Student Achievements
English Student Finds Great Success in Grad School and her Career
April 11, 2017
Karie Luidens, a graduate student in the English program at GVSU, is currently working as a Staff Writer at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and is finding great success in grad school. Luidens graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts in French and Studio Art and a minor in English from Hope College. She then began her Master of Arts in English program at Grand Valley in 2011, taking classes part-time. Due to personal circumstances, Luidens has had to take some time off. Since then, her graduate career has been far from that of a “traditional” student.
For the past five years she has been deliberately participating in experiences spanning different types of writing; including academic, literary, promotional, and journalistic styles. Over the past five years she held every type of “odd job” you could think of – from rating French Google ads to working as a subject in a University of Washington Psychology Department study. In that time, she also developed a passion for travel and cultural experiences, which she applies in her current position. Luidens said, “At age 29, seven years after completing my BA and five years into my MA program, I got my first job that combined my passion for writing with a real career-level challenge.”
After all of the time Luidens spent trying to push through a Master’s degree and find a career that encompassed all of her passions, she provided some advice for current GVSU students. She said, “…follow your passion at every step…a lot of the decisions I made in my early twenties were based on fear of failure and a need for security…when I started basing decisions on genuine curiosity and passion…I gained confidence…and finally a job that’s challenging and rewarding.”
Congratulations to Karie on her new position and her great success in graduate school!