Career Paths>> page one

Denise Zareski, Lawyer

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As a corporate commercial lawyer, there are days when I would love to slip back in time and be an English Major again.  We read books, we discussed books and we wrote about books –I loved (nearly) every moment of it.  Reading for pleasure is now a rare indulgence, but one that I strive to make time for.  In my ever-increasing busy life, I feel fortunate to have been introduced to so many great works and authors by incredibly talented professors.  When I entered the Mount as a mature student with one young son at home, I was undecided about what kind of career I wanted, but I knew what interested me most – literature and everything Canadian.  After reading Tennessee Williams in my first introductory course, I was smitten and knew that I had to be an English major (although Canadian Studies proved to be an equally satisfying minor).  I think students should study what they love – where they find their passion – and through that, they will eventually find where they need to be. 

As a political junkie with a keen interest in social justice, I decided that a career in the law was the best route for me.  After graduation from the Mount (and the arrival of another son), I attended Dalhousie Law School.  The challenges of law school were quite different from undergrad, and while the learning curve for conquering law school exams can be steep, solid writing skills earned as an English major ensured high marks in my paper courses.  When reading old decisions weighted in legal jargon, double negatives and convoluted reasoning, I often needed to remind myself – “come on, you’ve read Ulysses, you can get through this” (although it would have been nice to have someone walk me through the legal text as well as Dr. Schwenger did with Ulysses). Since being called to the Nova Scotia Bar in 2006 (and the birth of yet another son), I’ve been fortunate to practice in a variety of legal areas.  I am now part of the Corporate Commercial Law team at Boyne Clarke in Dartmouth, where my focus is mainly in commercial real estate.  Although this may seem quite far away from my English studies, I find much satisfaction in my work.  Every legal issue is a story in itself, and it is rewarding to be challenged and learn from what may unfold.  Along with raising three children – Ethan, Sylas and Isaac - with my husband, Tony, at our home on the beautiful Eastern Shore, I volunteer with several non-profit and community organizations, and continue to be politically active.  If only I could find more time to read. . .

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Kathleen McConnell pen name: Kathy Mac   B.A. MSVU 1994 M.A. Wilfrid Laurier PhD  Dalhousie   Writer Assistant Professor St. Thomas University

Writer

English Professor

In 1991, I realized that I could make as much money going to graduate school as I was as a freelance editor, and in so doing, I could spend large swathes of time focused on what I loved: poetry. Nor was that the only passion grad school could feed; I’d run a few Creative Writing courses, and discovered an enthusiasm for teaching. 

I figured that I would have to pay for the BA by working part-time and taking loans, but with scholarships and Teaching / Research Assistantships the MA would pay for itself, and I should be paid to do the PhD. In the end, I’d be qualified to teach at the university and  be a lot better informed about poetry. It sounded ideal.  Two years at the Mount coupled with transfer credits from an earlier degree at NSCADU gave me (barely) enough credits to get into the fledgling MA program at Wilfrid Laurier with an entrance scholarship that covered tuition but not much else (books cost between $100 and $150 per course); after Laurier, I was accepted to do a PhD at Dalhousie, with enough funding to pay a subsistence living for four years.

The theory is that the PhD will take four years -- one year of courses, one year of exam prep, one year of thesis research, and one year of writing the thesis -- and so that’s how much funding most universities offer. However, the truth is that on average it takes six years to finish a Humanities PhD, because students are people too; we get married, we have children, we buy houses, etc. and we take on extra teaching or research duties to pay for all that.

It turns out that I was perfectly average: the PhD took me six years and for the last two I supported myself by teaching part-time, among other things. In my last couple of years as a student, I applied for dozens and dozens of jobs, and got dozens and dozens of thanks-but-no-thanks letters. Fortunately, my career as a poet had taught me not to take rejection personally. I knew that I’d have to wade through a bunch of “no”s to get to the one “yes” I needed.

Almost concurrently, I was awarded an eight month teaching contract at St. Thomas University (STU) in Fredericton, and my first book Nail Builders Plan for Strength and Growth (Roseway Publishing, 2001) was published. It became a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, and the winner of the Gerald Lampert Award for best first book of poems published in Canada that year.  

Consequently, when a tenure-track position came open at STU in 2002, I was a strong candidate -- they knew my teaching ability, they knew what I was like as a department member, they knew where my research interests lay. I got the job. 

Now I’m tenured, and I was awarded a $63,000 SSHRC Research/Creation Grant for my third book, which will be a collection of scholarly long poems. My second book, The Hundefräulein Papers, came out in March 2009.

All this success has resulted from that 1991 decision to take a calculated risk and follow my passion for poetry into graduate school.

 Books by Kathy Mac:

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 Managing Editor

For me, coming to the Mount meant the beginning of exciting opportunities not just to learn but to hit upon a new career. I came to the Mount as a mature student after a career focused on medicine and technology, wanting to see what I could do with the other side of my brain. I chose the Mount over all the universities in the HRM because its professors and administrators, and even its location, form a community that encourages all kinds learners, especially women, to be everything they can. So I decided to avoid the science subjects and enrolled in the Mount's BA English program with a directed study on Comparative Literature, thinking "This will be challenging" - and it was.

By the time I graduated I had done a lot of reading, discussing and interpreting. I think the greatest skill I took with me that day was a better ability to listen and think critically about what others had to say and how they say it. The English courses taught me how to listen to an author's voice - whether it be in drama or spoken word, on paper or on film. The comparative literature courses taught me the formal skills to analyze and then suggest ways to make their message even clearer. In my final year, I had the opportunity to be research assistant for my comp lit professor who was collecting writings by First Nations women in Atlantic Canada for editing and publication. With her, I got to try out my new skills as an editor and, as project manager, I also learned about the business of publishing - the budgets, deadlines and contracting out of services that have to come together to disseminate a writer's work.

Shortly after graduating, I applied for the position of Managing Editor of Atlantis: A Women's Studies Journal, a refereed journal with an international reputation for excellence in interdisciplinary research on the topic of women. Currently, Atlantis features 17 editorial panel members in 14 institutions across Canada; subscribers in 21 countries; reviewers in 26 countries; and submissions from 23 countries, and my office at the Mount serves as the central common for all stakeholders in the journal's operations.

But in addition to long hours online every day with the editors who are in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and British Columbia, I enjoy other professional relationships: with commercial service suppliers who help me in the production of the journal; with students here on campus who, through the Studentworks program, learn from me as paid editorial assistants; and working with national and international networks of professionals who share a love for publishing academic work (see image below from one of our recent meetings in Vancouver - I am second from the left).

What started as an adventure of testing my own mettle has become a career that continues to challenge me every day. Being a student at the Mount taught me to keep pedaling because you never know what awaits you around the next corner.   

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Multimedia Professor

After completing my BA Hons. in English at MSVU in 1989, I went to Dalhousie to get my MA in English, where I focused on the Victorian novel. It was during my year at Dalhousie when I decided that I wanted a profession where I could continue to research and teach English literature, and that the best way to do this would be to get a PhD and become a professor. So, it was off to the University of Alberta where I would continue studying Victorian literature and eventually make my way to becoming a professor of English.

Well, not everything goes as planned.   A few years into my PhD, I became fascinated with the use of computer technologies in the Arts and Humanities. This fascination became the topic of my PhD dissertation, which focused on the theorization of hypertext and multimedia within an Arts and Humanities context. At the same time that I was reading hypertext theory, I was learning to design and program works of multimedia. One thing led to another, and I found myself looking at video games as one the most interesting and popular examples of digital interactivity. They have stories, they have groovy graphics, they're creative to play, they're entertaining, and they're enjoyed by millions of people. Academics were only just beginning to see video games as important cultural objects of study when I was writing my dissertation, so a whole new field starting opening before me.

It might seem like a twisted path that leads one from Victorian literature to video games, but it's not so warped. Studying English literature helped me to develop a critical eye and an enjoyment in thinking about art and entertainment as cultural artifacts. Indeed, my research on video games still draws upon some of the same theory and criticism on cultural production so useful to my early research on the politics of literary taste in Victorian Britain.

These days, I'm an Associate Professor of Multimedia in the Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia at McMaster University, where I teach courses on the design and theory of digital media, including video games. My research still focuses on the cultural meanings of video games, but now I'm also collaborating with profs from Engineering to build games. So, to answer a question I'm asked often, yes, I do get paid to play games ... or at least to talk about them.

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Pamela Lovelace Content Producer, CBC Television - Maritimes and M.A. student   B.A. Honours 1999

At the age of 13, I started bussing tables to earn a little extra cash at a nearby hotel. I learned a work ethic early, and have wholly accepted hard work and elbow grease into my life ever since. However, by the age of 16, I was tremendously bored in school and quit. Although I rarely opened a book, my grades were good and my parents couldn’t complain. So, I set off to explore my real potential and gave up on school, not education.

By the age of 19, I was enrolled in Mount Saint Vincent University and back at the education game. I call it a game because for those of us not fortunate enough to have our university bills paid for, the privilege of education was a gamble, i.e. pay for rent or buy books.  

But the gamble paid off in the end. 

A few months after completing a BA (Hons) in English and Certificate in Business Administration from MSVU (May 1999), I accepted a position at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax as Coordinator of Communications and Special Events. I recall being on a road trip in sunny California when I got the call for a job interview. It was a tough decision to come home, but a great job for someone fresh out of university. 

One of my jobs after graduation was with a provincial cultural umbrella organization called The Nova Scotia Cultural Network.  Here, I was introduced to the politics and economics of cultural infrastructure, and the framework of cultural policies, both federally and provincially. Another excellent learning opportunity. 

Throughout university, I had worked as a freelancer in various positions, including web designer, content producer, writer, special event coordinator, bookkeeper, general manager, music tour coordinator, market and funds development, and anything else that piqued my interest at the time.   After graduation, when my son was born in 2003, I was in an ideal position to continue to work as a freelancer in on-line content, public relations, marketing, as well as reporter for a community newspaper. It was easy to make the leap into broadcasting, and put that freelance work behind me – for now.  

Currently, I work as an Associate Producer for CBC Television - Maritimes, although my travels through the CBC ranks have been varied. From communications, to finance to administration and production, I continue to learn the broadcasting ropes.

And now, ten years after graduating and almost 20 years after dropping out of high school, I’ve returned to school part-time to complete a Master of Arts in Education, Life Long Learning. 

There’s always a new chapter to explore.

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