I chose to go with a more plain template to give off an aura of professionalism for my site. I also structured the artifacts I chose to reflect some of my strongest skills like critical thinking, problem solving, empathy, analysis, and synthesis. For the traditional paper, I chose the first major paper I wrote at CofC because it reflects my propensity to defend unconventional topics. Because of this, the paper required an extensive amount of research to defend my thesis, which shows my dedication and willingness to confront difficult tasks. For the genre remediation, I chose a video essay I constructed surrounding a research paper I wrote for a film noir class. I felt this project really embodied my ability to work across multiple mediums. For the free artifact option, I chose a paper I wrote for my American Gothic Literature class, but I divided it up into three separate blog posts to make it more online audience friendly. I think these blog posts show my interest in a variety of topics like racism in America, patriarchal values and their impact, and mental health in gothic film. I also added the delights blog post from this class to make my site a bit more personable. And I also chose to include the alum interview I conducted to show my interest in pursuing law. The other posts I included, like a short story and my poetry, show my willingness to be forthcoming in who I am as a person and will aid my audience in feeling like they know me as an individual. I plan to add my study abroad experiences in both Mexico City, where I studied indigenous and Spanish history, and Rome, where I’ll be studying law this July. Heres the link to my blog: juliannabhullar.wordpress.com !
Born and raised in Summerville, South Carolina, Hope Bergquist, a 2005 English alumna of College of Charleston had much to say about her experience at The College when I interviewed her. We covered her experience in the English department, as well as her life before and after, which all paved her path in becoming Senior Commercial Counsel at Zscaler, an IT security company offering enterprise cloud security services.
After attending high school in Summerville, Hope started college at the University of South Carolina. For her at this time, the distance from home was important for her independence. However, she found herself returning to Charleston on many occasions to soak up the coastal environment and downtown Charleston. She said, “I have so many more memories and connections with Charleston” so she decided to transfer to the College of Charleston. At the start of her junior year she began taking classes through the English department and immediately, she knew the change was a positive one.
When asked about how this transition went for her, she said, “I immediately was fully immersed in the English Department. The quality of the professors was phenomenal… [The College] was much closer to a small school atmosphere where I was getting lots of direct connections with students and professors… and I truly learned more.” Her favorite class at College of Charleston covered The Romantic Period, and her professor Bishop Hunt was such a profound influence in her academic studies that she took more of his classes afterward. He was a “larger than life kind of figure but very humble and kind of quiet… he kind of reminded me of an old English man..” she said while smiling.
“He was very thoughtful and did a nice job at challenging you to think about something in a different way… I really respected his opinion.. His classes were so enlightening.”
Hope also took one of Dr Myra Seaman’s first classes at College of Charleston. She said of Dr Seaman, “she was really new and she was great.” Additionally, while Hope thoroughly enjoyed learning about her favorite genres and authors of literature, like the Romantic Period and Chaucer, she was also very interested in “learning about the history surrounding when different pieces were written.. And what was going on outside of the [authors] lives that inspired their writing.” For her, it wasn’t only about analyzing written texts, but also understanding what was happening socially, politically, and culturally at the time of their conceptions.
In addition to being an English major, Hope was also a Historic Preservation minor. In one of the classes she took through this minor, she participated in the efforts of putting a historic downtown building on the historic preservation registry. She also interned with the Art Department for the Antique Symposium hosted each spring where she put together mailers, fielded calls from participants, as well as helped direct people and answer any questions they had at the event.
Then when graduation rolled around, she had already attended many career fairs and participated in interviews but was not exactly sure of what she wanted to pursue next. So, Hope decided to take some time off from academics and step into the working world. For her, “If you would’ve asked me at twenty-two what I wanted to do with my life, it would’ve been something completely different,” therefore looking back on this decision, Hope is grateful. She took odd jobs in stores and companies, one where she was an office manager, but it was her paralegal job in Alabama working for a construction defect litigator which had a most profound influence.
Her experience in court helped her see that life as a litigator was most likely not the path for her, but “the design and architecture element” piqued her interest and had her thinking about law school. Her experience as a paralegal was informed by her English degree as the job consisted of the “natural process of structuring sentences.” Law felt like her niche, and all her experience both academic and professional up to that point in time gave her the knowledge she needed for taking her next steps. Hope decided to return to Charleston and attend the Charleston School of Law with an interest in environmental law.
During her time in law school, Hope knew the experience of study abroad opportunities was invaluable. Therefore, she began searching for such experiences. She found a position to work with a Supreme Court justice in Ireland, but the timing didn’t align. Instead, she chose to study in Greece through Tulane University, during which she studied Maritime Law. Though it was an introductory course, she learned much about how maritime law has many similarities to U.S. law and differing aspects as well in legal proceedings. This knowledge equipped her with the skills to participate in Charleston School of Law’s moot court competition involving Maritime Law.
After graduating from law school, Hope clerked for a judge in Walterboro, South Carolina. During which, she provided legal counsel regarding the Alex Murdaugh case. After taking some time off after this clerkship, she then joined a law firm and gained more experience solidifying her decision to not pursue litigation. After trial and error, she decided she wanted to be a transactional lawyer and began working for Zscaler as she also had an interest in technology. There, she negotiates contracts with mostly high-profile and complex customers. With each customer, she “think[s] through how the contract impacts all parties [to come up with] the correct language on both sides.” In each of her endeavors, Hope has been informed by the priceless skills she learned while at the College of Charleston.
These skills include but are not limited to writing, creativity, reading comprehension, and attention to detail. In her current position at Zscaler, she says she’s “not speed reading.. It’s slow and there’s times where it’s tedious [because] everything is interconnected… [I’m] reading slowly but only to make sure [I’m] being thorough and catching all the details.” Her analytical skills learned through studying literature have aided her in creating contracts in which both sides “have language that works for them and [where] it allocates the responsibilities and risks [effectively] for [everyone].”
Hope currently resides in South Carolina where she’s closer to her family and is raising children with her husband. She works from home for Zscaler, which affords her the flexibility to manage her many responsibilities. Her experience at College of Charleston and the Charleston School of Law gave her many invaluable opportunities and skills which have positioned her well in her current line of work as a transactional lawyer.
I would first like to say I very much enjoyed being in class with you all and would like to thank Professor Seaman for a great semester.
As someone not graphic-design inclined (nice rhyme) I was not too selective in regards to the way my website looked. My favorite color is green so I chose the color green. In thinking about the structural aspect I just based it upon what I thought looked good. I hope it did.
For my artifacts I decided to choose the three pieces I thought I did well on throughout my career at Charleston. In looking back, I wish I better thought out how they attribute to my exact skills rather than looking for how well they perform comparatively to my work. In doing so I would probably pick things that are more musically inclined or close to the analyzation of music.
Going on the thought process of improving I think I could work better on the overall layout of my e-portfolio. I have friends that are more artistically inclined, so I wish I cooresponded closely with them in regard to the aesthetic portion of my portfolio.
Additionally, my website must have not saved properly as my blog post section and linkedin were not included during my presentation, but I will read those soon.
I further wish I had more ~professional~ photos of me, but that is more of a personal thing than directly pertaining to my portfolio. I do believe it would help my portfolio look better.
I’ve always had a knack for writing. I remember asking my mother for a typewriter when I was in the first grade. Once I got my hands on it, eight-year-old me was disappointed to realize that I didn’t have the vocabulary and sophistication to translate what I felt and thought onto paper in the way I wished to. It was slightly discouraging. However, I grew into this skill with experience and time. In the seventh grade, a poem I wrote about my Marine brother was published in a national student poetry collection. Novels and poems fascinated my young, overactive, and sensitive mind. I found solace in stories, but when it came time to apply to college I took a different route.
Following in the footsteps of my older brother Shawn, who was very influential in my personal growth from the age of sixteen, I joined the Air Force. While serving, I was a C-130J loadmaster in Jacksonville, Arkansas. I was very successful, earning accolades in my profession, and I developed many leadership skills that became essential to my worldview and how I operate. However, I had somewhat neglected my passion for written words. After honorably separating, I was in a sort of dilemma when it came to choosing my bachelor’s major for college. I wanted job security, but I also wanted to explore literature in more depth. After much thought, I decided to follow my heart by choosing English as my major.
Through this major, I learned much about literature, but I also realized that I was fascinated with film. Therein I spent years analyzing, dissecting, and synthesizing literature and film. The first in-depth research paper I wrote was during my Introduction to English Studies class at College of Charleston. I chose to focus on defending the stance that manga should be included in literary study and designated higher categorization. From this research paper, which required in depth critical thinking and problem-solving, a passion for the unconventional was born.
I prioritized the remainder of my classes on literary and film topics which embodied the unconventional. One of these classes was German Cinema in Exile: Film Noir, during which I learned the making of these films focused on displacement and perception. As an Air Force veteran, I was very intrigued by the themes of displacement and reintegration in WWII Veteran Noir films. For my research paper in this class, I analyzed in-depth The Blue Dahlia (1946) and Act of Violence (1948) with mental health as a main concern. This solidified for me even more that I have a niche for defending the unconventional: works, ideas, and opinions that are often overlooked or misunderstood.
Like George Anders states in his 2017 book ‘You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a “Useless” Liberal Arts Education,’ I was continually finding myself “ripe for an unusual new challenge” which is a unique disposition all employers seek out in applicants. My character developed as a child engaging with stories, adapting to a new environment as an Air Force loadmaster, and as a student in literary and film studies exemplifies I’m “bound to…leap into the unknown” (83). Moreover, I’ve found immense joy in doing so.
By focusing on the unconventional, I’ve developed a deeper understanding of myself as well as those unlike myself. This reflects my propensity for and development of empathy and improvisation, which are key in any workplace. I also took an American Gothic Literature class, which focused heavily on how gothic works raise essential questions in modern society from racism, patriarchal values, perception, and mental health. Analyzing and writing about the unconventional transitions smoothly into the workforce as many employers are looking for those “wanting to work on the frontier, being able to find insights, choosing the right approach, reading the room, and inspiring others” (179). This natural inclination of mine has been honed through my military background and studies of literature and film at College of Charleston.
Like Christian Madsbjerg states in his 2017 book ‘Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm,’ in a rapidly developing world focused on progressivism, “we need to learn through experience, and what we learn doesn’t have the same precision, rigor, or consistency as algorithms” (xi). Through my studies and focus on the unconventional, I’ve developed a deep understanding of social culture and “unspoken rules,” human behavior in greater cultural context, complexities which exist in our world, observation and theory making, as well as assumptions versus interpretation and strategy.
In any field, it’s paramount to be able “to understand new and unfamiliar contexts– political, technological, cultural– and to interpret their place in our increasingly interdependent world” (22). My studies and skills I’ve developed along the way have positioned me well for conquering such challenges. Additionally, my experience in the Air Force and in executive leadership positions on-campus have honed my capacities for communicating with a wide variety of people from multiple backgrounds. While I was in the Air Force, I was in charge of leading others to ensure safe loading and airdrop procedures of cargo on a multi-million dollar aircraft. I exemplified the skills necessary to complete multiple objectives and work well under pressure. Moreover, on-campus leadership positions further developed my skills to adapt, re-invent, communicate effectively, and accomplish associated goals. As an English major, I’ve been met with many challenges, but I’ve mastered the skills necessary to overcome them. Though I’m not entirely sure what I want to pursue next, my experiences will translate immensely well in the professional sphere and I’ll be a key asset to whichever profession I choose.
While designing my portfolio I really wanted to promote my writing so I chose the Pieria theme because, in the description of the theme, it said it was for displaying text. I wanted the homepage to be simple so then on the blog posts, I could have a lot of creativity with the design. I had a lot of fun reworking my essay about music because adding Spotify links that can play within the blog post made the essay super visual. That paper just worked really well within the blog format because I could also add the quote block to show the song verses.
I liked creating the blog because although it’s supposed to be a place for other people to look at our work and possibly connect with us for a job or career, however, it acts as an archive for myself. I think the website shows the abilities I have as a writer and how I can write about many different subjects well. I chose pieces that demonstrate my academic writing ability, journalism work, and my creative writing. I wanted to show a wide variety of subjects that I am familiar with, such as films, music, and social justice.
I wish I had more time just to play with the website and come up with the best possible way to display my work. The mechanical aspects of the website are what I wish I had more time on. But overall, I think I did a good job of demonstrating the different types of writing I can do and what my plans are for the future.
In my e-portfolio, I’ve created a space to showcase the works I’ve created during my time at the College of Charleston. The theme and color scheme of my website are a direct reflection of my affinity for black-and-white photography. As both an English and photography student, I’m naturally inclined towards simplistic, traditional, and stripped-down expressions, which I’ve translated into the overall look and feel of my site.
I’ve not only emphasized a diverse array of works completed during my time at the college but have also highlighted my extensive portfolio of photography from this period. Writing and photography have been lifelong passions of mine, making their integration into this portfolio particularly meaningful.
Within the website, I’ve curated six literary pieces from courses I’ve taken at the College of Charleston. My first artifact is an essay on motherhood from my ENGL 299 class, chosen to represent traditional academic essays. The second is my rewriting of Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock. What I enjoyed about this piece is that it was more creative than a typical paper, but I also changed its medium for English Day by making it a poster and presenting it that way. The third artifact is a poem I wrote for a poetry class, which I wanted to include because it is poetry that really got me into studying English and was the first literary medium that I began writing myself at 10 years old.
The fourth is a philosophy paper I wrote. I thought including this would be interesting, as it is still an academic paper, but it is written in a completely different context and writing style. The fifth is a close reading paper I wrote about Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. I wanted to include this because I presented it at an academic conference and thought the script I made from my essay would be an interesting interpretation of my work. Finally, the sixth is another close reading paper on two poems for a romantic class. I wanted to include this because it is still a traditional-looking paper but is more of a close reading in a more creative context.
For this website, I think that I spent a lot of time on each individual page. I wanted to ensure that it was easy to follow but also really interesting to look at. If there was anything I feel like I can improve, it is that I feel I might have gone overboard in my work summaries. I am not sure if I should have made these shorter, but I wanted to give context for why everything is included. Overall, I really loved this assignment. Mostly because it is exciting to have all of my work in one place, particularly my photography.
My portfolio serves to bridge the gap between the English and business worlds. I strongly feel that the skills I have gained over the course of my academic journey are highly transferable to sales, marketing, and business development professions. The purpose of the liberal arts degree is to create your own unrestricted path, and I feel that I was able to do that at The College. My portfolio aims to mirror this belief. I feel that the website reflects my core values and skills: sales, marketing, and communication which are grounded heavily by my degree in English. Without my English degree, I feel that I would not have the skillset to create tailored messaging for target markets and saturate markets through critical research.
My artifacts touch up on each of my skillsets highlighted throughout the portfolio: Sales, Marketing and Communication.
Artifact 1 demonstrated my ability to communicate, research, and synthesize artifacts. A typical literary analysis paper shows my ability to think critically and communicate my thoughts effectively.
Artifact 2 experiments with unrestricted formats, styles, and structures to reflect upon my writing process. It uses keywords derived from texts during a writing course. Ultimately, the project aims to synthesize my writing praxis. It demonstrates my ability to think beyond typical writing structures and transform ideas in abstract styles.
Artifact 3 serves to demonstrate my ability to do market research, analysis, and make financial projections. This skillset is crucial in a business field and I felt it would be important to include in my portfolio. This project highlights my ability to write in not just English fields, but in business-oriented disciplines as well.
My vision for the English major revolves around a profound appreciation for the intricacies of language and literature, recognizing their enduring relevance in today’s world. Through my exploration of seminal works like Jean Rhys’ “Wide Sargasso Sea” and Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” I’ve discovered the profound impact literature can have in challenging societal norms and revealing universal truths. These projects exemplify how the English major cultivates critical thinking, empathy, and cultural awareness, essential skills for navigating our interconnected society.
In my analysis of “Wide Sargasso Sea,” I delved into the intricate relationship between characters and the exotic setting of Dominica, revealing the thematic depth that literature offers. By emphasizing the symbolic significance of the landscape, I demonstrated my ability to engage critically with texts and uncover layers of meaning. This project underscores how the English major equips individuals with the skills to analyze and appreciate diverse narratives, fostering a deeper understanding of the human experience.
Similarly, my exploration of nature in Shelley’s “Frankenstein” showcased the transformative power of literature in exploring the human condition. Through vivid descriptions, I explored themes of solitude, resilience, and the connection between humanity and nature, highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of the English major in addressing contemporary issues.
Furthermore, my interview with Professor Caroline Hunt provided valuable insights into the personal and academic journey of an esteemed member of the English department. Her story serves as a testament to the transformative power of perseverance, mentorship, and a passion for lifelong learning, values inherent in the English major.
Looking ahead, I aspire to merge my passion for language and literature with meaningful professional endeavors. The foundation established by my English major equips me with a versatile skill set that transcends disciplinary boundaries. The critical thinking, communication, and analytical skills honed through my coursework have prepared me for success in various fields, from academia to marketing. As I embark on this journey, I hope to leverage the transformative potential of literature to effect positive change in the world around me, whether through advocacy, education, or creative expression. In crafting my final portfolio and personal website, I aimed for a clean and minimalist design to showcase my skills and values effectively. While I am satisfied with the outcome, I wish I had more time to incorporate multimedia elements for enhanced user engagement. Overall, my portfolio reflects my journey as an English major and my commitment to lifelong learning and intellectual exploration.
For my design, initially I went for a black background, but after experimenting with a few of my posts, I realized that I was not getting the feeling I wanted to convey with the portfolio. I wanted the tone to be warmer design-wise, so I went with a tan color and a lively but formal font. With making structural choices, I had a hard time figuring out what would look best where and how each post coincides with the other on each page. To find a solution, I looked at the examples that we looked at as a class and tried to remember what I initially thought of the ones that I remembered made an impact on me.
With the artifact selection, I knew I wanted to display one of my fiction works because I plan to apply for a graduate creative writing program, and this would be a great way to get my work out in the career field somewhere. I found the artifact section of the ePortfolio hard only during the remix part of it because I had never created a poster from paper before. I am grateful for that experience, though, because it showed me that I am able to transform a piece of art into a whole new artform entirely without ruining or losing the original meaning of the artform.
I feel that this website reflects how I value English literature, whether I am focusing on comparative or my fiction writing. This ePortfolio shows my creative ability to present my work on a different platform that is outside of an academic setting. I do wish I had more time on the general style and color of my website. While I thought the color style was better than the black tone I originally planned, I thought I could have found a better theme color that coincides with my work.
The design of my website is based off of the website of the firm that my alumni interview connection works at. My goal after graduation is to succeed at law school and be hired as an attorney, so I thought, why not make it easier for them? My website is plain but still colorful and relatively interesting – it puts the focus on the pictures the most.
My artifacts were mainly picked for two things: to show that I can write extensively about any topic, and to show my identities as a Southern Jew. These are two tenets that are central to my law experience: I want to work in a path that may take me to a big firm where I have to work horrible hours, but I am not willing to sacrifice observing the Shabbat commandments, so that is clear through my poetry collection. In terms of the essays, I really just wanted to show my attention to detail and my ability to cite and build an argument.
My two additional pages focus on my editing experience, which again, shows attention to detail but also team leadership and effective communication, and on my bioethics story and research, which explains why I want to go into the specific field of law I’m planning to pursue.
If I had more time to improve, I probably would have wanted to add more of my editing experience. I will soon have articles that show editing directly in the medical field published, and I will also have the fourth issue of YNST coming out, so there will be a lot more comments.
