This fall, the English Department is revitalizing the Alumni Spotlight feature with a new series of interviews conducted and written by current students. These dialogues will investigate how the alumni’s English degrees have helped them along their career paths. Interviewed alumni may give a bit of advice for students, as well.

Etta Madden, Assistant Department Head of English, and Hank Essman, The Alum Report Editor, are collaborating to bring this project to fruition. Etta explains, “What better way to help English students envision their futures than to ask them to interview alumni? Graduates who are using their language skills as writers, teachers, business owners and managers, attorneys and the like have tips to pass along to students.”

Meet the Series Editor

Hank Essman is a second-year grad student in English with a passion for graphic literature. He has worked as a tour guide for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home in Mansfield, Missouri, and co-hosted a radio show for a comic book club at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He currently helps edit webpages for a Springfield business. Hank relates, “I’ve always loved listening to people tell their own stories. English is all about stories, so these spotlights are a fantastic way to show all the uses an English Degree can have. I’m excited to help usher in the many different voices of the people who once walked these halls.”