Anthony Freeman graduated in the fall of 2017 with a degree in English, concentrating on linguistics.
Making it through college can (and should) be difficult. But it’s just one part of a much bigger challenge: finding your path in life. Ideally, your college years will launch you onto that path as you explore your interests, select a major, and work closely with your academic adviser and instructors.
Is that what my years at Millersville did for me? Yes — although in unexpected and surprising ways! During my time at college, and in the past year and a half since I graduated, my path in life has looked less like a straight line and more like the bouncing white square from Pong. But it’s a path that has been incredibly fulfilling, distinctly my own, and which is leading me toward the realization of my academic and professional dreams.
My time at Millersville didn’t start the same way as it did for many other students. In the fall of 2014, I came in as a transfer student at the beginning of my sophomore year. Having lived most of my life five minutes from campus, the drive on my first day lasted just long enough to listen to one inspirational track on my favorite playlist.
I sat down nervously in a classroom in McComsey Hall with other English major transferees. There, Dr. Craven explained the various academic concentrations within Millersville’s English Department that we, as English majors, could study.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that was the beginning of a total shift in my life direction.
One and a half years later, I was receiving another orientation — this time, in a little college classroom in St. Petersburg, Russia. Why Russia? Well, after learning about the variety of concentrations within Millersville’s English program, I’d explored multiple options and finally settled on linguistics. And as I learned how language works, my dormant interest in the Russian language — which I’d briefly studied in high school — reawakened.
Millersville was able to hook me up with Russian language classes through nearby Franklin & Marshall College. And after quite a few meetings at Millersville’s Office of International Programs and Services, I was ready to spend the spring semester of my junior year in St. Petersburg, Russia, studying language, literature, and Soviet history.
Some memories are like treasures that you perennially love to take out of storage, hold in your hands, and admire. Studying abroad increased my confidence and left me with a trove of memories that remind me why I’m doing what I’m doing. Those months in Russia not only improved my language skills, but also forced me to reexamine my identity. I learned to make decisions independently and think on my feet. I also made friends that I wouldn’t have met otherwise.
Skip ahead to the fall of 2017. I graduated (thanks in large part to my amazing professors) and was now a teacher in a private school, teaching English composition and Russian language to high schoolers. As it turned out, my time abroad was a significant factor in getting the job!
But there’s one more twist to my story: Not long before graduation, I found that my personal reading habits were shifting. One day in the stacks, I picked up a copy of The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, translated by Burton Watson. I opened it up to a random page, read a few poems by Tang dynasty poet Wang Wei, and suddenly felt like the sky had opened up.
I haven’t had many epiphanies, but I felt like this was one. I knew a little bit about translation theory, and poetry had always been of interest to me. I had also studied Chinese the year before I got to Millersville. I was soon checking out books on Chinese literary and cultural history, several different translations of the same poems by Du Fu, and an old Chinese 101 textbook.
That was the beginning of another surprising curve in my life’s path. Today, I am a teacher of English as a Foreign Language in Qingdao, China. I’ve tested into upper intermediate Chinese, and I’m loving the job and my students.
The main reason I’m in China is to improve my understanding of Chinese language and culture. My plan is to study comparative literature at the graduate level. This will allow me to continue pursuing my interest in both Russian and Chinese literature, as well as that of the English-speaking world.
None of this would have been possible without faculty and friends telling me that I could dare to chase my dreams, wherever they took me. I’m lucky that I had so many voices in my life telling me that. So now I’ll be that voice for you: Dare to explore your options. Your enthusiasm for learning should know no bounds!
–Anthony Freeman
On Thursday, April 19th, 2018 my English class taught by Dr. Jakubiak traveled to New York City to hear a panelist of authors from all over the world speak at a convention called Cry, the Beloved Country. The festival was for Pen America’s World Voices Festival which is centered around bringing together world literature and ideas.
After each had finished, the audience was able to meet the authors and have them sign any works they had written. This was a great time for me and my class. Some of us brought along our book The River Between written by Mr. Ngugi wa Thiang’o that we had read in class and got to not only have him sign our novels but to ask him questions about the book we had discussed so heavily. All of the questions we had about the book he was able to answer. To actually meet an author who had written one of my favorite books we had read all semester was such an amazing experience.
Some of us didn’t have any pieces of literature written by the authors, but that did not stop us from talking to them about their inspirations and experiences. I had four out of the six authors sign my program that I was given so I didn’t go away completely empty handed. Every author I spoke to was so insightful and had such grace to their craft that I could not help but feel inspired when they spoke to me. Discussing literature in a classroom is beneficial but hands down, nothing beats talking to the author that actually wrote it.
I am an MA student in English interested in American literature and disability studies. I have been a student at Millersville since 2012 and I plan on graduating in May 2019. After that, I hope to complete my PhD and find a job somewhere as either a literature/disability studies/medical humanities professor, or as an editor or publisher. I have also been a graduate assistant to the English department since 2017, and this year I was fortunate enough to become the head graduate assistant. It’s a lot of work but I enjoy working with faculty and students in class and for research projects.
I have a confession to make. When I started out as a freshman social work major at Millersville University in Fall 2014, I did not go to about 90% of freshman orientation. Sadly, I snobbishly dismissed it. At that time, I never would have thought that as a senior in 2019, I would actively choose to be present 
It is common for people to build walls between themselves and the things that help us grow or challenge us. Poetry is one of those things. I think many people often believe that it is something innate. Or that is for more contemplative types. Or for monks that live on mountain tops. Or for 1800s’ transcendentalists who live near ponds. Or, as Dr Archibald has argued, for people who have had “a fairy land on their head to gift them.” Through blackout poetry, freshman students discovered that poetry can be created from what already exists rather than being completely manifested. Sure, there were a few students who still felt too discouraged to give a thoughtful attempt. However, almost everyone left appreciating the language that can emerge out of themselves through poetry. It surprised them. Many eyes lit up with the discovery of the profundity that was woven from the fabrics of their own mind and the words of “All American Boys.” They saw how poetry is freeing rather than confining. They saw how poetry can give the sense of a fierce and rebellious act through potentially using a marker to cross out lines in an old, worn library book. They have the words before them. They just had to choose which ones to use. And there is something so exciting and powerful in that. 
Empower Hope excels in recognizing individuals’ strengths and putting them to use. A highlight was creating illustrations for a kids’ booklet on poverty that they were creating to hand out at events. Despite being hired to write, I got to change hats for a week to work in the artistic realm.