I am currently in my final semester at Hope College where I am majoring in Secondary English Education, Creative Writing, and Classical Studies. I live in Allegan, MI, which is where I am currently student teaching, but I originally hail from Ann Arbor, MI. After this semester, I am hoping to find a teaching position in the West Michigan area and continue to be a part of the Big Read, just in a slightly different role.
Role on the Big Read team
This is my third year being a part of the Big Read. I joined the student intern team the summer before my sophomore year where I mainly focused on the podcast. Now I am the student intern team leader, and I still mainly focus on the podcast!
What is your favorite part of the Big Read and what are you most excited about for this year’s program?
I love the Big Read because it is an outlet for people to share their experiences and thoughts on society, life, and the whole human experience through the reading of one, or multiple, shared books. Because of this community-wide reading program, I am able to hear a variety of stories that I normally wouldn’t get to hear. Stories are such a central part of the human experience as most of our experiences lend themselves to the format of a story, and life itself is a story, so I love that we are able to bring stories to life through our programming.
What is your favorite genre of books and why?
My favorite genre is the “classics.” I love ancient literature, like The Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh, but I also love modern classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and The Handmaid’s Tale. All classic literature has a moral argument or belief behind it that inspired the writer to create their masterpiece, something that not all literature has today. Each piece of classic literature gives me one person’s perspective on what it means to be human, often through a world that no longer exists, never existed, or is foreign to me. In this way, I love reading the classics because it is always an adventure that is often humbling, reflective, and challenging.