One Class Can Change Everything: Alumni Interview with Angie Hines ’18

Today we’re excited to interview recent grad Angelique Hines, class of ’18, who’s here to tell us a bit about her new life in Memphis! What have you been doing since leaving Hope, Angie?

I actually spent my last semester of college doing an off-campus program as a means to get used to the workplace, starting as an Education Intern in Illinois Senator Dick Durbin’s office in Washington, DC. I was required to attend hearings and briefings, finishing by creating notes on what the meeting entailed. I was also often entrusted with obtaining signatures, answering phones, addressing concerns of constituents, and giving tours of the U.S. Capitol.

Before and during my time as an intern, I was preparing to transition into my new position as a corp member of Teach For America. I’m currently working as a 4th grade Literacy teacher at Believe Memphis Academy. As a teacher, my job requires me to be able to understand curriculum, accurately plan a lesson, identify possible misconceptions and ways to address them, and then finally, teach of course.

This experience has been like a roller coaster. From teaching myself how to create a budget to spending hours internalizing lesson plans and grading papers, I have been stretched in more ways than I can count!

How did your Hope English education shape you?

Being at Hope, period, shaped me in more ways than I can name now as an alumni. For instance, being an English major at Hope developed my intellect. The amount of reading, discussion, and writing that each of my English courses required shaped my mindset in such a positive way.

Being a reading teacher, there’s a large cognitive load that goes into planning any of my lessons. I am able to see through the lines of stories to ensure that any misconceptions get addressed ahead of time, along with finding additional information for the kids who may be ahead of their peers. I can correct my students’ work grammatically along with looking for the correct answer. Lastly, I can hold discussions that are engaging with my students.

As I type this, I ponder upon professors like Dr. Dykstra, Dr. Parker, and Dr. Hemenway, who always made the content rigorous. That is also something I am incorporating into my own classroom; rigor places the thinking on the student, so that they can create their own learning experience. Overall, being an English major made me the teacher that my students deserve.

What advice would you give to current English majors or students considering an English major?

I would tell them: “Take one class. Engage with the material and in the class to your fullest extent. It will change everything.” I think that everyone should take one English class above 113. That is where, for me, English became this magical and wondrous thing. I flourished to my highest capacity because I began to understand and discuss a text in a way that I had never done before.

If you could teach any college English class, what would be the title?

“Migrating North, and the Troubles Ahead.”

In Dr. Parker’s “Black Women Writers” course, we read a book titled The Warmth of Other Suns. That course and book pushed me to move down South. It also opened my eyes to certain things about the Midwest and Northeast that I had never thought about before. In my course, we would dive into the section “The Kinder Mistress, in which the reader learns about the things happening in the North that were not being highlighted in the news because the South was more popular in the media. We would dissect this section through discussion and writing. I think a course like this, at Hope, would be DOPE.

Favorite book read recently or in college?

My favorite book recently read has to be a tie between Sister Souljah’s No Disrespect or Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give.

Hey, you’re the second alum in a row to recommend The Hate U Give. Readers, take note! And thanks so much to our own Angie Hines for taking the time during a very busy year for this interview.

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