Finding Community and Success After JMU

Q: What was your favorite class that you took with the English department at JMU?

McLaughlin: “I’ll give you two. Sîan White’s major author seminar on [Virginia] Woolf, because that really drove me toward my interest in my masters program. And also with [Dr. Federico], we had a three hour Monday night seminar on death and literature, which sounds awful but it was actually super interesting—even though I left feeling a little crazy sometimes.”

Q: What was your most fond experience with JMU English or JMU as a whole?

McLaughlin: “With JMU English, it was just the experience of getting to excavate texts in community with other really interested and incisive scholarly readers.”

“At JMU in general, I would just say being able to find community with people and make friends that I’m still friends with to this day. [...] I came [to JMU] with a couple of friends that I knew. We built up a really cool group of folks that were into the local music scene, as well as a queer group of friends, which felt super special for Harrisonburg.”

Q: What were you involved with outside of the English department at JMU?

McLaughlin: “At the time, I was really focused on what was interesting to me in a scholastic sense, being an undergrad. It was mostly trying to find and build a social community and forge those relationships [and] friendships.”

Q: What do you do now?

McLaughlin: “For the past 8 years, I’ve worked at a federally qualified health center in Chicago. [...] My title is Manager of Benefits and Privileging. I manage the entire organization’s suite of employee benefits. Privileging is much more insider-based, I work with providers to establish their scope of practice and clear them with insurance companies.”

Q: Are there any particular skills that you learned during your time as an English major that benefited you in your professional experiences?

McLaughlin: “The hardest thing is getting in the door. [...] There’s something about building a flexible mind, and being able to pick things up and get things done as needed. Quick learning, being able to draft an email and follow instructions.”

Q: If you were to give advice to a current JMU English major, what would you say?

McLaughlin: "The best advice I can give: try to build community with like-minded people, wherever you might find them. For every job that I’ve gotten — and subsequently kept for years — I've had a friend who first alerted me of the opportunity and helped get me in the door for an interview."

This interview is one part in a series on English department alumni.