By Morgan Mann
After a tenth grade career goal change-of-heart, followed by years of whole-heartedly pursuing her dream of becoming an editor, Hannah Robinson is now living that dream. At UP, Hannah always showed a sense of pleasant professionalism and a potential for greatness. Hannah graduated in 2014, and has been living in New York working hard, learning lots, celebrating small victories, and using her UP education every day.
Following a successful internship at HarperCollins the summer before her senior year, Hannah returned after graduation for a second internship. She then stayed on as a temp, and six weeks later began her current job as an editorial assistant at Harper Wave. This has brought an abundance of new exciting experiences to her post-grad life. “I’ve been in my current position a little over a year and couldn’t be happier with it,” Hannah reflects. “I get to work closely with amazing talented writers, journalists, doctors, chefs, thinkers—it’s exhilarating.”
Amid this whirlwind of hard work are a year of exciting firsts in her career and her life. She says that in her work, “an exciting/important moment was acquiring my first books. Getting to witness firsthand what it means to advocate for my authors and shape a reader’s experience is the most amazing gift this early on in my career.” In her life outside work, she says there’s been “so many firsts: first lease (nobody tells you how crazy all that paperwork is…), first real winter, finding a new friend group, learning a new city… this whole year has given new meaning to ‘learning curve’ and ‘trial by fire’ haha.” But she’s also worked hard to have work-life balance, especially in a workaholic city like NYC, and knows that “it’s all about the little victories.”
And how did she get to this amazing point in her life—equally full of work and excitement? By chasing her dream, and by getting her English degree here at UP. “I lucked out that I’m in the business of reading and writing,” Hannah says, “so I get to put my degree to more obvious use than some (you’re welcome, Mom!).” She connects being an editor fulfilling an author’s vision to being an English major analytically finding what’s missing in a text. More specifically, “There is one thing, though, that I learned from Dr. Asarnow freshman year that really stuck with me,” she recalls. “Herman talked about the importance of ‘pattern, pattern, variation.’ You have to pay attention to both and worrying how they interact is where the magic happens.” She continued, “I use my degree every day of my life, but I think that English majors are especially primed to notice, appreciate, and analyze pattern/variation dynamics.”
After such great post-grad success, Hannah has some equally great advice. For those who dream of going into publishing like she has, she stresses the importance of getting an internship, since “publishing is one of the few truly apprentice-based industries left and the only way to start is at the very bottom.” And for any dream, it’s important to…
“Be patient (people traditionally get their jobs about the time they’re sobbing on the phone to their mom every night, eyeing a dwindling savings account and three seconds from throwing in the towel). Cruel, but unfortunately not unusual. Also, be open to what comes your way. I almost didn’t accept my position because it wasn’t fiction-based, but it turns out that I love publishing non-fiction! You rarely know until you try it, and there’s no shame in experience.”
A lot has changed for Hannah since her time at UP, and yet some things have stayed the same. She has the same friendly professionalism, and although her lifestyle and reading habits (now primarily nonfiction and contemporary women’s fiction) have changed, she has maintained her good humor and Portland stance on umbrellas, saying, “Why millions of New Yorkers think that umbrellas are a practical rain-avoidance strategy when you can hardly walk down the sidewalk as it is I will never understand.”
The English Department is proud of Hannah Robinson for achieving her dreams, and for being an example of how much a University of Portland alum can achieve.