Meet Some of Our Professional Writing Students

I first came to Champlain for the Champlain Young Writers’ Conference in 2015. It was my first time ever hearing about Champlain or visiting the campus. The conference was an opportunity to stay on campus for the weekend (I slept in Butler), go to workshops in the classrooms, and roam around the campus to explore it on my own time. We were able to eat in the dining hall, and I remember consuming a lot of pizza bagels that weekend!

I love this program because it has allowed me to make incredible friends. I’ve never been surrounded by people who had similar interests as I do. This writing community is constantly encouraging one another to read work, swap drafts, give critique, provide edits, and help each other grow. We all have admiration for one another. We don't see each other as competition, but as collaborators. I love being able to go into our Discord server and say “Hey, I'm not feeling confident in this draft. Could you all help me?”—and they do!

I’ve been working in Compass Student Services since my first year. When I started, it was the Enrollment Services Center. In the past few years, I’ve watched and helped build the Compass office into something more identifiable and resourceful for students. 

In the summer of 2018, I was asked to join the Class of 2022’s Facebook page to help answer questions, concerns, and provide guidance on the Summer To-Dos. There’s a lot to be done before a student gets to campus, and it can be overwhelming and confusing. Then, I joined the Champlain Parents and Families Facebook Group. Parents tend to have more questions about what needs to be done, how to do it, and when it’s due. I started answering their questions, calming their concerns, and connecting them with the appropriate person if I couldn't answer. That was two years ago, and I have a cult-like following with them. I am often their first point of contact and their primary resource. I love talking to them over the summer and getting to meet them during Orientation. Sometimes, parents will call the office and ask for me directly. I’ve had parents bring me flowers and cookies.

Nothing brings me greater joy than helping a student or a parent. For some, this is their first child going off to college. There is a lot of trust there, and I want students to love being at Champlain as much as I do.

I love how practical all my classes are. We don't just talk about theory; we actually implement the techniques we discuss. In the creative writing classes I've taken, we read poetry aloud; we act it out, and Jim Ellefson (who usually teaches these classes) shows us how to submit our own work. In almost every class I've taken, we create a tangible product that we can use in our careers.

The Upside-Down Curriculum is responsible for almost every single experience listed on my resume. I took six major-related classes my first year, so I was prepared to take on editorial roles at student publications or assume a campus leadership position much quicker-and more skillfully-than I would have at another school. 

My Core classes also really helped shape my interests. I came into Champlain wanting to be a developmental editor, but my relationship with one of my Core professors, Aziz Fatnassi, led me to an internship with a Bulgarian NGO where I learned I actually want to work in the nonprofit world.

I studied abroad for two months in Sevilla, Spain during the Spring 2020 semester. Living with a host family really taught me how to communicate with others from different cultures and how to make connections with those who live a drastically different life than myself. Studying abroad also taught me how to be more outgoing and go after what I want. It taught me to let loose and have fun sometimes, and that life isn't all about work.

I am currently the Editor-in-Chief of The Crossover, the online student newspaper at Champlain. It can be a lot of work at times, but it is very rewarding. I have a strong passion for journalism, as well as providing the truth and information to people who need it. I also love writing for The Crossover and enjoy discussing what's going on at Champlain with my other staff members.

I really enjoyed working on The Well through my Magazine Publishing class. We actually published an online magazine, and it felt so good to see it come together at the end of the semester.

I loved participating in The Well because Magazine Publishing was set up more like a newsroom rather than a class. Of course, we still had assignments and everything, but we all worked together to achieve one final goal: the magazine. I was delegated as a writer for the team, and I got to work with the editing team frequently to make sure my pieces were the best they could be. There were three teams: editing, writing, and design/marketing. We all had different tasks, and we knew how to use the other teams to complete those tasks. I feel like I genuinely know how teams work when publishing a magazine after taking that class.

I was involved with the Publishing Hub Project through the Emergent Media Center during the spring 2021 semester. Our goal was to inform and get more people across campus involved with student-run publications like The Crossover, Chivomengro, and Willard and Maple. We spent time gathering information about who is currently involved with the publications, who knows nothing about them, and who wants to be involved but doesn't know-how. From there, we devised a strategy to get publications more widely known around campus.

Tanya Lee Stone asked me to take part in this project because of the work I had done so far in college, including my position at the Editor-in-Chief of The Crossover. My classroom work also allowed me to better understand different types of writing, as well as understanding deadlines and necessities for my work, allowing me to be a better intern.

I love everything about the Professional Writing program! The classes are incredibly fun and can be super specific to a genre such as Reading & Writing in Genre: Graphic Literature or as general as Publishing in the 21st Century-but all are helpful to help you discover your passions and learn about all the possibilities a career in writing can offer. The projects we do in Creative Writing classes lead to publishable portfolio pieces, and it's much more than just an English degree. I'm learning skills like pitching to agents, copyediting, and even the specifics of my craft such as building character and plot arcs

My favorite Core experience was by far my Heroes & Heroines: Harry Potter travel course! I was lucky enough to have been chosen for Kerry Noonan's class in my sophomore year. Eleven of my classmates and I analyzed the first Harry Potter book through a number of lenses and from many different perspectives in class. Over spring break, we spent ten days traveling through the UK and exploring cultural sites such as Edinburgh Castle as well as themed destinations like Warner Brothers Studios. I made friends for life and got to experience a curated trip that taught me more about a topic I love than I thought possible. Edinburgh is my favorite place in the world thanks to this trip, and I can't wait to return in the near future!

Thanks to my experiences at Champlain, I feel more than prepared to graduate. Over the past four years, Champlain has allowed me to explore all the career possibilities, then really understand what I want to do with my life. When I went into my writing classes as a first year, I knew I wanted to do something in the industry for a living, but I wasn't entirely sure what. When I found myself in Tanya Stone's Publishing in the 21st Century and Reading & Writing in Genre: Young Adult/Middle Grade Literature classes, the guest speakers and projects helped me figure out that I wanted to pursue a career related to writing for children and young adults. 

Outside of the classroom, Champlain has given me a strong writing community. My friends and I take the skills we learned in critique in class and use them to help each other with outside projects. I'm graduating with a writing support system, and I know that we'll help each other for years to come.