As a double major in English and Print Journalism, I am often faced with the question: What are you going to do after graduation?

The answer . . . I don’t know.

What I do know is that I’ve been collecting skills and racking up experiences to fill my resume so that when I finally do figure out that question I’ll hopefully have a skill set that allows me to be anywhere I want.

Academically I have been involved with the Penn State Marketing Association, was a sales representative at Victoria’s Secret, a summer camp counselor and spent a semester as a Teaching Assistant. Currently I work for the College of Agricultural Sciences as a writer (Thanks to the wonderful Liz Jenkins!), am involved in the Penn State Public Relations Student Society of America, Peers Helping Reaffirm Educate and Empower and also I am an Event Planning Intern with New Leaf Initiative.

I have taken classes on Photoshop and InDesign and am currently taking a Web Design and a Photojournalism class. I am told again and again that I have to be as useful as possible to potential employers, a goal that I work as hard as I physically can to achieve.

However, since I was little, I can remember I have always loved magazines. I always begged my mom to buy them for me on trips to the grocery store. The glossy pages filled with beautiful people I wanted to meet and places I wanted to go.

Those few times she said “yes,” caused me so much happiness trying to describe it might be embarrassing. But, I would spend hours a day paging through my newest prize. Eventually I started actually reading the magazines and fell even more in love.

I wanted a job working for a magazine, but getting an internship with one was another story. After looking at various magazines I wanted to work at, I discovered that applying and accepting a position just wasn’t going to happen. I felt hopeless. I simply could not afford to relocate and then work for little or nothing. I would not have survived.

But then my father told me to apply for Philadelphia Magazine. I could commute in and would still be able to live at home. I don’t know why I thought New York was the only place magazines came from, but it was . . .

. . . Perfect!

I applied and after some initial disappointment I was told that I could apply to intern over my winter break. I had to write a mock blog entry, take two fact checking tests and do an interview to see if I was qualified for the job. But, I did end up getting the job. I was thrilled to finally be able to work for a magazine as prestigious as Philly Magazine!

I spent the majority of my time fact checking, but I also had the opportunity to do some light research for one of the writers and transcribed interviews for two others.

The atmosphere was usually quiet and I sat in a cubical, but everyone was super friendly, I felt like I was a part of a family there. Ironically there were also more than a few Penn State graduates working there. We Are . . .

The only thing about the experience that I didn’t like was that it was so short.

“Take what you can get,” my mom said, and so I did. If I had stayed longer I may have been able to write something for the magazine or one of their blogs. The writing experience would have been an incredible confidence boost, but I can’t complain. I learned that I would be happy to work for a magazine again in the future, and if I get the opportunity to be on staff at one, I will JUMP at the chance.

But – if I don’t. I think I could be happy working in a publishing house, a public relations firm, a nonprofit or something else I haven’t discovered yet. Opportunities abound for English and Journalism majors you just have to put in some work and find them! The key is being versatile.