{"id":77732,"date":"2021-06-25T08:54:35","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T12:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=77732"},"modified":"2025-10-20T10:19:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T14:19:21","slug":"jaclyn-legge-english-major","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/jaclyn-legge-english-major\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Grads 2021: Provost Scholar Jaclyn Legge on the Life of an English Major"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Great Grads 2021: Provost Scholar Jaclyn Legge on the Life of an English Major\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

It is a truth universally acknowledged that September slaps us all across the face and stings like pumpkin spice and the fear of accidental plagiarism.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think Jane Austen meets a candid take on #studentlife. Thus began Jaclyn Legge\u2019s first blog post as student blogger for the Department of English Language and Literature<\/a>, just one of the community-building activities that saw her receive the Provost Scholar Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With wry, friendly wit, Legge recounted the vagaries of life as an English major at Carleton for two years, covering everything from essay writing to Animal Crossing. As she wrote in her valedictory post in April:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI tried to tap into the universal student experience as much as I could while acknowledging there is no true universal experience. Being a student is rewarding, engaging, fun, and fulfilling, and it is challenging, alienating, boring and frustrating. Sometimes it\u2019s all of these things in one day, or in one class.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\"Jaclyn
Jaclyn Legge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Memorably, she also tapped into the faculty experience, when her blog featured the accounts of both students and professors regarding online learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI discovered that if Zoom isn\u2019t ideal for most students, it isn\u2019t ideal for professors either,\u201d Legge reports.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThey don\u2019t want to be teaching through a camera; they want to be with their students. So most of us are feeling the same things, and that was really comforting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Legge\u2019s community outreach expanded when, as a CU Student Ambassador<\/a>, she produced a video about a day in the life of an English major and participated in a Spotlight Series promoting the English program to prospective students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prof. Dana Dragunoiu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, a collaboration with Prof. Dana Dragunoiu<\/a> through the Students as Partners Program<\/a> evolved into a student recruitment project. Initially envisioned as one five-minute video, Legge\u2019s enthusiasm expanded the project into a three-part video series showcasing the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFully capturing the experience of an English degree at Carleton meant that I needed to reach out to all the students and faculty I knew,\u201d she recalls. \u201cIt was fascinating to listen to my peers describe Drama Studies, or Medieval and Early Modern Studies. It made me appreciate the versatility of an English degree even more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Legge is passionate about the value of the Humanities: \u201c\u2026the world needs good readers, writers, researchers, analysts and\u2014I add tenderly\u2014hearts,\u201d she blogged. \u201cI believe an English degree\u2014at least the one I have gotten here with the help of all the professors who have guided me\u2014can help you become all those things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legge is taking a well-deserved break before beginning a master\u2019s degree next year\u2014though \u201cbreak\u201d is a relative term. Beyond catching up on a large stack of novels, she\u2019s starting an anime-focused podcast with a friend, developing an essay for the interdisciplinary journal To Be Decided<\/em><\/a> and launching her own blog, Crybaby Reads<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI love reading about how other people experience their favourite things,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI want to share my favourite books and shows and movies, blending my blogging style with the analysis of literary essays.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romance and romantic comedies, Legge\u2019s main point of interest, are likely to feature heavily. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to see romance literature as somehow lesser than, but those novels present the conflicts that really make up human lives. I think academia has room to grow in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems likely, then, that Legge will continue to build community as she moves forward. As for Carleton, she\u2019s determined to visit the campus again when doors open.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cSo many professors helped me feel that I had a place in the program and that what I had to contribute mattered,\u201d she reflects.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThat experience made me want to be a part of the community, and then I wanted to bring other people in too. So having my efforts to help with community-building recognized with the award\u2014it felt really special to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Open<\/figure>\n\n\n

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that September slaps us all across the face and stings like pumpkin spice and the fear of accidental plagiarism. Think Jane Austen meets a candid take on #studentlife. Thus began Jaclyn Legge\u2019s first blog post as student blogger for the Department of English Language and Literature, just one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":77734,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[25],"cu_story_tag":[1920],"class_list":["post-77732","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-arts-and-social-sciences"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/77732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/77732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97585,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/77732\/revisions\/97585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=77732"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=77732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}