“Find a career that you enjoy! Money is important, but, if you hate your job, it’s not a career, it’s a hassle! Liking what you do makes your work a career, and that contributes to a meaningful life. You only get one chance at living. Understand there will be twists and turns; the journey will not be without obstacles. Take the good with the bad, adjust, make the most of it and be happy!”

I think every class at UNC has shaped me in some way. In the spring semester of my freshman year…I took ENGL 117: Mystery Fiction with Professor Henry Veggian, where we studied several influential mystery fiction writers—Poe, Doyle, Mosley, Christie, and Pynchon among them—which made me appreciate mystery novels and their foundational role in shaping thrillers, which are what I write.

“Creative Writing may be more of an art, using the Adobe suite of media tools may be a craft, and the SILS school may be about the science, but it’s ALL information design… it’s all related.”

“I was particularly drawn to this concentration [in Science, Medicine, and Literature] because in medicine, it’s important to understand the physical side of the patient and the science behind caring for someone, which I was gaining through my stem courses. But it is equally as important to understand how to care for the human condition… And I feel like that’s really what’s taught in English classes, understanding people as a whole.”

“I like writing about things that are actually happening in the world that I feel are relevant. Nonfiction can actually be super interesting if you tell the story the right way.”

Dr. Jones “felt that my story should be heard in hopes to inspire other non-traditional students not to give up.”

“Political science can be very technical; you learn a lot of different theories. English really injects that humanity into it … They compliment each other really well.”

“I feel like English is an undervalued double major option because regardless of whatever field you enter post-graduation, you’re going to need to be able to communicate…I feel so lucky that I am able to be a part of two programs that see the value in cross-departmental learning.”

“My experience with literature has been a willingness to sit in the discomfort of someone else’s experience… Reading and literature have helped me to seek out different ways that people contextualize and make meaning from their experiences.”

Meet Alexis Dumain, Psychology and English and Comparative Literature double major!