Underclassmen re-inventing English department
By Claire Fitzgibbons ’19, Staff Writer
Two LVC underclassmen English majors are revamping the department.
Lauren Walters and Leila May, both sophomore English majors, have both begun to create out-of-class events and socials for English majors to attend to get to know each other and the department better. The goal of these events is to build connections between English majors and teach them more about the services and groups the department offers.
“As a freshman, I changed my major to English and creative writing for my second semester, so I was personally introduced to a lot of the people I’m now friends with,” Walters said. “Through talking to other first-year students last year, I realized that many of them didn’t know about the preexisting groups like writers’ group, Green Blotter and La Vie, and wanted spaces to be in each other’s company outside the classroom.”
When Walters and May came up with the idea of hosting English socials, they thought it would be a way to cultivate relationships amongst the department and improve the skills that English and creative writing majors need to be successful.
“I think there’s a misconception about English and writing as solitary activities,” Walters said. “Like most things, there are individual aspects of the majors, but our skills as readers, writers and deep thinkers are developed through workshops and discussion. It can be difficult to workshop and have these discussions when you don’t know the people in your major. Providing space outside of class to form a tighter community will ultimately have a positive impact in the classroom as well.”
Sally Clark, Assistant Professor of English, feels that Walters and May’s proactivity will be very beneficial to the English department as a whole.
“Building community for our English and creative writing majors is something that is important to all of the faculty in our department,” she said. “Unfortunately, things get so busy that it often falls under the radar. I was excited that Lauren and Leila had a vision for what they wanted to do and they were able to pull so much of it together.”
Walters and May are hoping to be able to pull even more of these events together in the future. In the next few months, they hope to host an open mic night and bus trips to places featuring topics related to the field of English and creative writing. If all goes according to plan, English majors can plan on attending these kinds of events for years to come.