Numerous surveys of employers indicate that companies of all kinds want to hire people with excellent communication skills.
“It’s self-evident to me that if you cannot communicate well through writing, you probably cannot communicate well orally, either,” says Karl Elder, Lakelands’s Fessler Professor of Creative Writing and Poet in Residence who has taught at Lakeland for nearly four decades. “I’ve had people (in hiring positions) tell me, ‘Give me somebody who can write!’ We prepare our students well.”
If you’re wondering what kind of career you can pursue after majoring in Writing, Elder has a passionate response: “When a parent asks me, ‘What can my son or daughter do with a writing degree?’ I say, ‘Any freaking thing they want!’ You can go into just about anything. Writing provides tremendous preparation.”
The Writing major has been a staple at Lakeland for more than three decades, and Elder points out that recent graduates from the program enjoy careers in advertising, newspaper journalism, teaching at all levels, computer programming, corporate training, law, counseling, radio, industrial intel, information analysis, and many more fields.
Elder likes how his friend, a professor in the southern U.S., responded when asked why she writes. “She said, ‘Because it makes me a better person.’ I identify with that,” Elder says with a smile.
“I hate to sound obnoxious,” Elder says. “But you will develop your consciousness here.”
Lakeland’s experienced Writing faculty takes great pride in working one-on-one with all students. While the primary instructors are well-versed in all facets of the written word, Karl Elder is a national award-winning poet and has published 13 collections while Jodie Mortag’s creative work appears in numerous literary magazines, and she is an expert in fiction and nonfiction.
“We give our students a real taste of everything they need,” says Elder. “When our students leave this institution, they will be fundamentally sound.”
Lakeland also offers a BFA in Creative Writing, which is unlike anything offered in the entire state of Wisconsin.
Note: A student completing a minor in Writing is not eligible to earn a major in Creative Writing (B.F.A.).
Lakeland's Cooperative Education program will provide Writing students with the ability to earn 12-18 months of full-time work experience, academic credit for their work, and a combination of scholarships and wages that will significantly reduce or eliminate post-graduation debt.
