Here are some of our MAE and MAWP students that are soon to graduate or have already graduated! To receive a student spotlight, please send your information to the Ex-Libris editor, Camila Restrepo crestre4@depaul.edu.
Courtney Aubrecht will be graduating this summer with her MAWP degree! After graduation she plans to
focus more on writing and to get published in magazines but after graduation she intends to turn her attention back on the creation of stories, either in visual formats or in the written word. Another goal of hers is to extend her education to others, either through literacy volunteer work or through the founding of her own after school or adult writing non-profit organization.
Samantha Chmara will be graduating this June with her MAWP degree! She will be the arts and humanities admission liason for her alma mater, Aurora University.
Lisa Deanna will be receiving her MAE degree this June After graduation, she will be working as an Adjunct ESL Instructor at Harper College.
Michelle Donfrio is graduating this June from the MAWP program! After graduation, she plans on finishing her first poetry book and pitching it to independent presses. Along with continuing her job in the Marketing department at ALDI corporate, she will be teaching once a week at a non-for-profit bookstore in Geneva called “Republic of Letters.”
Steve Freye will be gradating in June with his MAE degree! He plans on continuing his profession as a high school English teacher at Benet Academy in Lisle and will be starting his 10th year there in the fall.
Diane Higgins will receive her MAE degree in the fall. After that she will continue teaching high school English!
Matthew Manning is graduating this June with his MAWP degree. Following graduation, he will be continuing his work full-time with ROYAL Media, a global media company and storytelling platform he co-founded for the celebration of Black life, which aims to diversify the narratives of Black representation in media by adding complexity and nuance to the stories they tell. One of the programs is the Unbound Journal, an online journal with an editorial team crafting original content on weekly basis. he is a writer and editor for the platform, and is also a lead consultant for the 6CreativeStudio. With the completion of his master’s degree, he will be using the added time to sink his teeth further into all of this passion work.
Cynthia Nwakudu will be receiving her MAWP degree in June! After graduation she plans on completing her memoir.
Nicole Robilotta will receive her MAE degree in August 2018. After that she will continue teaching English at Plainfield South High School!
Rob Schassler is a department alum. After graduation he completed the Chicago TEFL Academy’s certification course for teaching English as a Foreign/Second Language, and began an accelerated teaching certification course (for English lit. grades 6-12) in June at Carthage College. After the completion of that program, he plans to either begin a career as an instructor of English Lit. and Language Arts or take some time to travel abroad teaching ESL.
Brittany Schmitt will receive her MAWP degree in August 2018. This summer, she will be working as an Education Intern for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. After graduation, she plans to keep working on her YA fantasy series and applying for copyediting positions in the Chicago area.
Mihaela Stoica graduated August, 2017 from the MAE program. After graduation, she continued as a collaborator on the “Reading Chicago Reading” digital humanities project led by Professor Shanahan. She has expanded her thesis research on gender in science fiction and presented a paper at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario! The event was titled Embodiment in Science Fiction and Fantasy Interdisciplinary Conference. She is currently working on an article on James Tiptree Jr., which was the subject of her MAE thesis.
Bintou Sy will receive her MAE degree this June! After that she will be moving to the UK!
Anne Terashima will be receiving her MAWP degree this June! After graduation, she will be attending the Fishtrap Writers Conference in Oregon, for which she received a fellowship! After that, she will be working as a publicity director and associate editor for Torrey House Press, a nonprofit publishing company in Salt Lake City, Utah!
Joy Young will be graduating in August with her MAWP degree! After graduation she hopes to teach College Creative Writing and Literature. She is also interested in becoming a teaching artist; promoting a love of writing and self expression within children at Chicago schools.
CONGRATS to these graduates, you make the department proud!