Alumni Advice: Recount of Coffee House Panel

By Ahlaam Abdulwali ’25

For the coffee house on Feb. 19, we had Macalester English alumni stop by (over zoom) to share what their lives have been like post-Mac. This panel, moderated by Professor Andrea Kaston Tange and Marcos Cruz from Career Exploration, had four wonderful alumni: Ava Bindas ’17, Chloë Moore ’24, Charley Eatchel ’23, and Danielle Freshwaters ’22. 

Each of these alumni have had different paths after graduation. Ava currently works as a Communications Analyst at USC for a research group. Prior to this job, she received her PhD in English from UC Davis. Ava was inspired to do a more formal dissertation after doing an honors project, so they decided to pursue a PhD. Majoring in English at a liberal arts college has proved incredibly useful for her. It has allowed her to communicate in a dexterous, creative way. To keep up with writing, Ava meets with their dissertation writing partner once a week to write. Her advice was to look honestly at yourself and figure out a way to make yourself feel successful with your writing. 

Chloë, after a brief stint at Grandview Theater, works as a Constituent Services Representative for the New York State Senate. Their focus is on rural organizing, and they represent the senator they work for at events. At work, Chloë uses the patience they learned in their jobs outside of Macalester to help them navigate working in politics. They moved back home after graduation; to get out of social engagements they find that saying “my mom said no” is quite effective. For Chloë, moving back home was a great financial decision, and they recommend that people should keep that option open. In terms of writing as a practice post-grad, they suggest not underestimating how powerful reading is for the writing process. They log each piece of longer form media they consume in a journal and write two-to-four sentences about it. 

Charley currently works as a Publishing Operations Assistant at Button Poetry. To Charley, the peer editing and self editing process in English classes have proved helpful in their editing job. Their job encompasses an umbrella of tasks required to get a piece from the manuscript stage to a published book. Charley’s method to keep writing was to make a plan for writing and stick to it. They used to go to the same coffee shop for three hours and write on Saturdays. However, with their work hours that was no longer feasible. They now write one to two things a day and that established pattern keeps them writing. 

Danielle mostly works full time as a youth worker at a nonprofit social services program. This program runs day camp over summer and after school programming during the school year. They also work as an Assistant Coach of Track and Cross Country here at Mac! She also works a few shifts at Minneapolis Cider in the French kitchen making crepes. Danielle felt lost about what to do after graduation, and they found that working with Americorps (Summer Reads program) helped them build strong connections and they were able to receive a full time offer from this job. Danielle suggested that students go with the flow and see what opportunities arise. She tried to keep a writing schedule, but found it took out the fun. They settled on the idea that any writing at all counts as writing, and it does not have to be a big project or eloquent prose. They often do fridge magnet poetry while making a pot of coffee. After graduation, she found herself continuing to work on their capstone project, and ended up writing a piece for a literary magazine. 

To close out the session, Ava and Charley left us with some sage advice: it’s important to remember that job hunting is far more like a marathon than a sprint and that your first job post-grad is not your forever job. None of the panelists know what they want to do with the rest of their lives, but that’s okay! Only about 50% of people know what they want to do right after graduation. They’ve all found happiness in their daily lives, including Chloë who finds joy in local democracy. They’ve also gotten a lot of cool jackets out of working with older people in the city council. This panel was a wonderful reminder that life doesn’t seemingly end after graduation and that everything will work out in the end.