Cal Poly, SLO, English Department on LinkedIn: We are so proud of our graduating seniors! (2024)

🎓 Exciting Updates from the Cal Poly English Department! 📚Hi Linkedin,We are so excited to launch the Cal Poly English Department’s official LinkedIn page! Join us in celebrating our passion for language, literature, rhetoric, and lifelong exploration. Stay tuned for updates on our latest academic achievements, faculty spotlights, student success stories, and exciting events! Connect with our talented faculty, alumni, students, and fellow enthusiasts to be part of our vibrant and ever-growing English Department community.#CalPolySLO #EnglishDepartment #Literature #Rhetoric #AcademicExcellence #Education #Language #LiteraryCommunity

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Students in Dr. Waitinas's ENGL 459: Literary Mesmerism course delivered terrific work in this somewhat experimental "hybrid" senior literature seminar. For their weekly asynchronous online work, a few students posted video + handout presentations with original literary arguments, while others wrote detailed responses to these arguments. For their weekly in-person work, studentsmet in person for full-group, often riotous discussions "in the round" of these mesmerizing texts from Poe, Dickens, Alcott, Inchbald, George Eliot, Whitman, and others, all contextualized within eighteenth-and nineteenth-century historical documents establishing the principles and practices of mesmerism. Watch Bess Nicolds' and Cassidy McKee's terrific arguments about mesmerism, art, acting and performance, and more in Louisa May Alcott's short sensationalist fiction here:Bess Nicolds: "'How the Girl Did It': Jean Muir's Dramatic, Mesmeric Cure for Gender and Class Inequities" athttps://lnkd.in/gJ3SVuUACassidy McKee: "Mesmeric Art: The Reversal of Gender Roles in Alcott's 'A Pair of Eyes; Or, Modern Magic'"https://lnkd.in/g366esaw

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Meet Alexandra Gregorio Gregorio! Ali is a third-year English major completing a minor in Media Arts, Society, and Technology within the Technical and Professional Communications department. This summer, she will work as an intern for Scholastic, specifically in the Scholastic Entertainment department. This division focuses on adapting beloved stories and characters from their published books for film, television, and other media formats. Throughout the internship, she aims to enhance her writing and editing skills while observing the process of adapting books to digital media, tracking trends for reporting, assisting with research for SEI, and more.Ali acknowledges the English Department and TPC program for teaching her not only strong writing skills but also proper engagement with texts. Additionally, she credits her Media Arts, Society, and Technology minor for enabling her to apply her skills from her English major to a wider array of media, which played a significant role in securing her internship.

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For today’s student feature, we’d like to feature Adriana Dutra, a fourth year English Major and Technical and Professional Communications Certificate student. After graduation, Adriana will be attending Southwestern Law School with a full-ride scholarship! After experiencing the loss of a close loved one during undergrad, Adriana became inspired to practice estate law in the future. Cal Poly English is so proud of her!

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Meet Kendall Taylor! Kendall is a 3rd year English major who was accepted to an internship with the National Endowment for Humanities in the Division of Education program. Kendall shares that during this time in the program he will be participating in peer review panels and grant research, as well as helping create curricular content. He wants to shout out the TPC program for emphasizing the importance of self-advocacy and writing across genres. Also, Kendall credits assisting Dr. Clemons in their research on Black music and art in Detroit to achieving this accomplishment. His advice to peers is to seek out opportunities!

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Meet Brendan Pringle! Brendan was one of the alumni that attending our Alumni Networking Event on Saturday. As a Senior Business Analyst for the San Luis Obispo Public Works Department, Brendan manages a large operating budget, advising leadership and presenting information to the City manager and Council. He credits his English degree with teaching him the skill of persuasion, which he believes to be “the most transferable and the most rare in the workforce”. His favorite course at Cal Poly was “Great Books I” with Mark Roberts.

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Meet Beth Shirley! She is an assistant professor of English, focused on technical communications and rhetoric. Shirley concentrates on rural communities and science engagement, specifically agritourism. Shirley says the literary studies classes she took during her time at Cal Poly helps her collaborate with other people of different backgrounds in her career today. She advises students to be “patient but persistent” when it comes to getting into the workforce. She explains that not limiting herself to one position has helped her get to where her career is now. You can meet Beth Shirley this Saturday at the Alumni Networking Event!

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Meet Mary Vause Restom! Mary teaches adult learners (primarily refugees and immigrants) English as a second language in addition to job readiness, drivers’ education, and digital literacy. Some beneficial traits for her career are open-mindedness, patience, respect, creativity, and of course, strong knowledge of the English language. Aspects of her English degree that have helped her in her career are its focus on cross-cultural communication, respect for other cultures (language, literature, art), and a passion for the intricacies of the English language. She advises current English majors to not be discouraged by the old clichés about English degrees. It is an incredibly versatile major that sculpts graduates into thoughtful, creative, and kind people.

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Meet Katie Gezi! Katie is a Portfolio Manager at Routledge, Taylor & Francis, an academic and global publisher of books and journals. She serves as the editorial liaison between external society partners, journal editors, and the Publisher. Katie credits Cal Poly’s English department for her ability to receive feedback, revise her work, and adapt to new conditions. In publishing, you need to have passion, thick skin, and the ability to listen to criticism without taking things personally. In addition, being an English major teaches you that concision is key. In her profession, she could be given one hour to influence an editorial board on a specific topic, or could be pushed to the end of the meeting and have two minutes to articulate her points for the same results. Lastly, the ability to write long emails and communicate clearly is another valuable skill, perhaps the most inherent but overlooked.

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