Since I graduated in '99, I have had the honor of working in a variety of positions at leading nonprofits including AARP & AARP Foundation, National Wildlife Federation, and the Ocean Conservancy. As a fundraising professional, I have worked on issues including overfishing, climate change, early childhood literacy, and senior hunger. I have held positions from entry level to management. Most important, though, I have had the opportunity to work with talented, smart, hardworking people trying to solve big problems. Waking up for work isn’t hard for me (most days!). I get paid to help make the world a better place.
While I can’t say what would have happened in my life if I had chosen a more “practical” major, I can tell you that being an English major did not slow me down. In fact, I have a job I love and get paid enough to live well, support my family, and save for retirement. At the same time, being an English major alone has not led to whatever success I’ve achieved (or my failures for that matter). Truth be told, having the courage to pursue your vision and the resilience to persevere in the face of adversity will serve you more than a college degree. There are plenty of successful entrepreneurs, musicians, writers, and actors who never finished college that prove this point.
With that, getting a degree in English helped me in some key ways:
- Making a strong case: Whether you are trying to sell an idea to your partner, friends, your boss, or clients, having the skill to make a case that’s logical, well supported, and authentic will always come in handy. As an English major, you need to absorb a lot of complex information, develop compelling thesis statements that illuminate important facets of these works, and use key data to drive home your point. The skill of synthesizing complex information into cohesive, well written arguments has been critical to my success and has translated into many millions of dollars in grants over the years for the organizations I’ve served. Needless to say, this is one of the most marketable aspects of my résumé. Recruiters contact me almost weekly with job opportunities thanks to the results this skill has helped yield.
- Appreciating diverse perspectives: Showing respect for differences is expected in the workplace nowadays. When I was at Geneseo, I was lucky enough to stretch beyond the classics and study works by writers from diverse backgrounds with experiences fundamentally different from mine. These writers (with the help of my professors and fellow students) opened my eyes to other peoples’ perspectives, taught me to celebrate them, and helped me recognize how each of us has a role to play in creating an inclusive society. And while reading a book or a scholarly article can never fully allow you to understand what it’s like to see the world through another person’s eyes, as an English major, I became more proactive in my cultural sensitivity. This is important in a business setting since many of us work with people from a variety of backgrounds; and we all have something unique to offer. My time as an English major set the groundwork for me to actively seek out thinking that was different from (and many times contradictory to) my own. This approach, especially working in team environments, has propelled me into management roles and high-profile projects everywhere I’ve worked.
- Becoming a better person: New York Times columnist David Brooks once said, “Everyone is born with moral imagination — a need to feel that life is in service to some good.” Being an English major at Geneseo was a special time and one of the most important reasons was that it gave me the opportunity to immerse myself in the human condition, which for me morphed into a sense of responsibility to better the world. I learned that issues like racism, poverty, environmental destruction, and sexism are problems that are centuries old. More profoundly, I came to believe that I could and should play a role in addressing these challenges. While the issues my colleagues and I work on (as well as many, many other people from all sectors of the economy) cannot be solved overnight, I know that my time as an English major helped expand my moral imagination and—undoubtedly—steered me toward a life in service to some good.
I can attest that if literature is what gets your blood pumping, then English as a major will be time and money well spent. In fact, it might just be what you need to begin living your life filled with a sense of purpose. It was for me.