Department of English: Literature, Teaching, Pre-Law, and Creative & Professional Writing

Join Team English! Tracing our literary roots to Charles W. Chesnutt, the first great African American novelist, we are the department that helps our students to create their own destinies. Now a nationally recognized university online program, in fall of 2023 FSU's English program received recognition as one of the top ten English Online programs in the nation by Forbes Advisor Education team. Strong reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills afford English: Literature, Teaching, Pre-Law, and Creative & Professional Writing (ETLW) majors with the ability to succeed at numerous careers or advanced degree programs, including law school or at a job in education, advertising, publilc relations, human resources, sales departments, marketing, finance, journalism, publishing, editing, technical writing, the arts, in effect at an array of corporate, government, and profit/nonprofit sectors. English majors are in high demand as they are needed in every institution, organization, and company.

Students who opt for an English major may earn the English Language & Literature (BA) degree along with the possibility of three additional/optional concentrations that offer a specific focus: Teaching Licensure Concentration (Secondary English 9-12), Pre-Law Concentration, and Creative & Professional Writing Concentration. FSU’s English online degree program allows students to complete upper-division (junior and senior level) courses online.

As of August, Forbes Education Advisor has named Fayetteville State University’s online English Program one of “the best online English degrees of 2023” because of its “relatively high retention rate, relatively high socioeconomic diversity, and low average annual net price for students receiving Federal Aid,” and, as the Forbes Advisor Education team puts it, &'r'dquo;is committed to bringing our readers unbiased rankings and trustworthy, informative aricles” (Habas, Beagle, Forbes Best).

 

Department of English: Literature, Teaching, Pre-Law, and Creative & Professional Writing

Announcements

UNC - FSU classes are back in session!  There is excitement on FSU's Campus with students, faculty and staff moving about everywhere!  If enrolled, feel free to contact any instructor with questions about their course or contact me, Dr Micki Nyman, mnyman@uncfsu.edu, English Department Webmaster! Call my office, 910 672 2426 or stop by Williams 206 since am around most days! If you stop by my office and I'm not here, feel free to leave a message so I might contact you. Also, I am happy to answer questions about the protocols of CANVAS, or about writing well for a class, or questions such as "How do I join the Writers Club?" Speaking of the Writers Club, we are planning to host a table on Wednesday, September 4, 2024 at the Student Clubs Activities Fair.  We would like everyone who is interested to participate! Please contact me if you'd like to join Achilles Britt (Club President) and me, Dr Nyman, (Club Advisor) at our Writers Club table. We are planning to host many exciting events this year at the RJSC and would love to have your input!  Please email Achilles or me - tbritt2broncos.uncfsu.edu or mnyman@uncfsu.edu with any questions. Please plan to stop by our Writers Club table on SEPT 4! We hope to see everyone there!

The FSU (In-Person) Career Fair will be held on Wednesday, October 2 from 1PM-4PM in the Student Center Ballrooms. Anyone in the FSU community may register for the event and review the list of employers by clicking Student Registrations | Handshake (joinhandshake.com). We expect to have 65 employers and graduate schools at the event and currently have 13 that have registered already.

 

Students should have resumes (paper or electronic) and be dressed in professional attire. The Career Services office is open to helping students in the following ways via scheduling a virtual or in-person appointment (by replying to this message):

  • Resume Reviews / Development (will need to know GPA, software programs used from Microsoft/Google/Adobe)
  • Career Fair Preparation
  • Interviewing Preparation
  • Acquiring Professional Clothing
  • Cover Letters
  • Writing Personal Statements (Graduate School or Scholarship Applications)
  • Help with finding a long-term career goal(s) - Personality Assessment
  • Help with finding a major
  • How to handle job offers      We to hope to see everyone at the Job Fair on Wednesday OCT 2 in the RJSC Ballrooms!

Interested FSU Seniors please note there are fellowships available for Graduate Studies! The Payne Fellowship Program awards up to thirty fellowships valued at up to $52,000 annually for a two-year program. The award includes up to $24,000 per year toward tuition and mandatory fees for completion of a two-year master’s degree at a U.S. institution; a $18,000 stipend for each academic year for room, board, books and other education-related expenses; and up to $10,000 per year in stipend, housing, transportation, and related expenses for summer placements (see below). At the conclusion of two years of study, the Payne Fellow is expected to obtain a degree in international development or another area of relevance to the work of the USAID Foreign Service at a U.S. graduate or professional school approved by the Payne Program. Fellows who successfully complete the Payne Program and USAID Foreign Service entry requirements will receive appointments as Foreign Service Officers with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Orientation New Payne Fellows will participate in an orientation at Howard University in May, shortly after their selection. The purposes of this orientation are to familiarize the Fellows with all aspects of the fellowship and to enhance their understanding of, and skills for, international development careers.

Two Summer Placements Payne Fellows will participate in two internships. The first, an internship working on international issues in Washington, DC, will occur in the summer after being selected and before the first year of graduate study. The second will be an overseas internship in a USAID Mission that takes place during the summer between the first and second years of graduate study. The program will provide stipends, housing, and transportation.

Curriculum Fellows must obtain graduate degrees in international affairs or a related subject such as development, economics, history, political science, public administration, communications, public policy, business administration foreign languages, agriculture, environmental sciences, or urban planning at a graduate or professional school approved by the Payne Program. Studies in law do not satisfy this requirement. Applicants apply to two-year graduate programs at U.S. universities simultaneously with their application to the Payne Program.

How to Apply (DUE OCTOBER 24, 2024)

Eligibility Requirements

  • Applicants must be U.S. citizens.
  • Applicants must be between the ages of 18-55.
  • Applicants must be seeking admission to enter graduate school in the fall of 2025 for a two-year program at a U.S. university. They can be in the senior year of their undergraduate studies, graduating by June 2025, or they can be college graduates.
  • Applicants must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or higher on a 4.0 scale at the time of application.

Note: Applicants are not required to be Howard University students or applying to Howard for graduate school.

 

Having achieved high standards of academic excellence at FSU as English majors, Angela R. Wilson, Taylor G. Davis, Zoe C. Hare, Jennifer Rigsby, Marinna Hunt, Peter Gramazio, Naomi Murphy, Jeffrey G. Davis, and Charlece Corbin were welcomed into the Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society this past semester in the J.C. Jones Board Room in the Charles W. Chesnutt Library. The 2023-24 Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society inductees/members received their official ΣΤΔ pins with their personally embossed membership certificates at the official pinning ceremony. Sigma Tau Delta Facuty Advisor Dr. Nicole A. McFarland, and other English faculty members, including Dr. Ji Young Kim - English Department Chair, Dr. Eric Hyman, Ms. Shannon Warren - Writing Center Coordinator, Ms. Michelle King, and Ms. Heather Bass, as well as CHSS Assistant Dean Miriam Delone were on hand for the celebratory award ceremony.

Picture of FSU English Honor Society 2024 inductees

 

 

What does an FSU degree in English offer?

The great variety of English courses we offer prepare our students for law school and for careers in teaching, technical writing, publishing, public relations, marketing, finance, news media, and the arts. Our graduates are editors, lawyers, community organizers, entrepreneurs, and educators—some alumni even teach overseas.

An Epic Major

From Chaucer to Chesnutt, “Beowulf” to Batman, and Romanticism to rap, English is epic in variety, vitality, and versatility. Just as books are windows to the world, English opens doors to a myriad of careers. Witness English majors Clarence Thomas, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, and Reese Witherspoon, the Academy Award-winning actor who played a lawyer onscreen in Legally Blonde.

Studying English can lead to law school, but strong reading, writing, speaking, analyzing, and researching skills can make a job in education, advertising, public relations, marketing, finance, journalism, publishing, editing, technical writing, the arts, or the public or non-profit sectors happen. Many English majors fashion careers that serve their abilities and proclivities, including teaching in Europe or China.

Building on the legacy of Charles Chesnutt, the first great African American novelist and former FSU leader, the Department of English offers programs and curricula that explore the relationship among language, literature, history, culture, and new media. We offer a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature, with optional concentrations in Pre-Law, Teaching Secondary English 9-12 with Licensure, Teaching English as a Second Language, and Creative & Professional Writing. Our innovative/interative classes are taught by faculty who are distinguished scholars, experienced editors, and award-winning authors.

Our Department seeks to equip students with research, communication, and critical thinking skills in preparation for diverse, innovative, and global career options in fields ranging from education and law to business and the non-profit sector. The English Department incorporates high-impact practices, such as service learning, internships in marketing and publishing, and a senior culminating experience into its curriculum in its ongoing efforts to provide our students with high-quality teaching as well as practical and innovative training within the discipline. This approach helps to ensure that students are both engaged with the field’s history and with its most cutting-edge trends, while also demonstrating the value of the humanities within the wider communities of Cumberland County, the state of North Carolina, and beyond.

Through pedagogy grounded in current trends in the digital humanities and cultural studies, as well as innovative scholarship on topics ranging from political rhetoric and African-American aesthetics to medieval literature, our mission is to stress the value of the humanities and the flexibility of the English major while providing a solid liberal arts education for our students.