Patrick Stickles, class of 2008

Patrick Stickles is the lead singer and songwriter of up and coming indy rock band Titus Andronicus.

Their cd, The Airing of Grievances, has been favorably reviewed in Spin and Blender.

Visit their web page for news on the band. As the band's suggests, Titus Andronicus tends toward very literate songs, with song titles drawn from Shakespeare, Hunter Thomspon, and Albert Camus. See the band interviewed here. See them performing "Upon Viewing Brueghel's 'Landscape with the Fall of Icarus'" here.(See disclaimer below.)

Carla De Gironimo, class of 2007

            As a presidential scholar, I graduated summa cum laude from Ramapo in May of 2007, having completed the secondary teacher certification program and with a degree in Literature.  In my last few weeks of student teaching at Indian Hills High School in Oakland, I was offered the opportunity to return to the school as a permanent substitute for the month of June.  In that month, I learned not only that I could handle a classroom of my own, but that teaching English was definitely what I wanted to do.
            Revising and re-revising my resume, I began actively searching for an English teacher position.  I interviewed both in central and northern New Jersey, not knowing where I would find myself come September.  I was offered a maternity leave replacement position, but I followed someone’s advice and did what was best for me.  I interviewed and gave a demo lesson at Waldwick High School in the weeks to come, and was offered a full-time English teaching position there. 
I credit my success in standing out during these interviews to the experiences that shaped me during my time at Ramapo.  At Ramapo I became a member of several honor societies, including Sigma Tao Delta and Omicron Kappa Delta.  As an intern for the Margaret Sanger Papers Project at NYU my junior year, I learned valuable researching skills that help me as a teacher.  Ramapo’s proximity to Campgaw Mountain gave me a chance to try ski instructing after classes.  Friendships I made during college with international students even helped me understand cultural nuances and proper enunciations in the literature I read.  The variety of opportunities available at Ramapo is the reason that I am now returning to pursue a graduate degree there.
            It is now almost September, 2008, and I am preparing to return to Waldwick High School for my second year.  At Waldwick I teach Journalism and ninth grade English.  I am also the advisor to the school newspaper, The Echo, for the second year in a row.  Advice I give my students is to take advantage of every opportunity college has to offer.  Try things out that you might not ordinarily do.  Go to the opera on one of those $15 all-inclusive trips, and stop by to listen to a guest speaker who might actually have something interesting to say. 

Matt Hannafin, Class of 85

The year is 1981. Ronald Reagan is in the White House and Barack Obama is in college across the Hudson, at Columbia. Me, I’m at Ramapo, at orientation, and I find that you need to have something called a “major.” I’m clueless. I have no idea what I want to do with my life. So my mother chimes in: “You’ve always been a good writer, and you like to read. Why don’t you become a literature major?” This, to her (a professional dancer) and my father (a professional actor and singer), was probably a solid career move.  Me, I just didn’t know, but I signed on the dotted line anyway and spent four years studying American, Irish, and Russian literature with legends like Denis Murphy, Pavle Batinic, and Tony Padavano. It was fun. It was inspiring. It opened up whole new worlds. And then, on graduation day 1985, they opened the door, put a boot on my rear, and kicked me out into the real world -- still completely clueless about how I was supposed to make my way.

So of course, I went to graduate school.

Fast-forward a few years. Graduate school had been fun, but essentially a bust since I had no interest in teaching -- and that’s pretty much what people who have advanced liberal arts degrees do: Ask your professors. It’s now the early ’90s. Bill Clinton has just been inaugurated to his first term, and I’m talking to a friend who has contacts at a small publishing company in New York. It’s like an episode of The Sopranos: “So, uh, did you talk to them about me? You tell them. Tell them I’m a good earner. They’ll see.” And he did, and I got an interview. At which point I ran out to a bookstore, bought a slim volume called The Fine Art of Copyediting, and memorized it over the course of a long weekend.

Short story: I got the job, and entered a truly surreal world -- not book publishing exactly, but “subsidy publishing,” which is a fancy way of saying the authors pay to have their own books printed. To our credit, we really tried to make those memoirs, political tracts, and lunatic ramblings coherent and readable, but it was like walking point on a fire mission. I had to deal with every level of writing skill, every possible topic (“You have demons in your icebox? That sounds fascinating”), and every possible tic of the English language -- and within 18 months I’d learned more than any entry-level editor at a mainstream publisher ever would.

But 18 months was enough. Soon, I learned of a temp opening at a major publisher, filling in for a production editor on maternity leave. The gamble was that if they liked me, I might wind up with a permanent position -- and the gamble paid off. After two years I make the unusual move from production to editorial, starting as an associate editor at the company’s travel books imprint.

I work. I scramble. I rewrite. I hire authors. I fire authors. I drink lots of coffee. I plan new books. I work and work and work. Within four years I’ve been promoted to senior editor, and begin writing freelance travel articles for various newspapers and magazines. At this point, the time feels right for another leap, so I leave to work at a promising Internet start-up -- which fails within ten months, crashing with a giant thud just before 9/11.

But here’s the good part: For seven year I’d been amassing a large Rolodex of coworkers who’d moved on to new companies. Five minutes after I get my pink slip, I’m e-mailing every one of them, saying I’m now available for freelance writing and editorial work. Within 30 minutes I’ve lined up enough to keep me busy for a month. Within a month I’ve lined up enough to keep me busy for a year. And within a year I’ve realized there’s no end in sight. It turns out freelancing is the most stable job there is.

In the eight years since, I’ve been without work for exactly two days. Often, I have more than I know what to do with. Some of it is writing -- I’ve now authored half a dozen travel guidebooks and hundreds of articles, and traveled from Siberia to the Venetian Lagoon pursuing stories. I also keep my hand in the editorial world, doing the full range from rewrite and top-level editing to detail-oriented copyediting, and my client list includes major consulting firms, UN agencies, publishers, non-profits, and political candidates.

So what’s the moral of the story? I guess there are a few: (1) Don’t be afraid to start small and weird -- you can learn a lot that way. (2) Don’t be afraid to make a leap, even if you’re not sure where you’ll land. (3) Work like a demon, learn every job you can in your field, and make sure people know how well you can do them.

Oh, and if someone asks if you have a particular skill, say “yes.” Even if you don’t, you can probably fake your way until you have time to learn it.

Finally: Trust your mother -- or at least mine. That lit major thing worked out in the end.

Jo Ann Drolshagen, Class of 2004

I decided to return to college three years ago when I was promoted to a Reference Desk position in the public library where I am employed. I work in the Children's department of the library and find that working with children is fun and rewarding. I enjoy getting middle school students information for their reports and hearing from their mothers how my efforts has made the difference in their grades. It is exciting to see how the faces of our youngest patrons light up when I can find a copy of their favorite video whether it is The Wiggles, Bob the Builder, or perhaps, for their big sisters, the latest Mary Kate and Ashley movie. With the satisfaction I was receiving at my position, it was clear that the obvious move would be to receive the training to become a professional Children's Librarian.

Since I dropped out of college twenty years ago, I needed to get my undergraduate degree first before I could specialize. Literature was the obvious choice for my major; I am passionate about reading. My husband likes to tease me about being a "bookworm."

The evaluative skills that I learned in my Literature classes are put to a practical application when I lead the Adult book discussion group at work; I can critically judge books to be chosen for the group. The ability to create questions to keep the discussion moving along was also honed during my classes at Ramapo. Literature, therefore, is important on both a personal and professional level for me.

The internship that I had the honor of working on in the Fall of 2003 was the highlight of my education at Ramapo: The Harriet Jacobs Papers at Pace University. Working with the noted historian Dr Jean Fagin Yellin, I had the opportunity of first hand experience in the field of academic publishing.

Currently, I am enrolled in Long Island University's Palmer School of Information and Library Science program. I expect to earn a Master's in this specialty in 2006.

When I returned to the US, I entered graduate school in pursuit of an English PhD, but realized that I preferred non-academic work when I found myself enjoying my job in the university's communications department more than my scholarly research. I left the PhD program with a masters and edited one college's alumni magazines, which entailed interviewing professors and writing about their research. Communications in nonprofits is always tied to development, which is the professional term for fundraising and my field for the past seven years. At university jobs, I wrote fundraising letters to alumni, brochures for programs and events, web page copy, and lots more.

After that I worked at an art museum and focused more on writing grant proposals for sponsors of exhibitions and education programs. Most recently I've worked to raise money for youth organizations that provide programs in poor communities. As a grantwriter, I've had to acquire a strong knowledge of the field, which entails a lot of research, and I need to condense a lot of relevant information into concise written proposals. I also work on fundraising letters and campaigns, which involves marketing questions like how to craft our message, and lots of logistical questions regarding our donor database, timing, costs, etc. And of course, we need to be able to talk clearly and persuasively about what we do to a wide variety of people.

Obviously I think nonprofit development can be a really good field for literature majors. It's a good mixture of art and science, of business and social commitment. My work has often involved rewriting specialized texts for general audiences, which is a broadly useful skill that lit majors tend to develop through wide reading and a clear writing style. And nonprofit development is rewarding because there is (usually) important work at stake, work that won't get done unless ordinary people are convinced to write a check. My current organization is called Bay Fund, located in San Francisco, and we make a ten-year commitment to help disadvantaged youth finish high school and be the first in their families to graduate college. I see these young people every day and know that to continue to help them and reduce the growing rich-poor gap, we need compellingly written, smartly strategized development material. So if any alumni want advice or information about working in development, feel free to email me at chammer6@hotmail.com. Thanks!