Alumni Comments

This is a new addition to the Department pages, and we are 

awaiting comments from more recent graduates.

Kyle Kastraba ('02) is working full time as an assistant home manager in the pediatric unit of a neurological and behavior rehabilitation clinic.  He also works part time at the local newspaper, the Tuscola County Advertiser, trying to get his foot in the door so he can work full time.  He drives a Jeep Grand Cherokee, owns a boat, a yellow lab named Starla, and just recently got engaged.  Of his English degree he says, "I enjoy telling everyone I've read Joyce."

Tai (Mauney) French ('02) is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI.  In her “spare time” she works in the kid’s department of her local Barnes and Noble’s--a surprisingly fulfilling job that lets her do what she does best--indulge her compulsive habits and recommend great children’s literature to parents.  Tai indicates that she remembers her HC days fondly and uses the skills taught in the English department regularly.  She says, “The classes I took and profs that I had didn’t just teach me what to say about a certain piece of literature, they also taught me how to think critically and thoroughly so that I would be equipped with those skills in whatever I pursued.  The profs knew what everyone in the class was capable of and made certain that nobody worked below his or her potential.  They even challenged us to succeed outside of class: sponsoring department events, resurrecting an honors society, and even leading students to write and present scholarly papers.  My experience at HC helped prepare me for further studies and also for...well...life.  It is evident, especially after being at a different institution, that this department--their rapport among themselves and with their students as well as their dedication to the students--is exceptional.”  Tai highly recommends that anyone who plans to pursue a career in scholarly studies takes French for their language requirement and lots of it as a ridiculous number of great studies are written in that lovely language.  Tai lives in Kalamazoo with her husband, HC English alum Craig French, and their two fractious rabbits.  She loves getting e-mail and can be reached at bunnygirl_tai@hotmail.com. 

Clara (Masters) Sayre ('02) is currently living in Lakewood, OH with her husband, John, and is employed by Caribou Coffee as a store supervisor.  In her free time, she writes for two publications, Relevant Magazine and Decapolis.com.  Relevant is an online and print magazine that is all about faith, music, the world, etc.  She writes for the Life section (her two most recent articles can be found here:  The Darndest Things by Clara Sayre and Tackling Submission in Marriage by Clara Sayre) and she will soon be a regular columnist for the Indie Rodeo section.  She is on the music staff of Decapolis.com and regularly reviews CDs, interviews bands that come to the Cleveland area, and reviews shows.  On the side, she also designs, writes and prints her own magazine entitled Blue Tip Existence.  Of her time at Huntington, Clara says: "I didn't declare my English major until my junior year.  So unfortunately I didn't have as much time in the English department as I would have liked.  While I was there, though, I was surrounded by very intelligent professors who obviously loved what they taught, and it was easy to catch onto the enthusiasm.  I felt supported by my peers and professors and was introduced to a huge world of authors, poets, critics, etc., including literature I had never read.  I also had the honor of being an editor of Ictus, HC's literary compilation, which gave me good insight into putting together my own magazine.  I really enjoyed my time at Huntington as a whole, and now that I'm out in the real world and putting my degree to use, I can honestly say that the English department did a spectacular job of equipping me with knowledge and honing my writing skills.

Amy Smith ('01) recently finished her M.A. and is preparing to start her Ph.D. at the University of South Carolina with a major in British Women Writers of the Romantic period and a minor in Composition and Rhetoric.  She would eventually like to teach a small liberal arts college and has been teaching freshmen composition and literature courses and sections of sophomore world and British literature courses.  She writes:  " I feel that the English Department at Huntington College prepared me for a secular graduate department at a large University.  Huntington College helped me to think critically about a wide variety of literature, and I feel very competent and well equipped to work with graduate students and professors at USC who have educational backgrounds at larger colleges and universities.  Specifically, my teaching philosophy which began at Huntington and which has become more clear here at USC works at two levels--at an intellectual level and humanist level.  First, I want my students to become more thoughtful writers and analyzers of literature, but I also want them to connect with the characters in the works we read--to understand and empathize with the experience of someone who has a life very different from their own be it a frustrated housewife in the nineteenth-century, a black child in the segregated South of the 1950s, or a homosexual man dying of AIDS. My English classes at Huntington College, while challenging me to think at an intellectual level, provided me with a Christian worldview with which to approach such very real conditions in life."  Amy welcomes email from any current HC students who have any questions about what graduate school is really like.  Her email address is acsmith145910@msn.com.   

Cameron Warner ('01) who graduated with a major in History Education with minors in English and Political Science is currently teaching Senior English, College English, and a Journalism class at Liberty-Benton High School in Findlay, Ohio.  He comments: "My time at HC was well spent in a variety of ways. Since I split time between the History, English and Education departments, I felt as if I had a wonderful opportunity to experience a wide variety of professors and their worldviews. I appreciated the fact that the English department was able to help me develop my ability to think critically as we continually saught out ways to apply literature and writing to our lives. The thing that made the English department at Huntington College stand out even more was the fact that this journey did not stop there. Not only did we become efficient writers and thinkers (while having a good time along the way), we also became more effective Christians. We are no longer just writers or readers who happen to hold Christian beliefs. Now we are Christian writers, readers, thinkers, and teachers seeking to impact our world for Christ. I guess I just appreciate the honesty and sometimes unorthodox way that we went about accomplishing all of this. It certainly broadened my horizons, and I hope that future students are able to continue to find the truth in everything that makes up what we know as the field of English."

Amy Gantt ('00) is currently working at Newark Public Library in Ohio after working a year as a volunteer with Dublin Christian Mission in Dublin, Ireland. She is in the process of transferring her Indiana Teaching License to Ohio, and enjoys spending time leading the youth fellowship at Linnwood Baptist Church as well as writing and illustrating a children's book.  She says: "The English department at Huntington College provided a thought provoking variety of learning experiences for me.  The professors had a firm belief in the importance of students voicing their thoughts and expressing their creativity in and outside of the classroom."  She can be contacted at fijiseventy7@hotmail.com.

Kriss Hultman ('00) is currently teaching English and Civics at a Christian boarding school for at-risk youth in Marion, IN.  Kriss loves her unconventional job and would encourage anyone looking to grow spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually to work with teenagers after graduation.  She states: "My experience in the English department at HC proved extremely valuable in my teaching position.  I constantly uses the critical thinking skills I refined at HC to teach under-achieving teenagers how to analyze literature and apply it to their lives." 

Shane Haggerty ('98)  Shane comments: "My time spend at Huntington College with the English Department proved to be the best of my educational experience.  Each professor laid important groundwork for me, preparing me for the professional world.  I truly learned an enormous amount, and I was challenged each day in my view of life and the world."

If you are an alum of the Department of English at Huntington College and you would like to provide an update of where you are and what you are doing along with comments of your experience with the English faculty at Huntington College, contact Todd Martin.