David Sterling Brown ’06
Current occupation:
Associate Professor of English, Trinity College
Why did you choose to Major in English Literature?
I knew I wanted to be a writer and be nourished on my intellectual journey by what I had heard was a phenomenal English faculty at Trinity. Developing my critical thinking and communication skills was going to be paramount for my future success, and this was yet another reason I chose English. I knew I was going to major in English the minute I applied to Trinity; choosing the major was one of the best decisions I made in my early adult life. When I matriculated at Trinity and began studying in the Major, I did not know exactly where my academic path would take me professionally, but I trusted the process—and I’m so glad I did.
What did you enjoy about Majoring in English at Trinity?
First and foremost, I enjoyed connecting with the faculty, as many of them took the time to get to know me as a person, not just a student (and they allowed me to get to know them as people and not just professors). Such a dynamic taught me a lot about: engaging with authority and managing different power dynamics in what I understood then as my professional and academic relationship with certain faculty members. I worked closely with several professors as a First-Year Mentor, Writing Associate/Head Tutor or Teaching Assistant. In hindsight, those were invaluable professionalization opportunities that prepared me well for my post-grad future in the so-called workaday world because I learned what it means to be part of a team, what it means to manage several different responsibilities simultaneously; and what it means to value other people’s time, especially when they are taking time to invest in me and my future. The English Major offered learning opportunities that gave me latitude to be creative and explore intellectual intersections among disparate topics that interested me. I attribute much of my post-grad success to the early training I had while learning under the guidance of the English faculty with whom I took most of my courses at Trinity, beyond the major requirements.
How did an English Major prepare you for your career?
The English Major taught me to be creative and to be a bold thinker and to follow my passion, ultimately. And my passion is not just writing. I greatly value solving intellectual problems, building networks and connecting (with) people; that was something the major allowed me to do. The English Major also taught me to focus on my strengths. And that focus enabled me to shore up different skills that were developing so that once I entered the workforce, my strengths were recognized almost immediately. After graduating, I first worked for a national non-profit, Teach For America (TFA), as the Connecticut Recruitment Director on their Recruitment Team. In that role, I had to manage a small team, conduct interviews, vet application essays for content and quality, plan events, communicate with diverse audiences at different professional levels, deliver presentations, create and execute marketing campaigns, conduct data analysis and influence and motivate people to believe in and support the TFA mission I was working on behalf of. The powers of persuasion and rhetorical argumentation were key there, both in my oral and written communication with constituents and colleagues. The English Major prepared me well. And it also prepared me well for grad school, where I ended up after TFA, once I decided to pursue a PhD in English and become a professor. My TFA experiences still matters in my professional life. For example, the professional opportunities I had there heavily influence how I operate as a professor and academic writer, managing my career and professional goals in ways that are rather entrepreneurial, which is not currently the standard in academia, though it is becoming more so these days.
