English Special Opportunities
Giovanni Scarimbolo ’19
Jen Lunsford ’04
Internships
Students are encouraged to complete internships in areas of particular interest to them. Recent internships completed by our students include:
- Kristin Alexander ’14, Archival Research Internship, Special Collections, Hartwick College
- Taimor Qazi ’15, Social Media Intern, Marketing and Communications Department, Hartwick College
- Rose Snyder ’15, Teaching-assistant/Intern, FYS-Engl155, “Representations of the Masculine in Film and Fiction,” Hartwick College
- Dana Vinyard ’16, year-long internship in Marketing, Public Relations, Event Planning, with Springbrook, Milford, NY
- Charlie Feher-Peiker ’17, Teaching-assistant/Intern, FYS-Engl155, “Representations of the Masculine in Film and Fiction,” Hartwick College
- Lauren Hess ’16, Erica Stockman ’16, Rachel Kulik ’16, Web-design internship (designing websites for local farmers), Kemper Scholars Grant Program
- Ariana Lenetis ’17, Internship teaching English, helping with fundraisers, and updating various social media platforms, NGO, Chiang Mai, Thailand
- Kristen Amrhein ’18, Kevin Blake ’17, Tom Gillon ’17, Morgan Halperin ’19, Elizah Hernande, ’18, Mae Shea ’18, “Brand Launch and Development Internship,” social media marketing, ForLovers.com
- Kayla Martinez ’18, Liz Giedraitis ’18, Wyatt Long ’20, designers, online course version of Keith Granet’s The Business of Design (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011) and The Business of Creativity (Princeton Architectural Press, 2016)
The Writing Underground & Word of Mouth
The Writing Underground meets weekly to conduct student-run writing workshops and collaborative writing projects. The club also sponsors open-mike readings as well as readings by writers visiting the campus. In Spring Term, members constitute the editorial board of the college literary magazine Word of Mouth, an anthology of student poetry, prose, and artwork. The club’s activities are shaped by the members every year and have included informal play production, radio programming, letterpress printing, publication design, and performance poetry.
Hilltops, the newspaper written for and by students
The reporters, editors, and photographers who compose the Hilltops staff are an eclectic group of students from various disciplines, but traditionally a substantial number have been English majors, many of whom have gone on to internships at larger newspapers or to similar positions in radio or television. Interested parties can attend the annual organizational meeting and workshop in early September: previous experience in journalism is not a prerequisite. In addition to its print run, Hilltops is also published online and can be followed on Twitter.
Visiting Writers Series and New American Writing Festival
Hartwick’s Visiting Writing Series and New American Writing Festival bring noted and diverse writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to campus for readings, lectures, and performances. Visiting writers frequently engage directly with students via class visits and workshops. Previous visitors have been Nobel Prize Laureates, U.S. Poet Laureates, and winners of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Queen’s Medal for Literature (U.K.), and many others. Recent readers include Derek Walcott, Marilynne Robinson, and Robert Pinsky.
The Anna Sonder Prize
Each Spring, the Department holds a competition for the best poem by a Hartwick student. The prize is cooperatively administered by the Department and the Academy of American Poets in New York City and is awarded in memory of Anna Sonder, the mother of Professor Otto Sonder of the Sociology Department, who has generously endowed the prize forever in her name. Established in 1979, the competition awards $100 to the writer of the poem that is judged best by a committee of department faculty members. The winner also receives a one-year membership to the Academy of American Poets. The winning poem is published in the college literary magazine Word of Mouth.
The Writing Center
Students with strong writing ability and who have been recommended by faculty have the opportunity to gain valuable language and teaching skills by serving as tutors in the Writing Center. The Center provides a range of editorial services to students of all majors who desire extra help with a writing project—be it a paper for class, an application for graduate school, a cover letter for employment, or any other writing-related need. Tutors work closely with the Writing Center Coordinator to gain practical strategies for providing editorial assistance to fellow students as well as to improve their own language skills. To learn more, please visit the Writing Center webpage.
Sigma Tau Delta
As a declared major or minor in English or Writing, you may be invited to join the Gamma Pi chapter of the International English Honorary Society, Sigma Tau Delta (established 1981). The requirements for membership in Sigma Tau are as follows:
- declared major or minor in English/Writing
- completion of at least three units of English (excluding Composition 110)
- a 3.0 minimum GPA in all classes
- a 3.0 minimum GPA in English classes
The purpose of Sigma Tau is not only to honor students who appreciate good writing but to help promote that love in others. Sigma Tau has sponsored readings by guest writers and our own talent, celebrated Shakespeare’s birthday and Walt Whitman Day, and hosted October campfire readings.
Every year Sigma Tau awards national scholarships to English majors. Members in good standing are also allowed to wear honor cords in the Sigma Tau Delta colors at Commencement.
Student Awards & Honors
Hartwick’s Honors Convocation takes place in May. The ceremony is a community-wide event in which faculty, staff, students and parents recognize the academic accomplishments of the student body. More than 175 awards are granted by academic departments and programs, as well as by several staff departments. Academically exceptional students who are also campus leaders are nominated by faculty in their discipline to be Faculty Scholars, six of whom receive the college’s highest academic honor: designation as a John Christopher Hartwick Scholar.
John Christopher Hartwick Scholars
2017 – 2018
- Meghan (“Mae”) Shea ’18 [English/Business Admin.]
2016 – 2017
- Charlie Feher-Peiker ’17 [English/Philosophy]
- Jenny McInerney ’17 [English/History/Education]
2015 – 2016
- Cosima Compton ’16 [English/Business Admin.]
- Honour Harlowe ’16 [English/Art History]
Faculty Scholars
2017
- Elizabeth (“Lizzy”) Giedraitis ’18 [English/Political Science]
- Meghan (“Mae”) Shea ’18 [English/Business Admin.]
2016
- Charlie Feher-Peiker ’17 [English/Philosophy]
- Kevin Blake ’17 [English/Biology]
- Jenny McInerney ’17 [English/History/Education]
Richard K. Meeker Award (for the Outstanding Senior in English Studies)
- Alexander Athanail ’17
- Kevin Blake ’17
- Malek Charchour ’16
- Thomas Gillon ’17
- Lauren Hess ’16
- Rachel Kulik ’15
- Erica Stockman ’17
Andrew B. Saxton Undergraduate Fellowship(awarded to a rising junior or rising senior on the basis of exceptional gpa in the major )
- Kayla Martinez ’18
- Erica Stockman ’17
Joan B. Gratz Prize (awarded to a rising junior majoring in English whose strong academic record and enthusiasm for the study of literature point to graduate work and a career as a successful teacher of literature)
- Rachel Weir ’19
- Kayla Martinez ’18
Anna Sonder Prize of the Academy of American Poets
- Martha Daniel ’17
- Malek Charchour ’16
- Tiffany Metty ’16
Hartwick College Honor Society
- Kevin Blake ’17
- Martha Daniel ’17
- Charlie Feher-Peiker ’17
- Morgan Riggins ’17
- Sarah Sperling ’17
- Erica Stockman ’17
- Shyanne DeBaker ’16
John F. Kingston Award in Theatre (awarded to a deserving Theatre Arts student)
- Maddie Noel ’19 [English/Theatre Arts major]