When I learned that my first college English class would allow me to study “writing and research,” I felt a little less than excited. Throughout high school, “research” had always entailed the examination of shallow, uninteresting topics such as the effects of cell phones on high school students or the advantages of electronic versus hard-copy study materials. I came away from these experiences with a love for writing literary analyses and a hatred for research papers.
On the first day of class, Dr. Miskec captured my interest. The way she described the process of conducting academic research made it sound interesting, adaptable, and enjoyable. Throughout the duration of the semester, we completed three place-based research projects with each one being more interesting than the last. Dr. Miskec also offered her advice and guidance as I began exploring the possibility of becoming a college professor. After reading my work and discussing it with me, she recommended that I pursue graduate degrees in rhetoric and even referred me to Dr. Lettner-Rust (with whom I will complete a research project in summer 2017).
Attached is the third and final essay that I wrote in the class. For this project, each student was to design their ideal faculty-led study abroad trip and write an essay that proposed the trip to Longwood’s study abroad committee. I created a hypothetical trip to Australia that would be led by Dr. Lettner-Rust (who heads the Rhetoric & Professional Writing program at Longwood) and would examine concepts of visual rhetoric within the country. (Fun fact: I was awarded the Nell Anderson Sprague Freshman Composition Award for my work on this essay!)