| Concentrating in Language Studies was one of the best decisions I made during my time at Wellesley. My first experience with Language Studies, during the fall of my junior year, was the "Introduction to Linguistics" course, which captivated me as no other course had. I found the concepts of language acquisition, syntax, and semantics particularly engaging. In spite of having declared a different major, I switched to linguistics because I was enjoying my studies so much; I felt I had finally found an intellectual home.
I appreciated and enjoyed the chance to work closely with the head of the department, Andrea Levitt — an opportunity that existed partly because Language Studies is smaller than other departments, and partly because Professor Levitt takes an interest in her students as people. This attention enriched both my studies in linguistics and my sense of community at Wellesley. In addition to taking several courses with Professor Levitt, I also had the opportunity to work one summer as a research assistant on one of her studies of cross-linguistic infant babbles. Andrea continues to be a great mentor and friend to this day, eight years after my graduation.
My career path since college has taken a few twists and turns, and I have done several different types of work (further evidence that a liberal arts education prepares one for anything!): first in technology at a "dot com" company, then in event planning at a nonprofit anti-war organization, and now in health care as a nurse practitioner. About three years after my graduation from Wellesley, I decided to apply for graduate programs in nursing. I had been considering a career in health care and was drawn to the approach that nurse practitioners take to patient care, focused on health promotion and patient education. After taking several science prerequisites that I hadn't taken at Wellesley, I enrolled in the Master of Science in Nursing program at the MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston; in three years I became a registered nurse, then a family nurse practitioner, and earned my M.S.N.
Since graduating in May 2007, I have been working at Massachusetts General Hospital in Infectious Diseases. I see patients with a wide variety of infections and support them through trying times with information and compassionate care. I make use of my linguistics major — and more broadly my liberal arts education — on a daily basis: in my interactions with patients, in everything that I write, and in the ways that I understand and interact with the world. |
