Christy's Professional Blog

Last blog post

chartigan — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:45:19 +0000

Well, this is probably my last blog post since my Professional Writing class is now over. I had a great time in class this semester, and I learned a lot about the business world, creating websites, writing resumes, and other important information. I created a new website and digital story for this class that are themed around Medieval literature, since that is what I want to study in grad school. Sigma Tau Delta, the English honor society that I’m in, actually gives out awards for websites centered around literature or a particular literary period, so I submitted my website for the award, and I’ll find out in March. My digital story about The Canterbury Tales is now online, and I will be presenting it in class on Friday. I am continuing my graduate school search, but I will probably not visit any places until next summer when I have time. I think I am going to try to take my GREs before next summer, I decided, because I don’t want to have to worry about studying for them while I’m taking a summer class in England for a month. So..I think that’s about it. Thanks for reading!

Fellowships and Honor Societies

chartigan — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 03:08:41 +0000

I was browsing on the TCNJ website today and found a section about fellowships. There were many listed, and I think that I qualify for some of them. I plan to start researching fellowships and other scholarship opportunities over winter break. Although many of the PhD. programs provide funding, I figure that it can’t hurt to apply for fellowships. There are also many scholarships on fastweb.com that I can apply for, because I’d like to get some money so that I can pay my fees next year .

I also want to find out about some honor societies. I just got accepted to the Golden Key honor society, and I’m in Sigma Tau Delta, the English honor society, but I want to find out about Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa. Some of my friends are in Phi Kappa Phi, so I’ll have to ask them about it. I also have to find out about how to submit to the Journal of Student Scholarship at our school. I feel like I should have some things to put on my resume

chartigan — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 03:22:12 +0000

Apparently I’m an idiot and already wrote a post about the GREs, so now I’m writing another one for the week. I’m still looking into graduate schools, but I really can’t start making decisions about where to apply to until I get my GRE scores back. I would love to apply to Princeton, because it’s obviously a wonderful school, and I really like the area and the campus (not that that’s a reason to apply somewhere, but whatever). That’s really a stretch though; I would need to do so well on my GREs. I’m going to do more research about Princeton soon and see if I can find an average GRE score or anything so I know what to shoot for. I was also looking at Columbia, and I found out that they don’t require literature GREs, which I found interesting.

On a different note, I’ve been working on my Professional Writing project, and I’m posting a rough version of it on my website tonight so that I can speak with my professor about it.

On a third note, the time/date stamp on the blogs are wrong, because it says that I posted my last blog entry at 3 in the morning….and there is definitely no way that I would be writing in this blog instead of sleeping at 3 in the morning

When to take the GREs?

chartigan — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 03:16:57 +0000

I thought I knew what I was doing about the GREs. I was going to take the literature one in April and the general one late next summer, so I’d have time to retake either of them if I do terribly. I’m not sure what to do now though, because I’m really not sure if I’m going to be ready by April to take the literature one. This current semester’s classes really weren’t too difficult compared to the classes I’m going to have next semester, but I’ve still had a ton of work. I’m worried that next semester, when I have a senior level 499 English class, a 300 level English class, a 300 level history class, and French, I won’t have enough time to study for the GREs also. I’m going to have to read so much more next semester than I have this semester. The only thing I’m hoping is that the reading won’t be too difficult, since I’ve read many of The Canterbury Tales already and that’s what my one English class is on. My other English class is on the Bible, and I’d be spending time reading that anyway, so hopefully that won’t be too bad either. I just need to start studying over winter break and see how much I can get done. I also don’t know now when I’m taking the general one, because I’m going to be living in England for a month next summer and taking a class. I don’t really want to worry about studying for the GREs while I’m in England, but that would mean that I would have to take the GREs before I leave in July. I really don’t think I’d have enough time to be studying for the literature one, take that in April, and then be ready to take the general one in June. I’d rather wait until August or September, but then I’d have to study while I’m in England. I really need to start talking to professors and see what they think I should do.

GREs

chartigan — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 06:39:30 +0000

I need to talk to some professors and some other students and figure out when to take my GREs. I was going to take the subject test in April and the general one at the end of next summer some time, so I would have enough time to retake either one of them if I needed to. However, I’m not sure if I’m going to be ready for the subject test in April. I also don’t know what to do about the general one, because I would have to study all next summer to take it at the end of next summer, and now I’m going to be living in England for a month and I don’t know if I want to spend my time in England studying for the GREs. So, I need to figure out what I’m doing. I could possibly take the subject one in April and then take the general one before I leave for England, but that doesn’t give me much time. I need advice.

Digital Storytelling project

chartigan — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:38:44 +0000

I am currently working on the digital storytelling project for my Professional Writing class. For this project, we had to do some form of an interactive story. After speaking with my professor, I decided on a digital story that fits with the theme of my website. I am doing an Interactive Introduction to The Canterbury Tales. This project will be done in Flash, but I will be creating many of the images in Photoshop. Basically, it’s going to show a map with the route that the pilgrims took from London to Canterbury. Along this route, there will be pink dots, and when the user rolls over one of these dots, a box will appear that shows them the name of one of the tales. When they click, they will be brought to information about that tale- a summary, characters, things of that nature. The user will be able to read the information in any order that they wish- the dots will be placed along the route in the order that the stories are in the book, but the users can click around out of order if they wish. After they read all of the information, the user will be able to play a quiz game to see how much they remember. The purpose of this project is to provide basic information about The Canterbury Tales to people who don’t know anything about it.

Picking classes and changing majors

chartigan — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 00:36:29 +0000

Well, after a long consideration, I decided that I’m going to drop my Interactive Multimedia major to a minor so that I can take classes that will help me with my grad school application. I’m actually really sad about dropping the major, because I really like it, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s nice to have classes that aren’t reading/writing based and are more creative, and I really like the other students in the major that I’ve met. However, I don’t think that it would help me very much on my application, and I want to do everything I can to improve my chances of being accepted into a PhD. program. So….I’m going to be an English major with a Religious Studies Interdisciplinary Concentration, Interactive Multimedia minor, History minor, and Honors Program. Whew So next semester, I will be taking The Bible as Literature, The Canterbury Tales senior capstone, Medieval Christianity, and French 101. And hopefully next fall I will get to take the last class for my IMM minor. Oh IMM, I will miss you

Talk with Professor Steinberg

chartigan — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 02:49:14 +0000

I went to talk with Professor Diane Steinberg about some things the other day, and we started talking about my website. She gave me a few good suggestions about things to possibly put on it, but I don’t know if it’s the type of content that’s supposed to be on it or not. She said I could talk about literature in the Middle Ages and how lots of people found out about literature (especially the Bible) through drama, pictures, and other forms of media, since many people couldn’t read. Maybe I could find some examples of windows from churches that show Biblical stories? I was also thinking that maybe I could somehow incorporate the project that I’m doing for my Animation class, because that project has a bit of a Medieval spin, and also brings together Interactive Multimedia and English.

After we talked about my website, we spent a good deal of time talking about what classes I should take next semester and for the rest of college to improve my chances of getting into grad school. She said right now, I don’t really have enough Medieval lit classes if I want to study that in grad school. She said I should definitely take the Canterbury Tales Capstone Seminar next semester, and then I could write my senior thesis about things from that class. However, the Canterbury Tales seminar is at the same time as an IMM class that I would have to take next semester in order to finish the major. Professor Steinberg suggests that I drop the IMM major to a minor, take the Canterbury Tales seminar, take some more Medieval classes (I could finish the Religious Studies concentration; that has a lot of Medieval classes in it), and take another language, such as French, Latin, or German. If I want to go to grad school, I should want to do these things that will help to improve my application, but I’m a bit reluctant to give up the IMM major, because I really like it and it’s a lot of fun. It’s also a more practical major in case I don’t get into grad school. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, but it seems as though I’m going to have a lot of thinking to do over Fall Break.

My website

chartigan — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 18:50:27 +0000

I’m trying to think of what the design of my Professional Writing website should look like and what should be on it. My professional writing professor told me to think of ways to bring my English major together with my Interactive Multimedia major. I suppose that I could make a website about Medieval literature and put information about schools with good Medieval lit programs, leading people in the field, and other relevant facts. Maybe the website could even look somewhat Medieval. I’m making an animation in my animation class that brings together reading and a Medieval-type setting, perhaps I could incorporate that into the website somehow. I also plan to go talk to some of the professors at my school who teach Medieval lit and see if they can give me any suggestions. I’m currently looking for websites that do what I plan on doing, and then maybe I’ll get more ideas from those.

NYU grad school

chartigan — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:28:22 +0000

Another school I’ve been researching for grad school is NYU. So far, I really like all the information I have read about it. They appear to have a large class selection, including many classes on Medieval, British, and Irish literature. I checked the courses that were offered during the past few semesters, and they offer many classes each semester, which is nice. Some schools may have a large list of possible classes, but that doesn’t help me if those classes are never offered. NYU also allows graduate students to study abroad, which is another thing I was looking for, because I am most likely not going to be able to study abroad as an undergrad. Along with UPenn, NYU provides funding for doctoral students: full tuition and fees, and a $20,000 stipend. There is also subsidized housing for doctoral students available, but NYU is close enough to my house that I could possibly commute and save a lot of money. The only downside to NYU is that it’s in New York City, which has its good and bad points. The good side is that NYC is filled with culture and opportunities, and it would be easier if I ever wanted an internship. The downside is that I don’t know if I would feel safe going to school in the city, especially after being at TCNJ for four years. Although NYU is in a good area as far as I know, I would need to do more research to find out about public transportation in the area and how far I would need to walk to get to various places. I still have much more research to do, but at this moment, NYU is a definite possibility.