From the bright lights of the city, to the thousands of stars I loved to look at nightly from my porch, I grew up moving between city living and farm living with only a few miles spanning in between. I learned a lot living in a farm town directly outside of New Haven, Connecticut. Even though I did not live on a farm of my own, most of my childhood was spent on various horse farms around my town, riding and doing different barn chores. This is where I developed my love and knowledge of animals, especially dogs and horses. I brought this passion into the city by volunteering at the New Haven Animal Shelter a few times a week throughout high school and over the summer during college. This appreciation for animals is something I have never lost and have honed throughout my years.
Along with my love for animals, I have also always had a love for literature. Since I was very young, I have been reading fantasy novels and classic literature at an extremely fast pace. There were times in my middle- and high-school career when I would be reading five or six books at one time. I remember making mistakes in my high-school English class, confusing Mr. Darcy with other male characters from one of Jodi Picoult’s or Charlene Harris’s books, which I was reading outside of school. I couldn’t put one of my own books down even while reading Pride and Prejudice for class.
Luckily, I have found equilibrium in my college career, balancing my class books with leisure ones, which have started to mesh more and more in my classes. This is partially because I chose to pursue Writing, Literature & Publishing as my major at Emerson College, choosing to follow my love for reading instead of my love for animals. (I considered becoming an animal behaviorist or veterinarian for a while.)
Since choosing to pursue literature, I have discovered a whole new world in publishing that I never imagined existed. I always thought I would want to be on the writing side, producing the work. Now, with one semester left until completing my undergraduate degree, I find I am very interested in the editing and production side of publishing as well. Though I think I will continue to write until I can’t work a pen anymore (although by then I will have my cyborg helper monkey write what I dictate on an outrageously advanced computer), I can see myself in the meantime working somewhere in the publishing industry, producing either educational, trade, academic or literary work. At the moment I am very interested in learning more about the editor’s job concerning educational materials and choosing content, though this may change as I get more experience in the publishing industry.
So far, interning for PSG has taught me a lot about the hard, long hours that go into publishing education materials. I’ve worked on picking up content for teacher lesson plans to be used online and have also dealt with audio files for a bilingual math project. Overall, I have experienced a lot of what goes into the publishing industry, and I plan to learn a lot more over the course of the summer.
Little-Known Fact About Elizabeth
Elizabeth is a big fan of pretty much every genre of music, especially classic rock, all types of blues, and rap and hip-hop. Her playlists consist of an eclectic mix from Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin to Tedeschi Trucks Band, Buddy Guy and Taj Mahal to the Wu-Tang Clan and KRS-One. The one genre you won’t find on her iPod, however, is electronic dance music (EDM), though the recently discovered artist Pretty Lights is attempting to make a breakthrough into her music world. Don’t ask her what her favorite song is unless you have a good hour to sit and discuss the various selections and genres she has to sift through to choose!
