We at The Sturges Script couldn’t be prouder of this year’s Seniors of Sturges, and want to extend our warmest congratulations on their academic accomplishments and future plans! This week, we’d like to feature all the English students who’ve contributed four great years to helping Sturges grow. We’ll be starting our features with this year’s graduating English Student Board members, 2018 inductees to Sigma Tau Delta, and seniors headed to graduate school.
Abby Kolczun: Abby Kolczun, from Cleveland, Ohio, is an English major with a concentration in Literature. She has been a member of Delta Gamma sorority for four years. Through these two great communities, Abby has grown friendships and been surrounded by support from sisters and professors. She will take all of her knowledge and experience from the English department in her postgraduate life.
Jordan Waterwash: The time I’ve spent as a Creative Writing major has truly enriched my experience in college generally. The people I’ve met and the classes I’ve taken have made me the person I am today. I feel prepared for graduate school, which isn’t happening right away, but it’s something I’m planning on relatively soon. I fear that if I write much more, I’ll get really sappy and emotional. With that being said, I will always cherish the time I’ve spent in the English department, and I will miss everything and everyone.
Nicole White: Over the past four years, this department has slowly 
become the place where I can feel the most at home and the most myself. I wish I had realized sooner how privileged I had been to be surrounded by so many literary nerds and our wicked smart professors—but I feel ready to move on. I’ve managed to work my way through all of my workshops for creative nonfiction and build up a presentable portfolio. I thought that the next step for me as a writer would be graduate school, but I think that I’ll benefit more from a gap year at this point in my life. I want to go hike and swim and dance and write and catapult myself out of my comfort zone. Being a student is so safe and wonderful, but I think I’ve gotten too comfortable with being a student. The next step for me will be moving to Hawai’i in August with one of my housemates. I’m going to spend a year getting in touch with myself and really figuring out what makes me, me. Cliche, perhaps, but I have a lot to write before I’ll be prepared to really get what I want out of an MFA. First, I’m going to learn to be in my early 20s, unsure of what the rest of my life looks like. To Oahu…and beyond.
Elizabeth Anderson: Elizabeth is a Psychology major with an English minor, though she has had a biweekly crisis about becoming an English major since the week she stepped on campus. She will be continuing her long-standing love of scientific research as a Clinical Research Assistant at the Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, helping to discover familial links in and genetic causes of heart failure. She still plans on writing incessantly.
Michael Barr: “Thank you” foolishly suggests that language is somehow capable of summarizing an experience, but that might be all I can do here. There is no single way to explain how the humans of Sturges I’ve learned from, in person or in text, have given so much color to my life, and it is all of these perspectives that I’m the most thankful for. By graduation, I’m hoping to have decided on a graduate program in literature at either SUNY Buffalo or at the University of Tulsa, but in any case, I’m indebted to my professors for helping me get here. Life hasn’t become any less confusing, but it’s certainly been given so much more depth through the English Department.
Izzy Taylor: I am a Sociology/Anthropology major and English minor. The English department has been a place for exploration and growth for me over the past four years, and I feel particularly indebted to and thankful for professors Dr. Long, Dr. Allison, Dr. Hipsky, Professor Burns, and Dr. Poremski. I am grateful for all they have done to encourage me both academically and personally, and I am thankful that they have been supportive of me at important moments of growth and discovery. After graduation, I plan to travel to Europe for the first time, and I will begin an internship with the Columbus Foundation. With the Columbus Foundation, I will be working at Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services and helping them implement summer programming for immigrant/refugee/low-income youth in Columbus. After this internship, I will move to State College, Pennsylvania and begin a graduate program in geography at Penn State University.
Taylor Endicott: Taylor is a Psychology major, English minor from Prospect, Ohio. She will be attending The Ohio State University in the fall to pursue her Masters degree in Social Work. She has been very grateful for all of her English professors that have helped shape her writing.
LeeAnn Celapino: Ohio Wesleyan’s English Department made me want to be a writer. It’s been a hobby of mine since I was young, but all of the faculty and students in this department helped me to mold this hobby and passion of mine into something crafted and real. I’ve found some of my favorite pieces and people through this department and I am eternally grateful for the experiences I’ve had here. I’d like to give a special thank you to Professor Robert Olmstead for encouraging me to major in Creative Writing here at Ohio Weselyan and to pursue my MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing. Thank you all, again! It’s been a pleasure and privilege!
Dexter Adams: Dexter (D.J.) Adams, after realizing that his passion was not in the sciences, joined the English department to become a Creative Writing major with a minor in Spanish. Through his four years of study at Ohio Wesleyan, D.J. has gained a better understanding of what it takes to be a good writer and had the opportunity to travel to London to further this understanding. He plans to pursue an MFA with a concentration in the field of fiction, but plans to take a year off to give himself more experience within the workforce. He dreams of becoming a successful novelist and he thanks OWU for giving him the knowledge and the confidence to pursue this dream.