As a newly-licensed teacher, I actually got three jobs in less than a month after graduating from the University of Evansville and was able to choose the one I wanted to keep. One school administrator did not want to interview any other candidates for the position until I told him I was from U.E. who get jobs within the first year of graduation is very high. My strong English background, especially coming from a well-respected university, has been one of the most important selling points in all of the interviews I've done. I'm working today in large part because of it.

Becoming a good teacher is a combination of practice and natural talent, but if you don't know the content inside and out, your years as an educator will not be successful or enjoyable no matter how many teaching strategies you know. More importantly, the students will have been dealt a terrible disservice. So my major, the English aspect more than the education aspect, have been very beneficial to me.

I really graduated from U.E. with a major in English and a minor in education; that's how I think of it. And I would say beyond any doubt that I use the English part of my major infinitely more than the education aspect. I have to teach students how to write, how to read, how to dissect literature, how to appreciate it more knowledgeably - and I have to do this every day. How could I ever be effective if I didn't really understand it myself and wasn't able to produce for or show them good models? My sixth graders read the regular middle school fare, but we also read a good deal of poetry as well as some Shakespeare, Joseph Conrad, Chaucer, etc. I would never in a million years put anything like that in front of an 11 year-old if I wasn't confident and comfortable enough explaining it to them. And I can only do that because I was very well taught. I also use my major, especially the writing aspect of it, for lesson plans, consolidated plans for the school, grant proposals, parent/teacher communications - I literally use it every day, all day long as a teacher.

Although I've never been employed as a writer, I still consider myself to be one, and I use my English major for that as well. I've kept the notebooks from every single English course I ever took, and I still refer back to many of them when I reread a book or am working on a poem. Overall, my major has been invaluable to me, and I'm thankful for the degree I've worked for.