“The professional relationships I have cultivated with my advisors and professors are ones that I hope to maintain throughout my career.”
Lexi has always known that she enjoys reading and writing. However, she discovered her true passion for literature during her first English class that she took at Gustavus, entitled “American Women Writers”. Since then, Lexi has found community and fun within the English Department. She describes the atmosphere in the department as “positive, collaborative, and constantly evolving”. She appreciates the care that faculty take to ensure that their students’ voices are heard by using student perspectives in decision making, as well as their overall support for students. Faculty within the department have also linked Lexi to opportunities off campus, such as an internship opportunity that she was involved in during Spring Semester of 2023. Lexi was able to work for Nordlyset Literary Agency, and was involved with their rights catalogs for their Spring Book Fair in London. During this experience, Lexi was exposed to the details of the publishing process, and describes this as “one of the most valuable learning experiences of my life thus far”. As a whole, Lexi is grateful to the faculty within the English department for preparing students for skills needed in critical thinking, professional writing, and collaboration. Her favorite professor is Professor Phillip Bryant, who has provided an important relationship for her both during and outside of class time. She says “He is not only a skilled professor of poetry, but he is also an empathetic person with literally decades of knowledge and experience”. For Lexi, it has been these relationships that have made the English Department a positive place, and she hopes to maintain them after graduation. Outside of the classroom, Lexi is also involved on campus with the Dead Poets Society, The Writing Center, and has worked as an English Department Assistant and the Comparative Literature Department Assistant.