Recent words from Livingston-Patnode award winners
By Callisto Martinez ’26
The English Department’s Livingston-Patnode award is annually presented to an outgoing senior who makes a special contribution to the English Department in their time at Macalester. Congratulations to Birdie Keller ’25 for winning the 2025 Livingston-Patnode award; to hear all about our other award winners for this year, check out our article here. To see how our previous award recipients bring their skills and experiences gained in the English Department to the communities they’re engaging with now, The Words reached out to each recipient for an update. Read on to find out their responses!
Our most recent (graduated) recipient, Zoë Schuerman ’24 recently shared a full update of her adventures after graduation and how her work in the English Department is guiding her along the way in our March issue!
Colleen Apostle, 2023 Award Recipient
What has your life after graduating Mac taught you, and what does it look like now?
So much of my life after graduation has been exploring what it means to live as a writer. You end up leaving Macalester with all these skills you’ve learned from incredible professors and peers alike, and you have no one to answer to except for yourself, really. You don’t have a bunch of assignments, you don’t have grades or deadlines structuring your time. It’s all you, which is 70% amazing and 30% terrifying. I’ve had to learn how to practice discipline without the structure of college or the immediate guidance of instructors; how to be discerning about my writing process and how to protect it.
As for what all that means, in reality it’s been working a lot of odd jobs to make ends meet. I didn’t get into grad school when I first applied so I’ve had to get creative in the meantime. Frankly, I was also burnt out, so I didn’t do much fiction writing my first year out of undergrad, but I felt embarrassed by this so I started a substack because it seemed lower stakes. I’ve volunteered on a farm in Greece; worked night shifts at a movie theater; worked as a department coordinator; and now I’m working as a bookseller and warehouse associate for Milkweed Editions. So this is a very circuitous career path, lots of underemployment to be honest, and plenty of nights where I stared at my ceiling wondering what the hell I had done. But dreams come to life when you keep on trying, and eventually I mustered the courage to apply to MFAs again, and I’ll be matriculating to Rutgers this fall!
You can find out more about Colleen’s journey to an MFA in our April issue!
What lessons or experiences from your time in the English department have been most applicable for your life today?
The English Department—its staff and students—enabled me in ways no other group of people have. I wouldn’t have taken my dream of being a writer seriously without the support I found there, which has completely changed the trajectory of my life. There’s not much more to say about it because it really is that simple. More unsolicited advice—seek out those who “yes and” you. It does wonders for your confidence.
Thinking back on your time at Mac, what was a place, tradition, or event that you look back on fondly today?
I lived in the Veggie Co-op my junior year (which was the first year coming back to campus due to COVID lockdowns) and it was such a blast! I found it was a nice way to transition back to in-person everything that wasn’t as independent as renting and wasn’t the same overwhelming-ness as a full dorm. I also had to learn how to cook that year—very important life skill!
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
One final thing before I get off my soapbox. The world is very weird and scary right now, but the skills you learn as an English student are essential to meeting this moment. Use these skills wisely and use them for good.
Kira Schukar, 2022 Award Recipient
What has your life after graduating Mac taught you, and what does it look like now?
More than anything, my life after Mac has taught me to be flexible and listen to my intuition. Immediately after graduation, I worked for a nonprofit in Minneapolis and was writing for a lifestyle magazine group in the Twin Cities metro area. Working full time and freelancing was not very sustainable, and I ended up finding part-time work as an educator at the Minnesota Historical Society. My work at the historical society was challenging and rewarding, and it gave me the time to pursue my own writing/research projects on the side. Last September, I started the M.A. Program in the Humanities (MAPH) at the University of Chicago. I’m so grateful for the time I spent working away from academia—I have a strong sense of what I want from my degree, and I’m more confident in my ability to figure things out than I was when I graduated college!
What lessons or experiences from your time in the English department have been most applicable for your life today?
I had so many wonderful experiences in the English Department! I formed some invaluable friendships with peers and professors in college, and I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to learn in such a supportive community. If I had to point to specific experiences, I would say the classes have been the most applicable for me today. I want to point out two in particular—Narrative Journalism with Annie Baxter and Curtis Gilbert, and Down the Rabbit Hole with Prof. Kaston Tange. In Narrative Journalism, we learned to pitch projects, do research, and write for print and audio. The skills I learned from Annie and Curtis have improved all of my writing and research, including in my academic work. In Down the Rabbit Hole, we wrote an academic paper, podcast, and feature article all on the same topic. Learning to translate my ideas for different audiences has helped me tremendously, especially in my freelance work and when I was working with groups of students at the Minnesota Historical Society.
What was a place, tradition, or event from your time at Mac that you look back on fondly today?
I really miss Apps & Alums! I remember being really nervous the first time I went, but by the time I was an alum, it was something I looked forward to. I’m sad that I’m going to miss it this year!
Sophie Hilker, 2020 Award Recipient
What has your life after graduating Mac taught you, and what does it look like now?
After graduating, I job-hopped quite a bit until I found the right fit. All of these different experiences taught me to value my intuition and emotional wellbeing above all else in the workplace. I now know exactly what kind of work environment works best for me, and those which I need to avoid like the plague. Waiting for the right opportunity has proven time and again to serve me well. Thankfully, I’ve found the perfect position for me: Volunteer Coordinator at the Keystone Community Food Center. Every day, I get to work with passionate, mission-driven volunteers and staff to help fight food insecurity in our community. I’m endlessly impressed and inspired by the compassion, drive, and adaptability of those I’m surrounded by on a daily basis. Plus, I managed to convince English Department darling Jan Beebe to volunteer at Keystone, which means I still get to see her every week, even though I’m no longer a student. So you could say I’m living the dream 😎
What lessons or experiences from your time in the English department have been most applicable for your life today?
What makes the English Department so special, in my opinion, is its capacity for connections. I’d never felt so held by community before my Mac English experience and it is what has sustained me through my college years. Community has sustained me ever since, both on a personal and professional level.
What was a place, tradition, or event from your time at Mac that you look back on fondly today?
I’m very nostalgic for the times when all of my college friends lived within a mile radius of each other, eating three hour-long dinners in Cafe Mac just to see everyone rotate through meal time before or after various extracurriculars. I also long for the days of soaking up astrology info and ghost stories on the couch in the English Department student worker lounge after treat nights adjourned. My five-year Reunion is just around the corner and some out-of-town friends are flying in for the weekend, so I look forward to capturing that magic again.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
If you’re ever looking for meaningful engagement opportunities, you’re always welcome here at Keystone. While the Macalester community is unrivaled, Keystone is a very, very close second 🙂
Honor Murphy, 2019 Award Recipient
What has your life after graduating Mac taught you, and what does it look like now?
Mac has taught me everything! I’m incredibly grateful for my education and experiences in the English Department. I so loved the intellectual play and rigor, close relationships with Mac professors and staff who took such dedicated time to mentoring and coaching students, and the lovely Twin Cities! My Mac friends are still my best friends, even though we’re spread out across the states – some are suffering in law school, thriving in Brooklyn, or working in tech in San Francisco.
After graduating from Mac, I lived in Minneapolis for a year before moving to DC. For five years, I worked in advancement/fundraising and have been at Georgetown University’s Office of Advancement for a few years — I recently made a career pivot at Georgetown from education fundraising/alumni relations (fun, rewarding but not my true forte!) to talent management/HR at the university. It took a few years to find my career path, but I now LOVE my role. I recruit, hire, onboard, and coach early career professionals coming to the advancement space. (Feel free to reach out to me for an informational call if you’re interested in higher education advancement.) I’m grateful that Georgetown has a generous tuition reimbursement (90% off tuition as a staff member), so I’m getting a Master’s in HR at Georgetown and will enroll in a professional coaching program at their School of Continuing Studies next fall.
I also help run the Georgetown’s Women’s Alliance, where I’m in charge of the women’s mentorship project at the university and event programming for mentees. For this program, I think a lot about the lessons (even some feminist theory!) learned at Mac.
What lessons or experiences from your time in the English department have been most applicable for your life today?
Since I’ve worked in higher education for years (and asked many Georgetown alums for money), I always reflect back on my time at Mac and am so grateful to have a liberal arts education at a smaller, nurturing school. I learned to be driven by strong values and relationships. I’m in awe that I was able to build such meaningful relationships with professors, who challenged students to not only grow writing skills but become greater critical thinkers and make positive, socially-conscious contributions.
What was a place, tradition, or event from your time at Mac that you look back on fondly today?
My friends and I talk about Midnight Breakfast, missing Dunn Brothers’ coffee and Cheese Shop sandwiches!
I still think about my project on Frederick Douglass and my mentorship/partnership with Professor Daylanne English.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I just loved my time at Mac — I’m so grateful for my education and feel indebted to the many mentors who helped me grow!
Zeena Yasmine Fuleihan, 2018 Award Recipient
What has your life after graduating Mac taught you, and what does it look like now?
After graduating from Mac, I worked in publishing at Coffee House Press and Mizna, moved to London for an MA from King’s College London, and am now in my fifth year of the PhD Program in Literature at Duke University as a Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies Dissertation Fellow. I’ll be in the program for at least one more year through the Evan M. Frankel Fellowship, after which I’d love to find an academic job at a small liberal arts college. What feels most clarifying to me from my experience so far is learning to prioritize whatever it is that makes you feel the most yourself—for me, the curiosity, depth, and commitment to justice which have shaped my academic scholarship and teaching—rather than being swept away by the particular (and fleeting) pressures of a job or graduate program. As an Arab American of Lebanese/Palestinian descent, the past few years have been particularly harrowing, and the current attack on higher education has rendered any future in the academic sector even more uncertain than before. It is reconnecting to the intrinsic motivation that brought me to my research and my teaching that keeps me moving forward amidst the uncertainty.
What lessons or experiences from your time in the English department have been most applicable for your life today?
I’ve been fortunate to have many teaching opportunities in my time in the PhD, and I always think back to my English classes at Macalester as I shape my teaching philosophy and how I lead my courses. The English faculty at Macalester taught me much more than the content and skills on their syllabi—they modeled what it means to teach the lifelong art of learning. I am so grateful for their continued guidance even years after my graduation. In particular, I’ve had wonderful conversations about effective teaching with Daylanne English, Peter Bognanni, Matt Burgess, and Jim Dawes, among many others. It’s always lovely to reconnect with Jan Beebe, whose dedication to making the department a welcoming community inspires me to at least attempt to build a similar kind of atmosphere for my students in whatever small ways I can.
What was a place, tradition, or event from your time at Mac that you look back on fondly today?
I absolutely loved my time with Chanter Literary Magazine. I remember showing up to the student organization fair on the lawn in my first semester and making a beeline for the Chanter table. I was a part of the magazine staff, from Assistant Literary Editor to Editor-in-Chief, for my entire time at Mac. Whatever was happening in the world or on campus, Chanter was a constant source of friendship and creativity.
Ava Bindas, 2017 Award Recipient
What has your life after graduating Mac taught you, and what does it look like now?
After graduating from Mac, I worked as a barista and bookseller before embarking on my PhD in English and Feminist Theory and Research at the University of California, Davis. While completing my degree, I lived in northern California for six years and learned about finding a sustainable work-life balance, rock climbing and, of course, Victorian literature. Now I live in Los Angeles and work at the University of Southern California, where I’m a communications analyst working with a team of social science researchers. These days I do a lot of yoga, and I’m learning about more technical forms of writing as well as more assertive forms of driving.
What lessons or experiences from your time in the English department have been most applicable for your life today?
A lesson: I learned the value of an (intellectual) community, that most things, including learning, are better when done alongside others who share a sense of curiosity. In my experience, gatherings, rituals, or food (or, ideally, all three at the same time) make great things possible.
An experience: Writing an honors project during my senior year gave me and reinforced many things that served me in grad school and still serve me in the current chapter of my life: zealous organization, how to ask good questions, an improbable mix of humility and grandeur, endurance, pragmatism.
What was a place, tradition, or event from your time at Mac that you look back on fondly today?
With apologies for being painfully on-brand, I think back to the English Department with the utmost fondness. I loved when I was senior newsletter editor and I got to work at the computer in front of the beautiful window alongside Jan. I loved sitting on the floor of Andrea’s office as we discussed my honors project. I loved making small talk around the copier/printer. I loved my fellow English majors and English department workers.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
The mentorship from the English department faculty is something special. While I was at Mac, I thought I realized that my professors (and even the professors who never taught me but still said hi in the hallway or participated in department events or published smart things) were special, but in the years since I’ve graduated, I’ve only grown increasingly astonished by the remarkable extent of their generosity, brilliance, and wisdom.
Karintha Lowe, 2016 Award Recipient
What has your life after graduating Mac taught you, and what does it look like now?
That there are many paths to building a meaningful career in the arts and humanities. After graduating, I went straight to grad school and earned a PhD in American Studies from Harvard. Along the way, I became increasingly interested in archives and curatorial work, and I’m now the Assistant Curator of the Harvard Theatre Collection at Houghton Library. The collection spans a wide range of materials related to the performing arts—from Shakespeare promptbooks to modern dance photography—and I spend my days building the collection, teaching with archival materials, and curating exhibitions.
What lessons or experiences from your time in the English department have been most applicable for your life today?
The department fostered deep curiosity and thinking across genres and media, which shapes how I approach my curatorial work now. I appreciated how much space there was to explore literature as something dynamic that is circulated, performed, adapted, and responded to in the world.
What was a place, tradition, or event from your time at Mac that you look back on fondly today?
Old Main! It’s such a beautiful building, with all these alcoves and windows to study in. And I especially loved the tradition of surprising faculty members with bagpipes when they received tenure. Hearing the bagpipes echo across Old Main always felt like such a quirky and joyful moment.
It’s definitely a cliché, but it’s proven true: I’m still great friends with so many people I met in the English department. Staying connected over the years has been one of the best parts of post-grad life—still having that circle to talk with, lean on, and grow alongside.
Allison Dobscha, 2015 Award Recipient
What has your life after graduating Mac taught you, and what does it look like now?
Today, I live in my hometown of Portland, Oregon with a sweet, lazy cat, my husband Jesse (a high school math teacher), and a collection of books and house plants. I recently left my job as a communications strategist for Oregon’s largest electric utility company to start a new role as the Director of Communications & Marketing for a nationally recognized progressive private day school. About a year ago, I finished a graduate program in multimedia journalism. I swim with a masters team, meet up with a monthly book club, bake breads and cookies, and explore the Pacific Northwest.
A few lessons from life after Mac:
– Building community in adulthood can be hard. It’s worth investing in the people who show up.
– No job will meet all your needs, and careers don’t have to be rooted in passion. Hobbies are important too!
– A strong work ethic and critical thinking skills developed at Mac will get you far in any role.
What lessons or experiences from your time in the English department have been most applicable for your life today?
Strong writing and editing skills are rare and valuable in the working world. Media literacy feels more important than ever as we’re bombarded with propaganda and endless advertising.
My time as the senior editor for “The Words” also helped launch my career in communications! I regularly use skills developed during that experience (story writing, managing a team, publishing newsletters, editorial planning, etc.).
What was a place, tradition, or event from your time at Mac that you look back on fondly today?
Here a few fond memories and routines from the English Department specifically:
– Bagel Mondays
– Taking naps in the department lounge/library
– Watching trees change colors with the seasons from the department office in Old Main
– Reading the entirety of Moby Dick over spring break for one of James Dawes’ classes
– Getting a Juicy Lucy at the Blue Door after turning in my capstone
Adrian St. Francis, 2013 Award Recipient
What has your life after graduating Mac taught you, and what does it look like now?
My work and life experience since leaving Macalester has taught me the supreme importance of staying flexible. Graduate school and post-grad jobs are not linear or preordained. Building the skills in college and each day thereafter to adapt to new information, as well as new social and commercial pressures is critical to staying in the driver’s seat of life.
What lessons or experiences from your time in the English department have been most applicable for your life today?
My time in the English department helped me grow into a life-long learner, which has required me to stay humble and agile.