Welcome back, Blue Demons!
At last we can all agree…its good to be back. While it might not feel like the year is quite in full swing, Graduate Assistants are already working hard to organize events, publish resources, and be research assistants. You may remember myself, Kristin Fleming and Kate Fabsik from the department last year, but this blog post will re-introduce us three and showcase three new department GAs, Amanda Finn, Kerri Martin and Maggie Rothrock.
Amanda Finn is a first year GA in her third quarter in the MA program. Amanda was drawn to the MA position because she really loved the classes taught in the program, noting she’s always been interested in how writing impacts communities and the world. Amanda is hoping to earn her Women and Gender Studies certificate and her focus in the program is to learn as much as she can about practical rhetorical applications to bring back into her journalism work. She is looking forward to in person learning because she really missed in person discussions and has a much easier time engaging in a classroom compared to Zoom. She notes that WRD 506 Multicultural Rhetorics with Dr. Monica Reyes really opened her eyes to a lot of the rhetorical issues she came to grad school to study. At this point in her career she would love to be a full-time blogger and freelance journalist. She loved being a freelance journalist before Covid struck and misses the freedom it offered. She spends a lot of time seeing theatre performances but also loves going to museums. In her work, she finds that interviewing celebrities is a really weird process! She has only done it a handful of times but doesn’t think it will ever get less intimidating. Her favorite celebrity interview was with Andre de Shields but also found herself fangirling the most while interviewing Lea Salonga.
Maggie Rothrock is in her first year of the MA program. Maggie joined the program because she loved her undergraduate work at the Wheaton College Writing Center and wanted to pursue adult writing education. The WRD GAship seemed like a perfect fit, Maggie wrote “it opens up many opportunities for educational growth and also allows [her] to work at DePaul’s excellent writing center.” Maggie is planning to participate in the TAP program and gain a TESOL certificate in order to continue her work in teaching writing in a higher education setting. She is especially excited for the TESOL certificate since she loves her multilingual community in the west side of Chicago and would love to dig deeper into second language education. She is excited to build rapport with classmates and has missed making friends and actually spending time with classmates in person. Even though she just started, she’s jazzed over Proseminar! She has found the Literary Theory and Composition Theory studies really fascinating in her undergrad coursework and is ready to dig into similar ideas. In the future she hopes to run or work in a writing center in her Chicago neighborhood. She loves writing, reading, drawing, and playing piano for her church worship team. She also goes on many walks and spends a lot of time hanging out with her roommates and their dog. Last year she did City Year with Americorps entirely online! “There’s nothing like coaching fourth grade math through a computer screen” she reports. Maggie roots for any Chicago team but wants to say: “Go Cubs!”
Kerri Martin is a second year MA student and a returning GA working with the department’s First Year Writing Program. The MA in WRD at DePaul caught her eye because she liked that WRD offered a variety of coursework, and especially that both teaching writing and professional writing could be part of her degree. She thinks that this year has been great because she’s able to interact with students she’s only met online. Kerri also noted that her favorite course so far has been Multicultural Rhetorics with Dr. Reyes. She would love to have a career that involves writing and teaching. She added that if she could, in some way, make writing more accessible to those with disabilities that would also be fulfilling, and continues to be interested in universal design. Outside of school, Kerri enjoys reading, writing, swimming and nature hikes. She recently found out that she’s distantly related to some King of England from the 1300s, and wants to say “Go Blackhawks!”
Kate Fabsik is a second year MA student and returning GA with the Writing Center. She was an undergraduate WRD major and her passion for writing prompted her to access the MA program. Her program focus is learning about professional writing and various ways that she can think about rhetoric. With this background, she has been able to do some volunteer grant writing work, but is now shifting to look into technical writing positions. She anticipates having a personal connection with classmates and professors and feels like it’s easier to build rapport in person. Her favorite class so far has also been Multicultural Rhetorics. She would like to end up in a remote technical writing job and spends her free time working on her drawing skills, practicing language skills on Duolingo and generally hanging out with her friends and roommates. She has two cats (Patches and Zazu) and a dog named Soldier and wants to say “Go Bears.”
Returning department GA Kristin Fleming did her undergraduate degrees in both English and Biology. She was drawn to an MA in WRD because It offers the opportunity to learn theory while also applying writing to real-life situations. Her focus in the program is simply earning a Professional and Digital Writing concentration in hopes of becoming a science/medical writer. With in-person learning, she is hoping for even richer and more involved discussions. Her favorite course in the program has been WRD 508 Discourse and Style with Dr. Ceraso. Her “dream job” would be working as a writer or editor for a high impact peer reviewed journal like Nature. In her free time she enjoys cooking, reading, listening to true crime podcasts, and watching TLC shows. Before academia she considered culinary school, and wants all Cubs fans to remember they were swept by the Cardinals when it really counted this season.
Returning department GA Kristen Vosberg is in her second year of the MA program with a concentration in Professional and Digital Writing. She was drawn to the MA in WRD program because it offered insight to the worlds of communication and writing professions that she did not explore during her undergraduate Chemistry education. Her focus in the program is taking classes that offer her skills she can use to open opportunities in different professions throughout her life. She is excited to talk with professors and classmates more casually in person and finds that not having to set up a Zoom meeting to do so is a relief. Her favorite project in the program so far has been the counterstory interview she did for Dr. Reyes’ class Multicultural Rhetorics. Her “dream job” would be as a senior content editor for a biotechnology company. She also thinks it would be neat to work on a public health campaign. Her hobbies and interests include (finally) going to movie and theatre showings, playing soccer, swimming, and gardening. Both of her parents graduated from Loyola University and she wants to say: “Go White Sox!”
The GAs are eager to get to work on projects for the department and excited to be a part of an all-female team!