In two to four sentences, describe your post-Biola work/life journey.

A few weeks before my graduation in 2013, I unexpectedly got a full-time job at a small, non-profit marketing agency called Brewer Direct. The opportunity fell into my lap through an English department connection, actually. I wasn't looking for a job in marketing, but I wanted to stay in California and a full-time job meant I could buy a car and afford to live here! I got married in 2014 and also made the transition to working from home, which is wonderful.

What's your current occupation, and in what ways did getting a degree in English prepare you for your job?

I'm still with Brewer Direct, and I love my job! I'm their Lead Proofreader, so I manage a small team of proofreaders and also get to do a lot of copy-editing and writing myself. My job definitely requires a technical knowledge of the English language, and I don't think I would have been hired without a degree in English. My English classes gave me an ear for good writing, which enables me to make quick improvements to clunky or unclear copy. My job would be way more difficult without these skills.

What was a favorite class or experience you had while a Biola English major?

As a senior, I took a class called “Mysterious Fiction” because I loved the style and brain of the professor who taught it. It was a lower-level class full of non-English majors, but it was probably my favorite class at Biola. It had a great reading list (Marilynne Robinson! G.K. Chesterton!) and the assignments were open-ended enough that we were able to freely pursue what really interested us—I could write about questions I didn't know the answers to. I still look back at some of those assignments today because of their impact on how I see the world.

I also had so much fun in Creative Non-Fiction for the same reason—it gave me a ton of freedom to work on what I was drawn toward, so I wrote a long-form piece on teen girl magazine culture. There was a great sense of camaraderie in that class—we were each going down our own rabbit holes but were able to share and give each other advice along the way.

What about life after college was most surprising to you?

How much free time I have! In college, I was doing homework or in class most nights (which I loved, and still miss), but now after work's done at 5pm, I have all this time to do whatever I want.

What advice would you give to a current Biolan majoring in English? Or what's something you did in college that later helped you professionally?

Honestly, as a student, I pursued topics and thinkers I loved, and the rest followed. I didn't have a 5-year plan (or even a 1-year plan). What I did do was take as many classes as I could taught by professors I admired, and I worked really hard in them. Instead of viewing college as a means to a job (which it is!), I viewed it more as a gift of 4 years to learn from wise people (professors, authors, fellow students) and to form some patterns of living and thinking that I could continue after college was over.

But a word about careers: when I read the job description for the current job I'm in, it really scared me, and it wasn't what I was looking for. But I decided to try it for a year, and I'm so happy I did. If you're like me and you're not quite sure what you want in a career, be open to the idea that fulfillment can be found in unexpected places.

What are you reading?

One of my friends recently published a novel I'm really into right now—it's called Tacky Goblin, by T. Sean Steele. I'm also reading a book on Benedictine spirituality with some friends called Living with Contradiction, by Esther de Waal, and slowly but surely making my way through Slaughterhouse Five (my first Vonnegut!).