Gwen Hopkins ’08

What is your current occupation?

Nonprofit operations

What do you like best about your work? 

In terms of working in nonprofits, I like the satisfaction of working for a mission and really enjoy working with others who share my values. To working in operations, I love constantly solving puzzles and finding ways to make the organization run better.

Did you know, when you graduated, what direction your career would take? 

I knew I wanted to work for nonprofits but didn’t have any sense of how I might contribute. I took a job on staff with Teach for America (recruiting, not teaching), to move to DC and learn the nonprofit landscape. From there I got a job at the Aspen Institute, a think tank with a variety of policy programs, working on global health and development. I have stayed in that field, working with hospitals and clinics in Los Angeles and now with a fellowship organization called Global Health Corps in NYC, but over time honed my role to really focus on strategy, problem solving, and project management.

How do you think being an English major prepared you for your career today? 

I have always had a de facto role of copy editor and peer reviewer of my coworkers’ writing, plus it helps to write clear emails. More broadly, I think both literary analysis and operations are about making connections between things that others might not see, and arguing a case. The same sense of putting together puzzles that I like in my career now is what I liked about being an English major.

If you could give one piece of professional advice to English majors at Trinity, what would that be? 

Pursue the things that excite you. These, much more so than the things I did to build a resume, are the things that ended up shaping my career (and life!). I would never have gotten a job in international development if I hadn’t studied abroad in West Africa, for example!

Say you could be back at Trinity for two hours- how would you spend your time?

I’d visit Summit East, where I lived for three years and helped found the Fred Pfeil Community Project. Then I’d walk down to the library to sit in the courtyard or Peter B’s, and finally I’d walk up the quad to see what’s in bloom near the chapel, and see if any professors are around in the English building.

–interviewed by Jaymie Bianca