The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Four former Villanova English majors will discuss the work they do, the paths they took to their current jobs, and how their English studies contributed to their careers. The speakers will be Lawrence Flynn '17, Teaching Associate and MFA Candidate in Fiction at UMass Amherst; Lindsay Gallagher '22, Investment Banking Analyst at Barclays; Kashae Garland '22, Paralegal at The Faries Firm, Inc. and J.D. Candidate; and Amanda Gerstenfeld '20, Editorial Assistant at Yale University Press.  Please register for the Zoom event  here .

A few months ago, we ran a brief series highlighting some graduate English alumni and their careers. We thought we'd follow it up with an interview with a current student who is balancing studies and career: Sarah Gregory, current MA student and high school teacher. Sarah was kind enough to speak with us about her MA studies as well as her teaching. 1. What do you do at your job? What are some advantages and some challenges of working in your field? I have been in education for seven years, the last four of which I spent as a high school English teacher at a small private school in Lancaster County. Since it is a small school, I taught a different schedule each year, including a variety of English-related courses for grades 9-12. For the 2022-23 school year, I went part time in teaching to begin the English MA program at Villanova full time. For me, the best part of teaching high school English is that it combines many things I love and can do well: working with students, facilitat...

Each week, for the next few weeks, we'll be talking with an alumnus/a from our graduate English program, catching up on their studies and/or careers. This week, we'll be talking with Alex Liska MA '21, Director of Retention & Sponsored Programs at Neumann University.  1. What do you do at your job? What are some advantages and some challenges of working in your field? Until recently, I served as Coordinator for Student Affairs at Neumann University, but I have recently accepted the position of Director of Retention & Sponsored Programs at Neumann. As Coordinator for Student Affairs, I supported the student experience through a myriad of functions including event planning, assessing campus engagement, parent and family engagement, building campus traditions, advising the budgets of the Student Government Association and all clubs, and more. Something that was both challenging and immensely rewarding in that role was fostering the growth of student leaders by helping ...

Each week, for the next few weeks, we'll be talking with an alumnus/a from our graduate English program, catching up on their studies and/or careers. This week, we'll be talking with Michael Nace, MA '08, the Brand Director for Rare Disease Advisor with Haymarket Media. 1. What do you do at your job? What are some advantages and some challenges of working in your field? I am the Brand Director for Rare Disease Advisor (RDA), which is part of Haymarket Media’s network of Advisor websites. RDA is a news-driven web brand that fills informational gaps within the rare disease community with much-needed news, perspectives, and resources. Our goal is to foster increased awareness of rare diseases and decrease the time to diagnosis — a nearly-universal problem among those with rare diseases and disabilities. As Brand Director, I am responsible for every facet of RDA’s operation. I was initially brought into Haymarket to launch the brand, given my experience at another company spec...

Each week, for the next few weeks, we'll be talking with an alumnus/a from our graduate English program, catching up on their studies and/or careers. This week, we'll be talking with Franki Maria Rudnesky, MA '22, a staff writer with the Philly Voice . 1. What do you do at your job? What are some advantages and some challenges of working in your field? As a staff writer, I research, interview sources and curate information to write articles related to the happenings in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. I particularly love writing about all the vibrant events, restaurants, fashion and people that make the city unique. I always enjoyed writing, social media and being creative, and this job allows me to marry so many of my interests together. It can be challenging to experience writers’ block at times and to find new and interesting story ideas, but many of the skills I learned through my studies allow me to push through. 2. Did the Nova English MA help you get your job...

Back in 2020, we wrote a brief entry about MA English alumni career outcomes on the YAWP. That entry was based on data from the years 2008-2018. To say the least, it seems time for a refresh, particularly given how much the employment landscape has shifted in the past few years--so here is new data about the kinds of jobs our alumni obtain, based on our graduates during the period from 2019 through the spring of 2022. In comparison with our previous post, you'll note that there are no full-time faculty positions represented in our graph here--which makes sense, since our time window for this post wouldn't allow our alumni enough time to complete a PhD.  Interestingly, K-12 education is the biggest piece of the pie (go teachers!). Just like last time, 10% of our graduates are in higher ed administration. Other strong options for our grads are PhD programs, medical humanities roles, and marketing positions.  Our graduates have job titles like instructor, editor, coordinator, wr...

Join us for the 2nd Annual Villanova  English Department Alumni Career Panel on Wednesday the 23 rd   at 6:30 p.m.!   Four former Villanova English majors will discuss the work they do, the paths they took to their current jobs, and how their English studies contributed to their careers. The speakers will be... Joanna Bowen, ’07, Director, Augustinian Volunteers Patrick Mullaney, '09, Marketing Manager at Verity Pharmaceuticals Meghan Muniz, '05, Director of Diversity and Inclusion Partnerships, Pfizer  Greg Watry, ’13, Editorial Content Writer at Road Runner Sports There will be chances to ask questions and exchange information as well. For the Zoom link to this event, please reach out to michael.malloy@villanova.edu.

What can you do with a Master's in English? Taking for granted that the people who ask this usually mean "in a professional context," how can we answer this question? One way would be to take a look back at the (roughly) last ten years of data on what alumni from the Villanova Master's program have gotten up to in their work lives. It's no secret that full-time college-level teaching jobs in English are hard to come by, although some of our graduates have gone down that road. Others have gone into (or, often, continued with) K-12 teaching. Higher education administration is a popular field for our graduates, as is adjunct and tutoring work, which may or may not coincide with PhD program work. Meanwhile, just over a third of our graduates are part of the 'other' category; but what does that mean? Villanova English MA graduates have titles like producer, specialist, director, editor, analyst, and writer. They work in diverse fields that rely on...