John Cole

Since high school, I wanted to do three things in life: paint, play music and write. While I still practice the first two for enjoyment, writing became my chosen career path. Carleton’s creative writing courses were immensely enjoyable during my undergraduate studies, whether it was positive encouragement and feedback from Nadia Bozak, learning how to put life experiences to the page from Rick Taylor or learning how to develop my own literary voice from David Stymeist. These three and countless other faculty members and fellow students helped me become more confident in my own work and think critically about all areas of life.

That last part has been especially true since graduating. During my time at Carleton, my studies never really coalesced into a cohesive vision until my third year, and if my professional career is anything to go by, that will hold true throughout my life. Moving from one life event to the next, the ability to think critically and apply my writing skills and literary knowledge in a variety of work settings has been an invaluable resource to call upon. While I never seem to stay in one place for very long, the experiences I had at Carleton and the skills I learned there will continue to help me flourish in whatever I choose to do next.

For the moment, my work entails office coordination. I organize daily assignments for contract transcriptionists to provide verbatim transcripts of government news conferences and communicate with various government department newsrooms and other clients to keep them appraised of any media advisories for federal and provincial news updates. Clear and concise communication is imperative in this field of work, and Carleton University’s English Department provided me with the tools to excel in this field.