one of the books i had to read for my managing talent class this past week is the adventures of johnny bunko: the last career guide you'll ever need. it's a comic book, a super quick read, and also kind of entertaining. here's a trailer for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtRNiMZsTro. the book outlined five or six basic "lessons" for careers/futures, but the ones that really stuck out to me had to do with "there is no plan" and "however you plan it, it doesn't work out that way." in other words, planning your career long term really doesn't lead to much. the implication is that in the long run, you really need to do what you love and to work all of that out, you'd better not waste your time doing shit you hate.
i'm curious about how this applies to me. the truth is that i love what i'm studying, but i really very often feel disconnected from it, being that i spend at least 40 hours a week doing something else. it's not that i don't love/enjoy my job, but anyone can tell you -- it's not really how i'd like to be spending my time (though, of course, the paycheck, health benefits, and most important, tuition benefits don't hurt!!). even though i like school, i get so bogged down by the 9-to-5 office experience that when i come home, i find myself drawn to things that have to do with standing up and using my hands/brain in a very different way. this semester in particular, i've been really into making things, especially clothing and food. i have so much fun making stuff and eating/wearing/using it. is that what i really love? is it possible that i love making stuff more than i love school and rwl? i'm not sure what to do with this or how to really dissect it and i know that i've probably talked about this before, but i still don't have an answer. can anyone help me out with this?
i just can't figure out what it means or what it says about what i should do with my life! i mean, i'm in this program and there really is no turning back at this point, but if you were to ask me, "if you could do anything you wanted, what would you do?" i'd say, "write books, make clothes, and be a raw chef." how in the world does this lead to that? is it possible that once i'm in academic or the non-profit sector, i'll have more time to write books, make clothes, and be a raw culinary master (mistress?)? i just don't know.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI am starting the R/W/L program in the fall, and I came to your blog because I want to hear from students, and see what career options are out there with a degree in R/W/L. It makes me a little nervous to hear there is no one answer, but I like what you say about freeing your plans to follow passion. Could you send me any advice, or web links, for R/W/L career advice, so I can have a plan to hold on to to give me some temporary confidence?
@Anonymous -- Thanks so much for your comment. I'm not sure if I can link you to an RWL career advice site, but I will look into that. In the meantime, can you tell me what you're interested in and what you want to do? -Mel
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know how literacy can help people, and what programs, or companies, can reach out to those people.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous -- Sorry about the delay in posting. I wrote a long comment on Monday night that apparently didn't post...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I guess what I was trying to ask is what specific interests you have within the field, or what specific populations you hope to serve. Of course, as you go through your program, your interests might change. For example, I came here wanting to work with immigrant adults; I now work with immigrant youth and with adult academic support staff.
In any case, depending on what you want to do, there are lots of arenas open to folks getting the doctorate in RWL. If you wanted to eventually become faculty at a research university, that is no doubt a possibility. Diane Waff and Gerald Campano, both faculty members in RWL, are good examples of this -- they both got their doctorates in RWL; both have worked with teacher communities; and both have published on this work (Diane Waff has done work with teacher learning communities and in classrooms and Gerald Campano has written a great book, researching his own classroom and students, that I recommend you check out if you're interested in teacher research -- many of Diane Waff's articles can be found on google scholar and I think you can find Gerald Campano's book on amazon). These two faculty members' work directly impacts teacher communities and the students and families they serve.
If you're interested in working in the nonprofit sector, there are tons of great Philly organizations that do work in and around literacy. One example is the Center for Literacy (CFL), which is actually what first got me interested in this work. Other organizations include the Nationalities Service Center (NSC) and my organization, the Philadelphia Immigrant Mentoring Collaborative (PIMC). There are tons more just in Philly and they serve a variety of groups. Many offer their services for free, too.
If you were interested in working with a partnership, that might be a good way to combine community and university work. One example of a Penn partnership is the Philadelphia Writing Project, which is a teacher network that promotes the teaching of writing as a critical tool for learning. You could equally end up working at a learning center or writing center, in which case the groups you'd be serving would be university students and faculty.
These are just a few examples and there are many more out there. When you ask how working in RWL can help people, I think it all depends on which people you want to help and how important the cause is to you. Regardless of whether you go to grad school or not, you can easily find work in this field -- a lot of it has to do with researching the organizations that are around you and finding ones that serve causes that are meaningful to you.
I'd love to talk more about this, so feel free to write back on here. If you'd like to meet in person and talk more, we can always do that as well. Thanks!