I first came to Cedarville in the fall of 2021 with a declared major in Communication, but I had no …
I vividly remember the emotions that come with being a senior in high school. Probably because of the number of …
Graduation looms a few months in my future. Like a swarm of vultures circling a carcass, people shriek the daunting …
Are you curious about what students will learn in our new Editing in Publishing Context course? What does the curriculum …
Sitting in Tyler 102, I eagerly waited for Intro to Professional Writing, my first Professional Writing and Information Design (PWID) class, to begin. Students filed in, some greeting the professor, and took their seats at the rows of tables facing the projector. Excitement cascaded through me. This is it; I’m finally here!
After trying out two different majors, my four-year plan was a mess. At this point, no one looking at my schedule could tell what I wanted to do with my future—and neither could I. My dream of one day looking forward to the “big kid” world of a stable job seemed to slip away into hoping I could make it to graduation changing my major less than ten times.
Graduation looms a few months in my future. Like a swarm of vultures circling a carcass, people shriek the daunting …
Group projects are an inevitable part of college, especially in the Professional Writing program at Cedarville. But don’t let this scare you! Like many others, I prefer to complete assignments by myself rather than with a group. However, my time as a professional writing student has shown me the beauty and importance of working with others.
I wish it came easy. I wish I could sit down and write. I wish there wasn’t always a battle. It was only a few months before I graduated high school that God made it perfectly clear to me PWID was where He wanted me.
I have never been very confident in my grammar, spelling, or punctuation skills. I remember sitting in my 4th grade grammar class and absolutely dreading having to recall the definition of a predicate out loud. In my mind, editing was equivalent to math: it was confusing, rigid, and frankly, very boring. And little did I know that editing would be a central part of my future career path and, ironically, one of my favorite things to do.
My editing internship at an economics office this summer required that I dabble in free market philosophy. I had been trying to read one meaty article, scratching through the pages with underlines and question marks and brief abstractions of the text. But what I found at the end of this scholarly essay was a line of music, of rhythm, timbre, pitch.
“If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.” I’d heard this quote a million times but never felt like applied to me. I lived with the fear that I wasn’t on the path to doing what I loved. After many mental breakdowns, four major changes, and a lot of creative projects that I’m proud of, I’m happy to say that in three weeks I will graduate and find a job where I can do what I love and never have to work a day in my life. All because of PWID.
When I first came into PWID, the whole internship process seemed mystical, terrifying, and like a very “grown up” thing to do for someone who wasn’t even sure she was on the right career path. I kind of looked forward to it, because it sounded like something that would make me feel like a real professional and help me grow my skills, but I was mostly filled with a sense of dread—how would I find an internship? Would I like it? Would my classes truly prepare me for the experience?
Naomi Leak is a 2018 Professional Writing and Information Design graduate. She recently started working for Sparkbox, a web design and development company located in Dayton, Ohio. In this interview with Naomi, she describes her position as Communication Specialist and explains how she landed the job. She also offers advice for current PWID students who are preparing for internships and full-time jobs after graduation.
People always talk about “doing what you love” or “finding your passion.” Poetic and valid, yes, but the process is not exactly one-size-fits-all. You can’t discover your passion from a Google search. I came to Cedarville undeclared—I had no idea what to do with myself. I wasn’t overly worried, but I was on the edge of my proverbial seat, waiting for what the next chapter in my story might be about. Turns out, the Lord wrote it better than I ever could have.
As a freshman, I thought that I was sentenced to scrubbing dishes in the dining hall for my next four years at Cedarville. I listened to upper-level Professional Writing and Information Design students talk about client projects and job offers from organizations. I knew that an internship would eventually come, but I had no idea where to start.
I made significant progress, yet I ended up back where I started. How is that possible? In the fall of 2000, when I stepped on the Cedarville University campus as a freshman for Getting Started weekend, my parents made me get my picture taken with the campus mascot, known as “the bee”, because I was too nervous and embarrassed. I was uncovering my interests and gaining my footing as a young, independent adult.
I first came to Cedarville in the fall of 2021 with a declared major in Communication, but I had no …
I vividly remember the emotions that come with being a senior in high school. Probably because of the number of …
Graduation looms a few months in my future. Like a swarm of vultures circling a carcass, people shriek the daunting …
Sitting in Tyler 102, I eagerly waited for Intro to Professional Writing, my first Professional Writing and Information Design (PWID) class, to begin. Students filed in, some greeting the professor, and took their seats at the rows of tables facing the projector. Excitement cascaded through me. This is it; I’m finally here!
After trying out two different majors, my four-year plan was a mess. At this point, no one looking at my schedule could tell what I wanted to do with my future—and neither could I. My dream of one day looking forward to the “big kid” world of a stable job seemed to slip away into hoping I could make it to graduation changing my major less than ten times.
As I prepare to submit the first draft of my portfolio, I can’t help but take a look at what I’ve become. Before coming to Cedarville, I was a nervous wreck: I couldn’t handle the responsibility of becoming a full-grown adult. I’m doing all sorts of things that I had never pictured myself doing.