Liberal Arts Voices

Read the perspectives of our current students

Calling all Freshmen and Sophomores in Search of an Amazing (fully-funded) Summer in the United Kingdom!

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Have at least two years of undergraduate study left to complete? Interested in spending three to six weeks in an academic and cultural summer program in the UK?

This opportunity is for you! 

The nine Summer Programs available for US students in 2015 are:

Applications due February 26th

Applications due March 5th

The US-UK Fulbright Commission funds first and second year American students to take part in one of nine summer institutes in the UK. This includes airfare, accommodation, tuition and fees, meals and could also include a small daily stipend. Applications are due February 26th and March 5th depending on which program you choose.

With nine programs to choose from, there is a topic for every liberal arts student!

For more information visit the University Fellowships Office.

Any questions can be directed to Jacqueline Smith, Global Experiences Coordinator (jds54@psu.edu).

As You Like It at the American Shakespeare Center

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Students in English 197H took a trip to Staunton, Virginia to the American Shakespeare Center. There they saw a production of the play “As You Like It”. Here is one student’s account of the trip and the production. 

By: Anna Lombardo

A basic and widely understood requirement that must be met before attending a performance of a Shakespearean play is to understand what type of play is about to be performed. Someone who sits down in a theater expecting to see a comedy is likely to be disappointed upon witnessing the tragic cascade of dishonesty and murder that marks Shakespeare’s Othello. It’s important to recognize the literary template upon which a play performance is based in order to gain a fuller theatrical experience of that particular play (though as our viewing of Othello proved, some adaptations of the tragedies can have their funny moments).

When I sat down at the American Shakespeare Center (ASC) in Staunton, Virginia, to watch As You Like It, I already knew the story was a comedy. There were even times in my reading of the play when I unexpectedly laughed out loud, a reaction that admittedly few pieces of writing are able to induce—especially works from the 1600s that are written in Old English. However, one of the great aspects of the performance of As You Like It was how much funnier those already humorous scenes became when they were delivered by the ASC performers.

There are two reasons why I think the play was rendered so much more amusingly during the live performance. The first has to do with the relationships between not so much the characters, but the actors and actresses themselves. I sensed a real chemistry between the members of the cast that seemed to lend itself to a more enjoyable viewing experience. This goes beyond the simple matter of finding a good character fit for a part; I noticed the cast members smiling or laughing at the manner of delivery of another actor or actress in a way that seemed slightly out of character for the former. Their “out of character” behavior provided an atmosphere of playfulness and even informality that allowed the audience to feel comfortable and free to laugh. In comparison, many Shakespeare plays today—even comedies—maintain an undertone of tragedy or intense sophistication that unfortunately appears to have become standard for the famous playwright’s works. ASC’s version was refreshingly easygoing.

This is not to say, however, that the performance was unprofessional—which leads into my second point. The actors were clearly enormously gifted in the abilities and were so skilled that they could successfully engage the audience in order to enhance the quality of their performance, bringing real life to the jokes. In Act 1, Scene 2, Celia converses with her cousin about honesty and beauty. During the performance, the actress playing Celia approached a woman sitting on the stage and touched her chin, commenting “for those that she makes fair”—she removed her hand from the woman’s chin and hit her lightly on the leg—“she scarce makes honest.” The woman accepted the joke good-naturedly and the audience (as well as some of the cast) laughed. These kinds of interactions helped to break down the so-called fourth wall, directly engaging those who were watching the performance and by doing so, making the play that much more entertaining. Overall, the talent and passion with which these individuals did their jobs created a unique atmosphere found only at the ASC that heightened the most poignant qualities of As You Like It.

Mapping the Penn State Archives – Part Three

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Interior Tato.jpgDuring the spring 2013 semester, students in one section of English 030 took part in a unique experiment to bring together research, writing, and technology in a way that was both meaningful to the students and relevant to the Penn State community.  “Mapping the Penn State Archives” is being featured in this blog during finals week.  

In this final installment, appropriately titled “Gentle Thursdays,” Jennifer Tato (right) talks about the process of uncovering a long-forgotten student tradition.  Her article and some of the photographs she discovered are available here.

By Jennifer Tato
Researching in the archives. That phrase made me really anxious and hesitant to begin a research project in the Penn State Library. Whenever I heard the word research, I would shudder and think of someone working on pages upon pages about a boring subject. The moment I stepped into the archives I could not think of what was so boring about it after all. The archives have everything! It was in that moment that I got excited to begin my work. I did not know what I was going to be researching at the time, but I knew it was going to be an adventure. I think it was when my English teacher, Laura Brown, proposed Gentle Thursdays as a potential research project to me–that’s when I dove full throttle into research at the archives. I spent a lot of time in there uncovering the history behind Gentle Thursdays, which was considered as a “day of sharing” amidst the 1970s anti-war sentiments. This event was a well-known and celebrated student tradition; it brought together everyone in State College by simply caring and giving. The reason it really captured my attention was because, during a time of violence and hopelessness, the student body and community came together to share and to create a peace-oriented, accepting environment. I knew instantly I wanted to propose to bring this tradition back for my project, the only problem was that Gentle Thursdays was canceled in the early 1980s because of substance abuse. Therefore, I knew bringing this student tradition back would mean having to reform the event.

Piecing together all of this information about Gentle Thursdays was the best part of my experience. It was like a giant jigsaw puzzle, and I was the one that needed to make sense of it.

The puzzle pieces were the boxes of pictures handed to me at the archives. I wore blue rubber gloves so as not to damage these delicate old photographs. Other pieces were newspaper clippings of the event and little weekly booklets from the 1970s that gave information about events and courses that were happening on campus. These were all the resources available to me in the archives, along with the archivists, who proved to be my heroes when it came to finding more information on participators at the events. Overall I would have to say that my all time favorite and most memorable part of this research project was getting in contact with Dr. Thomas Benson. He is a Penn State scholar and Professor of Rhetoric, or as I know him, the famous Gentle Thursdays still-life photographer. I had an interview with him about my project, and he was so helpful and ended up giving me the contact information of one of the three student founders of Gentle Thursdays, Jon Lange. I was able to interview him as well over the phone, and I was simply ecstatic. These two people and the archivists gave me all the resources I needed to make my research project a success. I would highly recommend the archives to anyone who is interested in a specific topic, the archivists are more than helpful, and in the end you could stumble upon a piece of history that no one has ever uncovered before!

Mapping the Penn State Archives – Part One

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Historic Rec Hall

During the spring 2013 semester, students in one section of English 030 took part in a unique experiment to bring together research, writing, and technology in a way that was both meaningful to the students and relevant to the Penn State community.  The resulting project, “Mapping the Penn State Archives,” will be featured in this blog over the next three days. 

Today, in part one, instructor and graduate student, Laura Michael Brown, reflects on the project, the process, and the transformation she witnessed in her students.

By Laura Michael Brown

In our Honors First-Year Composition class this semester (ENGL 030), my students were tasked with an archival research project. This challenging assignment was initially met with a healthy level of skepticism, but these students dove into the research process with positive attitudes. We visited the Special Collections Library for the first time together as a class. Archivists Jackie Esposito and Paul Dzyak introduced us to the incredible variety of sources available in the University Archives, which houses the collections that my students worked from. They each investigated a particular aspect of Penn State’s history that they found interesting, using primary sources to stitch together a story about our university’s past. For their research papers, they used that history to inform a discussion of a current issue on campus. Topics ranged from the history of the mascot to the history of student activism on campus, but every member of the class was able to develop a detailed and persuasive contemporary argument. They learned to value Penn State’s past at the same time that they looked for ways to better the community in the present. Archival work invigorated their research and writing processes by encouraging them to explore unique connections between historical and contemporary issues and by creating a real opportunity for them to discover something new and unexpected about our university.

The project culminated in the creation of a website. Librarian Dawn Childress helped us to develop a site that features a digital archive and an interactive historical campus map. This public element allows their work to leave the walls of our classroom and continue to reach the Penn State community well past the end of the semester. The website helped students to see their individual projects as a part of larger conversation about our institution; I loved seeing the students develop and discuss connections between their topics. We held a public presentation of the website on our last day of class. I was impressed by the confidence and enthusiasm of each student as they shared their contributions, and I could not have been more proud to see their work come together so successfully. It is my hope that this project taught my students to rethink possibilities for research and writing, but that it also taught them something about what it means to actively engage with their community.

Curing Wanderlust: Liberal Arts Edition

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“How did you end up in Maine?”

If I had a dollar, ladies and gentlemen, for every time I heard this question, I may successfully be able to purchase the entire new autumn wardrobe I so long for. Alas, the magical dollar fairy does not appear when summoned, so I have to resign myself to answering. Depending on who is asking, there are two scenarios that will play out, and for the benefit of you readers, I would be more than glad to outline each. Also, my name is Shannon Ratliff, and I am a junior double majoring in History and English with a minor in Latin American studies, just in case you were wondering.  

The short, basic story is that I had an internship at the Maine Historical Society (MHS), a small, yet beautiful building set amidst newly renovated gardens in the middle of downtown Portland, Maine. My title was Library Intern, but the task I was assigned was so much more than sitting at a circulation desk. My supervisor for the summer, Nancy Noble, placed me in charge of processing my own collection for the Maine Historical Society catalogue. The collection was a gift to the society from the Women’s Literary Union (WLU), a generous donation of six huge archival boxes that contained everything from financial ledgers to receipts to correspondence reports to photographs that ranged from 1889 to 2011. Because the WLU is moving to a smaller location, they decided to grant their documents to the historical society for scholars to access for research purposes and to guarantee the safe preservation of their history for the years to come. My task was to comb through the documents, find a pattern that makes sense for cataloguing, and to meticulously organize the collection into series, volumes, and folders to allow the easy location of such documents for scholars and library patrons of the MHS.  

The longer, truer story is that I picked a location on a map this previous winter and decided to discover New England, lobster rolls and all. With my dual major of History and English, both under the Liberal Arts umbrella, the collection offered to me by Nancy was perfect for my interests. The WLU was one of the most prominent women’s study clubs in New England during the early 20th Century, and this combination of English and History fit my degrees perfectly. I had never been to New England before; born in Maryland, most of my travels always stayed below the good ol’ Mason-Dixon line.

At this point, you may be wondering what this has to do with my internship and the skills I have learned while completing it.   While we are at university, while we have the means and the time (most importantly, the time), to travel somewhere new for the summer, carving out a fresh life beyond our comfort zone is one of the most important aspects of a college experience, in my opinion. This is why I love my Liberal Arts degrees: you can go anywhere, you can do anything. Yes, you will be asked about a million times if you will be a teacher or a tour guide, but scholars of the College of the Liberal Arts understand the value of the foundations we learn while attending Penn State. Critical thinking, organization, and adapting to new situations are all skills we utilize in our fields every day in the classroom, but they also prepare us for the real world. Finding a new place to live, creating a new existence for yourself is never easy, but approaching these problems the way we are taught to approach a historical question or the meaning of literary metaphor is one of the best ways I have found to conquer pesky, yet basic questions of life, such as: “Where will I live for three months?” “How do I live like a local?” “Why don’t these dishes magically wash themselves?”    So yes, eking out a new existence is difficult, but I promise that if you try and follow your Liberal Arts hearts, you will be successful! Go anywhere! Email everywhere! There are so many options, from publishing agencies to historical societies to multi-national corporations, that the only question that will truly be the hardest to answer is this:   “Where do I want to live next summer?”

Watch this video to hear more from Shannon about her summer internship with the Maine Historical Society:

My Internship with The Franklin Institute: Part 2

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As you might recall from my previous post, I spent this past summer in an internship with The Franklin Institute Development Team in Philadelphia, where I completed a lot of different assignments in support of a development campaign to raise funds for a building expansion and the refurbishment of some exhibits.

During my internship, I learned that my biggest project would be to plan and coordinate a Summer IMAX cultivation event in early July.  After experiencing a perfectly planned event during my first week on the job, I felt a lot of pressure to get everything prepared and executed successfully.  I am incredibly grateful that I was given the opportunity to take on this project because it allowed me to use the skills that I have learned at Penn State as an English major. I spent a lot of time writing the event invitation and communicating with other departments at the museum, and I even drafted a short speech for the President and CEO of The Franklin Institute to deliver on the night of the event!  Although this cultivation event was on a much smaller scale than the initial event that I assisted with in May, I learned that I have all of the skills needed to put together a successful cultivation event.  I felt very proud of myself on that evening, and I also realized that I could certainly see myself pursuing a career that would allow me to work collaboratively to create productive cultivation events.

TFI’s Grants and Communications Coordinator offered me the chance to condense and write a grant proposal in late July.  She treated me like a professional and allowed me to take on the project without much supervision, which I truly appreciated because I knew she trusted that I would get the job done in a timely manner.  The task was a lot more challenging than I initially thought it would be; the language used in a grant proposal is very formal and respectful, and it took me a few tries to get this down.  After multiple drafts and much editing, I mailed the proposal to its destination and crossed my fingers for the best outcome.

Like many interns in a variety of workplaces, I was assigned to work on organizational projects throughout the summer, such as filing, stuffing mail, and putting together packets and spreadsheets.  Surprisingly, these experiences were some of the most worthwhile for me because I discovered the inner workings of an office and everything that needs to be done on a daily basis.  I never looked down upon these seemingly mundane projects because I knew that every assignment would help me learn more. 

One of the most beneficial aspects of interning with the Development team at The Franklin Institute was sitting in on meetings and taking notes.  This may sound boring to some, but I absorbed so much valuable information from all of the team members.  I even took notes on the types of language that was used by my supervisors in different meetings, whether it was an informal and relaxed gathering or a serious talk about important, confidential information.  I am blessed that I got to observe such professional individuals that offered a bounty of experience and expertise in the field.

Finally, the people at The Franklin Institute truly made my experience all the more fulfilling and positive. A contagious optimism exists on the fourth floor, home to the Development Department at TFI.  Everyone openly shares their goals and achievements and encourages their peers to accomplish even more than they had originally set out to do.  Apart from simply being co-workers, the TFI Development Team members are loyal friends working for the same results.  One of the most memorable moments of my summer took place at a department celebration when the campaign goal was achieved.  It was easy to see the genuine joy and appreciation that each team member felt toward one another in accomplishing this tremendous goal.  I hope that someday I can also play a role in making big strides for an organization that I believe in.

I have learned more than I could have ever imagined this summer at The Franklin Institute. The people that make up the Development Department ultimately made my experience an unforgettable one.  I would also be remiss not to thank my Penn State liberal arts education for providing me with the skills and strong work ethic needed to be a successful asset in this role.  Never again will I underestimate the value of my English major.  I am still unsure of where exactly it will take me once I throw my graduation cap high in the air, but I now feel confident after this internship experience that it could lead me toward very gratifying work. 

A Gratifying Summer at The Franklin Institute

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The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaSix months ago I found myself sitting on the couch in my cozy Beaver Avenue apartment, frustrated, bewildered and stressed about a recurring conversation that I had with my parents during Christmas break.  The brief chat always started with Mom or Dad asking, “Have you applied for any internships yet?”  I feel confident that this conversation occurs in many households once a child reaches their junior year of college and becomes an adult. Although my response to my parents’ nagging was always a quick and forceful “yes,” I did not feel as self-assured about my internship search as I appeared.   

The process was daunting, and as an English major, I did not see the clearly defined career path before me that students in other fields seem to have.  Education majors student teach, pre-medical students intern at hospitals, and journalism majors write for any publication that they can get their hands on.  What does an English major do to prepare for life after graduation?

After reading description after description of position requirements and responsibilities, I started to doubt my choice to major in English.  While browsing position openings online, I frequently found myself asking, “Am I qualified for this?” Naturally, I felt self-conscious and disappointed that my major appeared to be in such low demand in the ‘real world.’

Once I realized that internships specifically seeking English majors would be few and far between, I developed a new approach to my search.  I took to writing, as most English majors tend to do, and I composed a list of my best skills: writing, comprehensive reading, and effective communication.  I decided to skim a few position descriptions again only to discover that my skills were actually wanted in great abundance.  With a big grin on my face and a new outlook on all that I have to offer, I wrote many cover letters and filled out a multitude of applications.

In April I was offered a summer internship with The Franklin Institute Development Team.  I eagerly accepted the position but felt that I would stand out as an unqualified liberal arts student come summer.  After all, I did not know much about development, and I had no previous experience in the field.  My courses at Penn State almost always consisted of reading literature, analyzing through discussion, and then writing about my findings.  I felt absolutely certain that my experiences would not help me connect well in the world of development. However, as I began spending more time with different members of the Institute’s Development team, I quickly realized that perhaps I had found a future career route to venture down after my time at Penn State was complete.

When I started in May, The Franklin Institute was nearing the final stretch of a monumental campaign to raise funds for a building expansion and the refurbishment of a few exhibits, including the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.  Therefore, this was an exciting time to begin my internship.  The opportunities that I was given throughout the summer allowed me to learn and feel like a part of something much bigger during such a special era for the museum.  It was impressed upon me early on that every meeting and cultivation event mattered greatly.

Within the first week of my internship, I stayed at the museum after-hours to help the department with one of many cultivation events that are held each year.  I must admit that I was intimidated and nervous at first.  After all, my superiors had built lasting relationships with donors in the Greater Philadelphia area and beyond, and the last thing that I wanted to do was make a bad first impression.  I stood at the registration table at the beginning of the evening simply watching in awe at the interactions occurring around me.  It was an “all hands on deck” situation as my direct supervisor likes to say, and every team member strategically and gracefully worked their way around the museum floor to greet and thank the supporters of The Franklin Institute.  By the end of a very successful night, I came to the conclusion that development is not just about soliciting and searching for prospects, it is about cultivating a mutually trusting relationship between an organization and its supporters.  Donors need to believe in what they are supporting, and the Institute’s Development Team is a strong advocate for everything that the museum represents and for the good that it does for the City of Philadelphia.

I learned quite a bit during my internship at The Franklin Institute, and I’ll share more about the projects I worked on in my next post.

Why My English Major Has Become My Best Tool

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HarperCollins Publishers by LAUSatPSU
HarperCollins Publishers,
a photo by LAUSatPSU on Flickr.

My name is Colleen Boyle, and I am a rising senior majoring in English. This summer, I am interning with HarperCollins Publishers at their New York City office. More specifically, I spend Monday through Thursday on the seventh floor of the company’s U.S. headquarters, which is home to the Harper, HarperBusiness, and Broadside imprints.

This summer, I began my internship assuming that I would be using my copy machine skills more than the skills that I have honed as a Liberal Arts student. After arriving at HarperCollins, however, I found that my cubicle gave me both a front row seat to happenings at one of the biggest publishing companies as well as a chance to use my English background.

I began my summer with “The Question.” It’s the one that most like to avoid, and it prompts the defense that every Liberal Arts major has to prepare:

“What are you going to do with your major?”

On move-in day at one of NYU’s residence halls, I met college students from around the country who were beginning their own internships. During these introductions, I ran into the question time and time again and resorted to using the “elevator speech” I have tucked away.

I can’t count how many times I have defended my major. But for me, a degree in English remained my focus and was a means to my envisioned end in publishing. My technical writing teacher always encouraged his students that writing is a key part of every profession and field.
 
With this in mind, I focused on my editing and tutoring classes, making note of skills I would need after college. But that is only half of my English education, and many of my classes focus on reading and analyzing texts. Little did I know that HarperCollins would be looking for those reading skills just as much as they were counting on a strong writing background.

On the first day of my publishing company internship, I was given a 400-page manuscript to read. I immediately reached for a red pen to circle misplaced commas, but my supervisor stopped me.

“Just tell me what you think,” she said.

Left alone with someone’s creative piece, I struggled with where to begin. Commas are easy to fix because they are governed by rules, and the Chicago Manual of Style was sitting on my shelf. Judging the appeal of the story is something much different. It was also something that I did constantly in my English classes. So, I set to work, channeling my inner English student.

“Character development” may seem like a word that belongs on a blackboard, but in the past four weeks, I have seen it in professional e-mail correspondences. A book will not sell if the readers can’t relate to the main character’s voice. Where are the themes? Or the resolution that leaves readers in tears, waiting for the sequel?

Almost every day, I am given a proposal or a manuscript and asked to come up with a reader’s report, which is like a SparkNotes version of the story followed by a review of the piece. The editors, whose desks are covered in such submissions, then use my work to make decisions about whether a manuscript is worth their time.
 
So what have I learned? To bask in the glory of my plot diagrams? No way. This experience has reassured me that Penn State’s English program has prepared me well for life with a diploma, both in reading skills and writing skills. This experience has also taught me that I need more, that I need to read everything that I can get my hands on.
 
Even though I spend most of my day at HarperCollins reading, my research, the “to-read list,” is growing by the minute. Typical English major? Guilty as charged.

My Internship with Philadelphia Magazine

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Philadelphia Skyline
Originally uploaded by Fordan

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.

The Liberal Arts Advantage

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Every liberal arts major has faced the same dreaded question from nearly everyone they meet, “What are you going to do with that when you graduate?” They act as if “that” – a liberal arts major – is some sort of obstacle between you and a good career. These people are wrong; liberal arts programs have produced some of America’s most successful people. A liberal arts education helps to cultivate the skills that nearly every employer is looking for. This was the message of Peter Cloutier, a 1982 Penn State graduate with a degree in English. He recently visited my English 111 class, “The Possibilities of English.”

Mr. Cloutier is the President of Catapult Marketing, one of the country’s top marketing firms. He gave an awe-inspiring presentation that instilled in me a great sense of confidence in my own English major. Mr. Cloutier brought an unquestionable enthusiasm for the Liberal Arts with him. He stressed the importance of being able to perform a wide variety of tasks, rather than specializing in one specific area. The ability to adapt, a skill that is developed in a liberal arts education, is one of the most important things in the job market today.

Critical thinking, communication skills, and having a broad perspective were three of the things most stressed by Cloutier. These attributes are fundamental aspects of a degree in the liberal arts. Specifically from an English point of view, I know that I have to exercise each of these skills every time I walk into class. Trying to find new things to say about books that have been read by students for a hundred years is very difficult and takes a lot of careful analysis and critical thought. Once I have something worthwhile to say about the text, I then have to communicate it to my peers and professor. I have to do this through speaking in class and writing during exams. These communication skills are vital in the business world as well as many other professional fields.

The broad perspective is the most vague, but arguably the most prized aspect of the liberal arts graduate. Mr. Cloutier used a quote from Sue Kronick, CEO of Federated Department Stores (Macy’s, Bloomingdales, JC Penney) to describe just what it means: “You tend to get more narrow in point of view as time marches on. Liberal arts is about approaching problems from a broader point of view, taking into account the subtleties of the situation.” This kind of perspective is incredibly important, especially in a world that is evolving as fast as ours is today.

Mr. Cloutier was truly an inspiring and helpful speaker for somebody like me. As a sophomore and newly declared English major, I needed something to help assure me that what I was doing was going to have long-term benefits, in addition to the enjoyment I find in my current coursework. His presentation really stressed not only that is possible to get a job after I graduate, but also that in many cases my background will serve to help me in my job search. The talk definitely helped me to set my head straight for my future and how my major will position me for a career.

Take a look at some of the slides from Peter Cloutier’s power point presentation in the slideshow below:

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