WHERE HAVE ALL THE ENGLISH MAJORS GONE?

What happens to English majors after they leave Dordt? Now and then, alum visits and emails brighten our days. This year I've received quite a few.

Last this summer, Melissa Drake ('05) walked into my office. Last I'd heard, she'd completed her MDiv at Drew Seminary in Madison, NJ. When this imposing women appeared out of nowhere, I was struck by her exuberance, the trait she always brought to my classes. Our conversation went like this:

"Melissa Drake, what on earth?" (Big hugs). I recalled she loved to run summer youth camps and write academic papers.

"I'm Pastor Melissa now, for two churches in Iowa, one with over 200 members, the other with about fifteen. My favorite time is Sunday night--I host all the young people at my place for food and conversation."

After exchanging stories, I asked "How did Dordt affect you?"

"It was a good experience, and it prepared me for seminary--we did a lot of deconstructing texts [she smiled]. It also helped me see things in a different way, though I'm still a Methodist.
I mostly want my people to love Jesus.

"What are your plans, Pastor Melissa?"

"I'm ready to go or stay, wherever the church needs me."

In a recent email, she wrote that she is taking two online courses and will start teaching a Lay-Speakers class on Hospitality and Leadership. As to the women of '05 she writes, "I have as of yet to encounter again a group of such intelligent and wonderful girls all in one place. I believe those relationships and that group, along with the practice of getting together to engage in serious and silly discussion, will always be one of the most important experiences of my Dordt Career!" No doubt, Pastor Melissa will lead her congregations with the same infectious fervor she brought to Dordt.

A few weeks later, I heard from Jeff Gutierrez ('06). Last spring, he completed his Masters in Arts and Letters at Drew University, with a thesis on Thornton Wilder's structure of time in several plays. He's currently working on a second Masters at Boston College in English (or Interdisciplinary Studies, not sure which) and is considering Princeton for his Ph.D. A lover of scholarship, he writes that he "gave a conference paper on Tolkien at UC Riverside, and right before graduation...received the Robert Campbell Prize for Excellence in and Commmitment to Literature." Now at Boston College, Jeff is a Writing Fellow. He'll be giving a paper on C.S. Lewis at a conference in Boston later this year. Closing with, "Good times, keeping busy, sleeping when I can," he lives in Boston with wife Beth (Ochsner), who completed her Masters in Social Work at Columbia U last spring.

Cheryl Korthuis Hiemstra ('08 grad and editor of the Canon) also wrote this September, from her first year in law school: "Just wanted to say I'm using so many things I learned from you (and the rest of the English Dept, too) in law school. Already we've used Derrida's deconstruction in parsing out definitions of statutes and common law phrases." She reports thata her case briefs "are getting great reviews by the professor" and that she's "editing a Civil Procedure text written by one of [her] professors." This future attorney encourages us to be "just as thorough with your students this year."

Here are several other alums you might have wondered about. Andrew De Young ('05) completed his Masters in English at St. Thomas U, worked a year for a publishing company, and has started his own publishing company, Replacement Press, with his wife Sarah (Versluis). Rosemarie Grantham ('05) manages an Apple Computer store in the "silicon valley" of California. When we last talked, she laughed at her resistance to teaching, now admitting she loves to teach her customers how to use their computers, to solve problems for her company, and to manage the "boys" who work in her store. Gloria Ayee ('06) emailed in February to say she'd finished her Masters in Liberal Studies at Duke and works as a research associate with the Center on Globalization, Governance, and Competitiveness at Duke. She began her Ph.D. in Political Science at Duke this fall. She writes, "Although I have diverged from my English LIterature roots somewhat, I continue to see tremendous value in the wonderful Engish classes I took as an undergraduate." Linda Van Wyk ('07) emailed me last week from Kosin University in Busan, Korea, where she teaches English. "I've been here for over a year now, and I love it. I adore my students and it's been a lot of fun to teach them. I've even been able to teach a couple of lit. classes, which have been a joy to me." More recent grads, Julie Ooms and Jessica Assink ('08) are working on their Masters in English at Baylor University. When I saw Julie in San Antonio last fall, she raved about her program and said we'd prepared her well.

Sharla Dirksen Kattenberg ('04) met me in the Children's Park last week to talk about the lit. course she teaches in a small Christian school in Hull, Iowa. As her young son Willem endangered himself every minute with mud cakes, slides, and swings, she told how she loves being a mother of two toddlers and teaching high school English and chemistry. Mostly we talked about Shelley's Frankenstein and Austen's Pride and Prejudice, works she's currently teaching. She especially wonders what the women in Austen novels did with "all their time!"

I'll end this litany with news from '09 graduate Rachel De Smith. When Rachel began her Masters at Creighton U this fall, neither of us knew that Creighton houses the Center for Henry James Studies, which means Rachel's been reading much of his work. Though she doesn't sing his praises as loudly as I do (yet), she does appreciate his work. Good news is that she received a full scholarship as well as an assistantship. One of her favorite courses in one in editing texts. She writes that she holds a key to the HJ Center and will happily give any of us a tour. Way to go Rachel.

All you English major alums out there, let us hear from you!