I Am Artistic - Amaris
My Major: Science, Technology, and Culture (STAC)
My Certificate: Literary and Cultural Studies
What attracted me to my major?
I was afraid of being corralled into a teaching career by pursuing an English degree elsewhere, and since I was quite unsure as to what I actually wanted to study and specialize in, I was attracted to all the options available to me through STAC. I love literature and I wanted to study it in as many ways as possible, but I wanted a good measure of other skills, something that would surprise me – and something STAC has definitely given me.
My major has a great student group called the STAC Society...
I found I was quite different than most other students at GT. I wanted to see art, talk about it, hear about it, make it -- in any form I could find. I didn't mind acting out art on my own, but I was thrilled when I found a group of other people who wanted the same thing but had no one to share it with, either. We felt out of place in the face of science, so we met to visit the High Museum and different libraries, we assembled after poetry readings to digest, we watched films together -- and I got my fill of art. I needed that as a fresh-woman. I got involved right away and became Secretary my sophomore year, then President my junior year. I wanted to continue to watch it be the community that found me when I thought I'd made the wrong choice by coming here. The people in the group changed my mind about this university.
There are great literature courses at Tech...
Every Literature class has shown me how little I know about what I love -- which I love! I've taken classes on Victorian Fiction (including the Gothic novel), Romantic Poetry, Contemporary Poetry, the Industrial Revolution and Fiction, and have fallen farther in love (I mistakenly thought head-over-heels was as far as it went) with literature because of how exactly it was written and crafted because of its time, the stresses on its authors, the lives of its authors and how they changed because their cultures were changing. Any class that can show me how much more something I already love (with every little bit of me) can be loved is a class worth taking.
Why poetry at Georgia Tech is so cool to me…
I've done a handful of internships, but the most meaningful was the internship I recently finished with Poetry@Tech. I was able to meet and have conversations with some of the nation's best poets, and was inspired to write more and pursue a career in writing. I've done two semesters of research with Professor Ron Broglio on poetry from the Romantic Period and the environmental and philosophical themes that emerge from those writings and how they possess a highly contemporary weight on art.
Atlanta offers great culture opportunities for liberal arts students...
Atlanta is an artist's mecca -- while there are plenty of opportunities to get involved on campus, the city has plenty, plenty more., and you'll get to meet other artists with different stories and your community will keep growing. You'll even bump into a professor outside of a classroom, and get to know them as artists themselves -- and for me, personally, that made me respect them more. Plus, its exciting to find a place you can love outside of GT's campus. Even if its a new park. I get excited about finding new bookstores or record stores -- but for a while, I looked for free art galleries, and wasn't disappointed. Go explore!
I went to the University of Leeds in England for the 2008-2009 academic year to study literature and poetry.
My goal was to enjoy the culture of the Romantics and revel in the knowledge that Wordsworth or Keats could have, at one time, stepped where I will step.
What would be my dream career after I graduate?
To write, and write, and write – and actually sell the books that I publish. … I'm considering applying to MFA Programs in Creative Writing, or Graduate Programs in Library Science, so maybe a position in a library somewhere, anywhere, as long as I have steady access to books and paper. And a tape player.
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