The English department blog features lots of news of seniors and juniors and alumni—about their internship experiences, life after college, etc. English major Ana Fonseca figured it might be interesting to hear from some of the “newer” among us…here’s her spotlight on a few first-year majors.
I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with some cool first year students about their experiences as freshmen: choosing their major, classes, and of course, their favorite books! Get to know some of the new students you might have a class with or run into at the Fiction Writing Group, or whose work you might read in Writers Magazine, or hear presented at NUCL!
Sara Coito
Hometown: Modesto, CA
A fun fact about her: “I really like socks with legendary people on them, I wear legendary people on my body a lot. Right now I’m wearing a Walt Disney t-shirt, and I have Shakespeare on my socks. I think who people are inspired by says a lot about them, so I’m like, ‘Hey, I got Walt Disney on my shirt, Shakespeare on my socks, you be the judge!’”
Current English class she’s enrolled in: 354- American Literature Beginnings 1865
An English class you might have with her in the spring: Poetry Workshop, Introduction to Literary Studies with Prof. McDonald
Why did you choose English?
I’ve been writing my whole life, basically, I’ve been writing stories and things like that, so it’s always kind of been there. In elementary school I got labeled as the kid who was good at English, so I was like, “I don’t want to be labeled as anything,” and so I kind of stepped away from that, and then in high school, junior year, I decided I wasn’t going to be in denial anymore! I was like, “Sara, you should embrace this,” and I kind of just embraced my love of words. I’m so fascinated by language, how it shapes everything and how you can use it as a weapon; it holds so much more power than people realize. I’ve discovered that what I’ve learned most about the world, I’ve learned through books. For me, society kind of numbs everything, and you can only ever learn to feel for people when you are able to step into their shoes, and literature provides that with all the different worlds you can step into.
What kind of writing do you do?
I started out with stories, my first story ever that I actually found when I was going through things this summer was titled, “When I Saw God.” I don’t know, it’s really cute, I like, bound it with stickers. I’ve progressed from stories to creative non-fiction essays and now I’m really into poetry.
What do you write about?
I write a lot about what I see in the world, and how that makes me feel on a bigger scale, and what that means in terms of our culture. I remember at one point I wrote an essay about how the London embassy was attacked because I was really distraught by that, mostly because there was big contrast between the day before and the day of; I went to bed with so much hope and I woke up with it gone. I wrote about how I didn’t understand how people didn’t think things through, why is it that as humans we just do what feel more than what we do for others? I kind of explore that a lot, the idea of compassion.
What kind of literature do you enjoy reading?
I love everything. I could read anything. I’ve recently been getting into a lot of Barbara Kingsolver’s creative non-fiction stuff, like High Tide in Tuscon, I read that last year and I loved it. As far as favorites of all time, I love Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare, it’s fantastic. I love The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I’m kind of obsessed with Pearl, she’s probably one of my favorite literary characters of all time. The Elegance of the Hedgegog by Muriel Barbery is one of my more recent favorites, and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, I read it in high school and I’m reading it again because it’s a fantastic read. And Atonement by Ian McEwan, basically anything by Ian McEwan makes me cry. That was so real for me, that wasn’t even a novel; that was real life.
What English classes or events are you looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to taking some creative writing workshops and seeing what other people think of my work and seeing what other people have to share because I think it would just be really cool, it fascinates me what people choose to write about.
How’s your English class this semester going?
It’s cool seeing the American ideology develop and how it changes and transforms, which I think is my favorite part of it.
What do you want to do with your degree?
I really, really want to write. I want to publish my writing not for my own benefit, but I want to share my writing in order to awaken others like I’ve been awakened. So many times I think we get so caught up in this tunnel vision and focus only on what’s right ahead of us, and we never look around to appreciate things, just like in general, and just look around to notice that the world is so much more than what’s happening within ourselves. I have this huge theory that pieces of ourselves are in other people and other things, and so if we don’t interact with those around us, or certain objects and experiences around us, we’ll never fully understand ourselves. That’s kind of my life philosophy, and I want to share that with everybody.
Catherine Tangen
Hometown: Bonney Lake, WA
Some fun facts about her: “I’ll go with my go-to thing, I lived in Italy for seven years. If you want something more low-key, I play clarinet!”
Current English class she’s enrolled in: English 112 with Dr. Weiger
A class you might have with her in the spring: Introduction to Literary Studies with Dr. Orr
Why did you choose UP?
When I visited I heard a College of Arts and Sciences presentation and Dr. Hiro was a speaker. We analyzed “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, and she was like, “Achieve uncertainty!” and I was like, “Yes!” and everything was awesome.
Why did you choose English?
It was just something I always knew I was going to do, in middle school I knew I wanted to teach. I knew I didn’t want to teach elementary, I knew I wanted to teach middle or high school, and I couldn’t think of any other subject I wanted to teach but English. I’m going to get my Master’s in Education after. I’ve had great English teachers in high school, and I feel like with English, I can teach more than just the subject. I love it when teachers do that. Like, in math I had the greatest teacher, I learned about math, but I also learned how to keep going, even through the hard parts and the struggle. I want to be able to teach more than just the subject. And I want to write a book one day.
Do you do any tutoring or teaching-related activities?
I volunteer as a tutor at Roosevelt High. Last week I actually helped a girl proof an article, and she’s a senior and she’s really set on journalism and is going to major in it, and it was really cool to help her because she’s already starting her work.
What kind of literature do you enjoy?
My favorite genre is children’s fantasy. There’s one quote I want to live by, it’s by C.S. Lewis: “Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again,” and I always want to be old enough. So of course, Narnia and Harry Potter really affected me and my imagination while growing up and still to this day. I also like Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities will forever be my favorite), Hemingway, and Cornelia Funke.
Do you do any personal writing?
I have a blog that just I started; it doesn’t have any followers (laughs). And I’ve tried little bit of writing stories and poetry.
What English classes or events are you looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to NUCL. And I’m excited to take British Renaissance Literature at some point.
Emily Fitzgerald
Hometown: Hillsboro, OR
Some fun facts about her: “I horseback ride. I live close enough that I can go home so I can go ride Saturday afternoons. We own a horse his name is Ace and he’s a doofus but we love him. I also love to travel, I’ve been travelling over summers for a while, I’ve been to Germany, Austria, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt.”
Current class she’s enrolled in: 354- American Literature Beginnings 1865
A class you might have with her in the spring: 355- American Literature 1864-1914, Introduction to Literary Studies with Prof. McDonald
Why did you choose UP?
My older sister is a junior here and I visited while I was in high school and I spent the night. I liked the English program, and I eventually chose UP because I liked the atmosphere and the classes that were offered. I like UP because all of these teachers have Ph.D’s in what they love and they are teaching what they love, and that transfers into their classes.
Why did you choose English?
I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I knew that I loved reading and I loved writing so the English major just kind of fit for me. I loved all of my English teachers and they all encouraged me to go that way, and I thought, yeah, I’ll go that way, and if I want to add a major English is great to pair with things.
What do you want to do with your degree?
Right now I’m leaning toward journalism, and I’d love to write books some day; fiction, children’s literature, I think.
What are some of the ways that you’ve been involved on campus so far?
I’m writing for the Log, and it’s really busy! I’ve also been to the Fiction Writing group, it’s fun and we talk about things and get off topic and end up talking about books.
What kind of literature do you enjoy?
I like older children’s literature, like Treasure Island. And I love Harry Potter! I like the third one best but they are all awesome; I reread them annually, it’s kind of a thing. I really like John Green, The Fault in Our Stars, and The Book Thief by Marcus Zusack. I also like The Great Gatsby, I’ve got the name so I felt a little obligated to read it!