Where has the English Major Taken You?

I finished in 1989 and went to New York with the assumption that I would go into advertising or public relations, but back in those days you had to take a typing test to get an interview, and my typing was lousy. I answered an ad in the Village Voice from an art school in fundraising, and I got the job not because of an internship or deep art history background but because the boss and I talked about literature as an art form and its relationship with the others. From there, I learned that you can actually make a living writing and talking about art, and helping people see what it can mean in their lives and to society.

While in school, I was really lucky. No one in my family ever asked me what I was going to “do with” my major. I guess it was clear that I chose it because I loved it. I sometimes regret not going abroad for my third year. My dad urged me, but I said I was going to get a bunch of classes I wanted in my third year. Certainly I would have drawn on international experience in my work, or I might have even taken an interesting turn. Yet I also feel that what I read that third year, despite less than stellar marks, shaped who I am and how I look at art.

I worked for years for Paul Taylor, one of the geniuses of modern dance, a uniquely American art form. I worked for American Ballet Theatre when it was deep in debt. I worked at Cooper Union, one our country's most important educational and philanthropic experiments. I met artists, both successful and struggling, and I met and connected them patrons who backed them. I was always grateful that I had chosen English.

Atlanta is a city working hard to accelerate the growth of its cultural landscape. Since coming here, I’ve worked at a remarkable university museum, for the ballet, and for a school of design. Of course Virginia is an incredible calling card. Of course it helps that I can write. New York experience never hurts. But what has been central to my work is that I love to consider art and talk about it. I learned how to do that in the English department, and I feel so fortunate that I did.

My husband, an architect, and I met with a financial planner not too long ago. He eagerly bobbed his head when he asked, “so, when do you two want to retire?” Frank said, “I better let Lucie answer that because architects really never stop working.” I said, “well, I have a big piece of work right now, but once I get back to consulting, I really think I can change the way people give and raise money in this town. It is going to take some time, and then, of course, I want to enjoy it.” He smiled and said, “so what are we talking about?” I said, well, “I guess I wouldn’t want to work forever; probably not past 72 or 73?” He looked a little startled and said, “That’s not what people usually say.” Then I got to say, “but I really love what I do.”

Many thanks to everyone in English and best wishes to everyone making it such a wonderful department now, students and faculty alike.
Lucie Andre (BA, 1989)

I received my degree in American Studies in ’85 and loved all the classes I took in the English Department. I believe they were greatly enhanced by the classes I took in other departments as well.

I was not a particularly focused or mature student, and I decided to major in English because it seemed to offer the most “truth” and most “important knowledge.” At that point, I was most concerned with discovering the meaning of life. Being ADD (not the hyper kind) and having a deep affinity for art and history, the American Studies core classes were a wonderful opportunity for me to try to get the kind of broad understanding that seemed so elusive in regular courses of study. I have so many wonderful memories of reading at U.Va.—in the Alderman library, on the Lawn, in the Cave, in the Dell, really anywhere—and it was always such a transporting experience. What a perfect setting to be an English (kind of) major.

Of course I had no idea what I would do when I graduated, and the office that helped everyone to find their accounting and investment banking jobs didn’t offer much support, but as I struggled to decide among the obvious options—law school, teaching, publishing, and graduate English—I realized how much I had learned in the previous four years and what I was probably best suited to do. I moved to New York, and I began working at Doubleday in the Junior Literary Guild. It was quaint and somewhat staid work, but I love children’s literature, and it offered a wonderful view of publishing. After a year, I got a job in the Adult Trade division, and because of luck and circumstances (mostly my boss discovering John Grisham), I became an Editor.

Still searching for the meaning of life, I decided that as much as I loved reading and books, I did not love living in New York, and I moved home to Houston. Since there was no trade publishing in Houston at the time, and I was disillusioned with it anyway, I decided that I was really meant to be a teacher. I began teaching middle school English at St. John’s (a K-12 private school here), and just as my U.Va. learning had served me at Doubleday, it served me in education. After seven years of teaching, I left to have children. During the years of young children, when I had time, I wrote, did freelance editing, and dabbled (badly) at being a literary agent. Eventually I went back to teaching part time.

At some point or points, I realized that there is no one meaning of life, no one peak of existence, and no one best way to live. No job is more righteous or prestigious or meaningful than another; what truly matters is how well we do what we choose to do and how closely aligned that occupation is with our character.  How freeing that realization was, and how difficult it was for me to arrive at that place.

As of January 1, I have become a partner in a trade publishing house called Bright Sky Press. We have opened an office here in Houston, and I am the Editorial Director. I am extremely excited about the opportunities that this situation offers to pursue work I love in a place I love (yes, Houston), and I know two things that relate to my U.Va. degree: 1. I don’t need to know everything about the English language and literature; 2. I am well-prepared to learn more. All of the employment opportunities I have had are directly related to my degree, and I realize now that the degree has indeed taught me quite a bit about the meaning of life, my original course of study. What a great program!

I will look forward to hearing more news about what you are doing at U.Va. If you discover any new writers who have any relationship to Texas (subject, birthplace, a topic that would be of interest to Texans—all very broadly defined), please send them my way!
Lucy Herring Chambers (BA, 1985)

I loved my time as an undergraduate English major. It was one area where I felt skilled in a competitive university. At the time I considered getting a law degree, but wanted to broaden my experience with military service. Some rugby teammates suggested the Marine Officer program, which I began in the summer of 1975. I entered active duty after graduation.
   
I found writing skills quite valuable as a Marine Corps officer, and apparently so did the Marines, who squirreled me off to New York to work as a public affairs officer. In training for that job I learned the basics of photojournalism and all aspects of public affairs. After a short time I thought rather than simply write about Marines and their accomplishments, I wanted to be the subject of the story, so I applied to flight school, where I eventually found myself flying jets from aircraft carriers for several years, still using my writing skills in the squadron's administrative jobs. A love of flying sent me to an airline career, where I have happily traveled around the globe ever since, still reading and studying the world now more familiar to me through literature. I am at present an MD11 captain at Fedex. 

I do think the university’s attempt to open our minds to new ideas has far reaching consequences, and for me, an open mind, active imagination, and the ability to express myself has allowed me to live this life I have.
Aaron Grady (BA, 1977)

As an undergraduate when I told people I was double majoring in English and economics, the usual response was that the two disciplines made for an odd combination. Although at the time this was close to my own view, I wouldn’t have admitted as much. (My decision to add economics as a major was largely an afterthought, motivated more by practicality than by a desire to study economics.) Instead, I would have made light of my choice of majors, saying something to the effect that my intention was to be the quintessential well-rounded man, in the mold of Thomas Jefferson. Or else if I had been in a particularly cavalier mood, I would have said that my intention was to spread myself thinly, to be good at a lot of things but not really good at anything. Today, after eleven years as a consulting economist, I view things differently (some might even say more maturely). For I now realize that my decision to double major in English and economics was probably one of the best decisions of my life.  I likely would not be where I am today if I had chosen otherwise. 

My background in economics provided me entrée into the business world, but ultimately it was my writing skills that allowed me to excel in that world. In fact, I think I can safely say that I owe most of my career success to my undergraduate studies in U.Va.’s English department. The writing I did early in my career demonstrated clarity of thought, which instilled confidence in my abilities and in turn caused my superiors to rely more heavily on my work. Later, I was able to use my writing to signal to clients that I had expertise in specific fields of economics. 

Luck played a role too. I had, for example, the good fortune to join a firm straight out of university that did as much report writing as it did number crunching. Once it became clear to those above me that not only could I perform sophisticated economic analyses, but also that I could synthesize and articulate on paper the results of those analyses, I soon was given responsibility to manage projects in their entirety. After a few years of doing this, and after co-authoring and co-editing an economics text published by my firm, I was promoted to a senior-staff position. From there, my writing skills continue to serve me at every level of my job—from report writing to client correspondence to business development to marketing.        

Despite my career accomplishments, I have to confess that it is literature, and not economics, that has remained my passion since my U.Va. days. I still get excited on entering a used bookstore, with that faint acidic odor of aged paper in the air. And cracking open a new book for the first time—say, a collection of Lahiri stories, an Ondaatje novel, or some David Lodge essays—still gives me an immense thrill. Over time my tastes have changed somewhat (I now generally prefer the nineteenth-century Russian realists, the modernists, the “anti-modernists,” and contemporary realists to other writers, especially to the post-modernists), but my interest in literature, and in reading generally, has never diminished. Of course, none of this is meant to denigrate economics, the application of which has allowed me to make a good living. My point is simply that if I were given a choice between (a) spending a rainy day at home with a cup of coffee in one hand and a paper on Nash bargaining in the other and (b) spending a rainy day at home with a cup of coffee in one hand and The English Patient in the other, I would choose the latter option hands down.  

It just so happens that I’m currently at a crossroads in my career. I recently changed employers because my boss at my old firm retired. Since then, things have taken a turn for the worse, to the extent that my current career path has completely lost its attraction for me. But although my future is uncertain, it is an uncertainty of my own choosing, and so I have no regrets. No matter how one looks at it, my stint as an economist has been a positive experience, for me and for my family. Among other things, my wife and I have been afforded opportunities to live and work in New York and in Los Angeles, as well as to travel extensively throughout Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. I can only hope that the future will be as interesting and fulfilling … and that the new job I eventually secure will allow me to use the writing skills that have made my present situation in life possible.
Jason Zeitler (BA, 1996)

I read Elizabeth Goldman’s article on “Where has the English degree taken you,” and can relate to it. I am currently the Tax Director at M.D.C. Holdings, and while tax seems to be an unlikely career path for someone who majored in English literature, it really isn’t; I spend much of my time writing technical memos applying the tax law to our fact patterns. I am convinced that had I not majored in English, I would not have been in the position I am today. Thank you for everything you did for me at the University to prepare me for the business world.
Heidi Jacobs (BA, 1990)