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English, Literature, Media & Writing Special Opportunities
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.
VISITING WRITERS SERIES
Hartwick’s Visiting Writing Series brings 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.
Additional opportunities to engage with inspirational writers.
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.
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.
2021-2022
Cara Dugan ’22
2019-2020
Hannah Warren ’20
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]
2021
Emily Kliment ’23
Mia Capanna ’23
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]
Awarded to the Outstanding Senior in English Studies.
Anna Craig ’22
Rebecca Peakes ’22
Cara Dugan ’22
Sarah Grassi ’21
Alexander Athanail ’17
Kevin Blake ’17
Malek Charchour ’16
Thomas Gillon ’17
Lauren Hess ’16
Rachel Kulik ’15
Erica Stockman ’17
Awarded to a rising junior or rising senior on the basis of exceptional gpa in the major.
Ashtyn Allen ’23
Sofia Escobar ’23
Kayla Martinez ’18
Erica Stockman ’17
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.
Sara VanValkenburg ’24
Rachel Weir ’19
Kayla Martinez ’18
Martha Daniel ’17
Malek Charchour ’16
Tiffany Metty ’16
Kevin Blake ’1
Martha Daniel ’17
Charlie Feher-Peiker ’17
Morgan Riggins ’17
>Sarah Sperling ’17
Erica Stockman ’17
Shyanne DeBaker ’16
Awarded to a deserving Theatre Arts student.
Maddie Noel ’19 [English/Theatre Arts major]
Internships
Students are encouraged to complete internships in areas of particular interest to them. Recent internships completed by our students include:
- Kristen Amrhein ’18, 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)
- 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
- 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
- Charlie Feher-Peiker ’17, Teaching-assistant/Intern, FYS-Engl155, “Representations of the Masculine in Film and Fiction,” Hartwick College
- Kevin Blake ’17, Tom Gillon ’17, “Brand Launch and Development Internship,” social media marketing, ForLovers.com
Writing Center & Consultants
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 consultants 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. Consultants 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.
SIGMA TAU DELTA
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:
- 3.0 GPA Overall
- 3.3 GPA in ENGL classes
- 9 completed ENGL credits (not counting ENGL 101, ENGL 110, or ENGL 111)
- 3 completed semesters of college coursework
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.
In recent years, students have also presented papers at the international Sigma Tau Delta Convention, including in Denver, Colorado in 2023 and at the centennial convention in St. Louis, Missouri in 2024.