English

“My experiences at Tennessee Tech prepared me to  literally and figuratively tackle the many challenges throughout my career. I transferred from the University of Tennessee to Tennessee Tech University to continue chasing a dream of playing football. Tennessee Tech has always been welcoming and made me feel at home. Tennessee Tech recruited me out of High School to play football, but I decided to pursue dreams with the Big Orange. However, when I looked to transfer schools, the Tennessee Tech coaching staff still remembered my name and made me feel at home.

“From my time at Boys State, as the Mayor of Curtis City on the Tennessee Tech campus, there has always been a culture of respect and inclusiveness, from the students, faculty, and the city of Cookeville, TN. Throughout my career in the United States Army (US Army), Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Ernst Young (EY), and as Entrepreneur with CoeusB Holdings, culture and the people have always been the top two areas I look for when pursuing career opportunities. If the proper culture didn’t exist, I purposely molded my teams and organizations to be more like the environment at Tennessee Tech. I also learned resilience during my transfer from UT to Tennessee Tech. I learned sometimes change is needed and there is always another way to accomplish your dreams.

“Throughout my career, I have been purposeful about creating safe and inclusive workplace cultures built on communication, collaboration, accountability, and team environment similar to my experiences at Tennessee Tech. I especially learned teaming from being a member of the Tennessee Tech Football Team, Army ROTC, and Treasurer of the French Club. My professional philosophy in the workplace is not to be a family because we don’t fire our family members or place them on performance improvement plans. Instead, our work colleagues are highly functioning, successful, and unified teams with a common goal which I learned as a part of Tennessee Tech ROTC and Golden Eagle Football.

“Uniquely, outside of learning leadership and teaming while at Tennessee Tech, I learned one of the most critical skills I use daily, effective written communication and articulating clear concise messaging. Dr. Shirley Laird was essential to my progression as an English Major while at Tennessee Tech. I originally sought out English as a pathway to Law School but chose to pave my own unique path. There is not a day which goes by where I am not leveraging my understanding of sentence structure and storytelling from my courses at Tennessee Tech as an English Major. These courses laid the foundation for me to draft, review, and publish intelligence to The President of The United States, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress, Special Operations Operators, and the American People, all with the goal to protect our Country. There are several key intelligence documents written or approved by me which drove global policy changes, saved lives, and/or ended up dissected and debated in the global media. From my time as a US Army Traditional and Special Operations Intelligence Officer, as an FBI Global Senior Intelligence Executive, and to my current EY role as a Global Executive Cybersecurity Consultant, I utilized my experiences and degree from Tennessee Tech daily. As the next step in the application of my Tennessee Tech English degree, I will be writing a series of leadership books based on my experiences. Wings Up!” Ron Johnson

"My name is Megan Trotter and I graduated with a degree in English in 2006, with a minor in history. I am currently a marketing writer at Tennessee Tech University.

"Each week I get the opportunity to talk to faculty, staff and students on campus who are doing fascinating work and are achieving impressive things. I get real joy in being one of the people who tells the stories of these achievements and helping everyone involved get the recognition they deserve.

"Before I joined Tech’s staff in 2021, I worked at the local newspaper, the Herald-Citizen, for 10 years as a journalist. While there, I was in charge of content for the Living section, which focused on human interest stories, as well as stories on local artists, theatrical productions and other creative people and events in the Upper Cumberland. I also wrote more “hard” news such as stories on city council meetings, but I always have favored stories where I get to sit down and listen to a person talk about their passions.

"I feel that Tech’s English program helped teach me the skills of really listening to other people as they share their thoughts and ideas and being able to translate what I’m told into a concise story that captures the heart of the other person’s experience. I love hearing from people who say something I’ve written about them has brought them attention from other news outlets or opened up new opportunities for them.

"I also write and self-publish novels in my free time which, though they are fantasy, are set in real historical times and places. My minor in history gave me the added research skills I’ve needed to find and incorporate historic cultural details into my writing, which has made my writing all that more interesting and creative. Of course, there was also all my classes in writing and literature that helped me learn how to tell my own stories in my own voice.

"All in all, I feel that my degree in English at Tennessee Tech has not only helped make me the writer I am today, it has also made me a life-long lover of learning and a person who actively seeks out other people’s points of view," Megan Trotter.

"Hello! My name is Cassidy Phillips. From a young age, my career vision was to work for myself in some creative capacity. I felt that enhancing my communication skills would be a vital part of growing my confidence and honing a professional presence. My time in the English department shaped my critical thinking skills, written and oral communication, and time management capabilities, which helped me found my brand & web design studio, Foxtrot Branding.

"Cultivating a professional and enjoyable voice and writing style is incredibly important as a business owner and content creator. You can learn many career skills on your own (for example, my specialty in web design), but the strong sense of communication and ethics I learned from professors like Dr. Pickering uniquely equipped me to found my own business. I am truly thankful for the groundwork my English degree laid for my entrepreneurial future.

"My company's website is foxtrotbranding.com, our Instagram is instagram.com/foxtrotbranding, and I'm on tiktok at tiktok.com/@cassidylphillips," said Cassidy Phillips.

"Hello, I am Garrison Bickerstaff. I completed a PhD in linguistics at the University of Georgia (UGA) in 2010 after completing a BA in English in 2000 and an MA in English in 2002 at Tennessee Tech. In my current role, I teach several courses for the Division of Academic Enhancement (DAE) at UGA, including Introducing English Composition and Developing Literacies in the Humanities. I also coordinate and teach our Digital Literacies and Documentary Media course.

"One of my favorite courses to teach is Learning for Success at the University for our Thrive at Georgia students. Each July my class partners with The Friends of Oconee Hill Cemetery for service-learning activities. In the photo below I am leading a discussion in UGA’s Special Collections Libraries where my class pursued research about presidents of UGA who are interred in Oconee Hill Cemetery in Athens, GA.

"The BA and MA in English programs at Tennessee Tech helped me to mature as a writer, researcher, and critical thinker. I have especially appreciated the approachable and supportive nature of the faculty in the English department at Tech—both during my experience as a student at Tech and through the years when I have visited campus or connected by e-mail," Garrison Bickerstaff.