Clair Volkening (B.A. 2023; Communication and Technology track; she/her) is a former English major now working as a Technical Writer contractor for the federal government. Access past alumni spotlights here.
At UMBC, I studied English and was a member of the Humanities Scholars Program and the Honors College. In my junior year, I got involved with the Center for Democracy and Civic Life and the Academic Success Center (ASC). Through this work, I realized I was fascinated by the how and why we learn—from the way a tutoring session affected a tutees confidence to how our society perpetuates beliefs via implicit or explicit education. In my senior year, I honed in on this interest through an English Honors Research project with my advisor, Professor MacDougall.
Before graduation, I didn’t know what I wanted my career to look like, I just knew that I really enjoyed engaging others in the writing and learning process. Now, I work as a Technical Writer on a contract with a military training academy. My everyday tasks include working with instructors on their course materials, and I am being exposed to an entirely new area of technical education and methodology. Ultimately, the same question arises regardless of the learning sphere: how and why do we learn? I am grateful to UMBC and my many professors for teaching me to ask that how and why—whether the topic be as small as my own, or my team’s, writing or teaching, or as large as the rhetoric surrounding big-picture societal issues.