional writing or literature. These paths can open many doors for students wishing to have a career with companies and organizations as high-quality writers or publishers. When asked about what should readers take away from this interview, Destiny replied, "There is more to an English degree than you would think. If you have even a slight interest in a class or track in the department, ask! If you want to pursue that interest, the English Department can help."

Say Hello To: Allie Diehl

Last week, I had the privilege of interviewing one of the English Department's Secondary Education majors, Allie Diehl. We chatted over email about what brought her to Bloom, her experience with the department so far, and her future plans. 

Credit to Allie Diehl 

When Allie decided to go to BU to major in secondary education English, she knew she wanted to be in the education department. Growing up, she told me about how she watched her mother’s passion for teaching and quickly decided to follow her mother’s example. Allie remembers she loved to play school, made worksheets for her “students,” and even set up her bedroom to be a makeshift classroom. Besides her obvious childhood love of all things teaching, Allie said it helped that many of her friends had taken classes and majored in education. It also helped that the BU education program is recognized as one of the best in the state.

What Allie didn’t know then was how the English Department would challenge her to improve her overall writing, critical thinking, and analysis skills.  Allie expressed this to me when she said, “I’ve only had a few classes in the department so far, but they’ve all been outstanding. Many of the professors I’ve had have left such great impressions upon me that I’ve gone out of my way to take a class with them again.”

Another aspect of the English department also prompted her to look into becoming a WALES consultant. Her curiosity peaked, Allie decided to look into what WALES’ mission was and became very interested in working there. After contacting Dr. Roggenbuck, she was informed most students are recommended to the program by faculty and the training requires a 1-credit course. Allie remembered, “Once a professor recommended me to WALES, I was so excited. I’m currently taking the training course, and I’m loving it so far. I love the principles WALES stands upon, and I’m looking forward to joining the staff this fall.”

When I asked Allie about why she choose Secondary Education over the other tracks, she told me that she wants to inspire students to become the best individuals they can be and give them a good foundation for their future. She also stressed her love of writing. She did say that she has become more interested in literature since starting college thanks to the department here at BU.

At the end of our interview, I asked about what her future goals were, Allie, said, “Not all my future students will love English the way I do, and that’s perfectly okay. My goal is to have students recognize the value in English studies and allow them to express themselves through what we do in the classroom”. She went on to say that she believes teaching students the content they need to be successful is of the utmost importance. But she stressed the importance of developing ways that were creative and impactful ways she could find that would teach her students to grow both inside and outside of the classroom. 

All credit to Allie Diehl.  

Meet Our Professors: Dr. Costanzo

Dr. Angelo Costanzo, Associate Professor of English

“My grandfather was a coal miner. He came to this country to work in the mines. He’s from Pittston. I grew up hearing about all these places, and to finally be here and doing research in them, it kind of feels like I’m meant to be here. Basically, I’m studying my grandfather. And that’s so cool.” 

Q. You studied linguistics during your undergraduate, what introduced you to this subject?
A. I’ve always been interested in languages. I got into linguistics through studying other languages; I studied Spanish for a really long time and a teacher suggested that I look into linguistics, as an undergraduate. When I started my undergraduate degree I was a major in Aerospace Engineering and I did not like that, so I went back to what I liked which was languages and linguistics.


Q. What has been your favorite course to teach so far?
A. I really like teaching History of English, because it’s the closest match up to what I’ve studied in the past. My background is mostly not in english, it’s in other languages, and I get to incorporate a lot of what I know of other languages in the History of English, because if you go back far enough a bunch of other languages used to all be one language. I also really enjoy teaching Structure of English, which I teach as kind of an introductory linguistics class.


Q. What brought you to BloomU?
A. What’s interesting is that when my family came to America they settled in this region. I was raised in Southern California, but I ended up coming back to where my family originally was from, which is kind of cool, it’s kind of come full circle. I like the area; I like Northeastern Pennsylvania. I feel like I belong here, even though I grew up some place very different from here.


Q. What projects are you currently working on? 
A. I’m working on a bunch of stuff right now, what I really want to be focusing on is a study of linguistic variation in the coal region. I have a personal connection the coal region; I like to do research wherever I am, I think it’s important to engage the community with the research. So I’m looking forward to in the future doing a lot of research in the coal region. I also have projects I’m working on based off my dissertation, which is based on Romania. So I do a lot of study of Romanian, the verb system, which is pretty boring, but I’m really excited to finally work on the coal region.


Q. What do you do in your spare time?
A. I have three children, so most of my spare time is spent with them. I enjoy cooking; I watch basketball a lot. Yeah, mostly try to spend time with my children. Every year I try to go to the Linguistic Society of America conference.


Q. If you were sponsored to travel anywhere to study linguistics for an extended period of time, where would you choose to go?
A. My favorite place, the place I’m most interested in, that I’ve spent some time in the past is the Balkans. I would love to go back to places like Macedonia and Albania, and study linguistics there. That area of the world interests me a lot. The culture is really, really interesting. It’s such a mixture...I found that was fascinating. I was lucky enough to spend some time there already; I fell in love with the area.


Q. What is your favorite thing about teaching at Bloom?
A. I think the students are great. The students are interested, they’re enthusiastic, they’re willing to mess around with language. A lot of learning linguistics is messing around, doing puzzles. I found the students here are willing to try.


Q. Do you have any visions for the linguistics program at Bloom?
A.  I want there to be more collaboration with other departments. The linguistics minor is already a collaboration between our department and Speech Pathology, I would love for there to be opportunities to make those connections stronger. I think co-teaching classes, these kinds of collaborations...We have so many interesting faculty doing so many interesting things.


Thank you to Dr. Costanzo for the interview!