Driven by a fine-tuned affinity for the written word, Caelan Ernest fell in love with URI’s Writing and Rhetoric major through the curriculum’s commitment to academic writing. After weighing all their options carefully, Ernest made the decision to eventually commute to URI from their hometown of Westerly, RI, entering their freshman year as an eager Writing and Rhetoric major.
This, nonetheless, was not the end of Ernest’s undergraduate journey. “I just wanted to go right in for writing,” Ernest states, “But then I took GWS 150: Introduction to Gender and Women’s Studies my junior year. I already knew a lot from social media and reading some theory, but, after taking the class, I ended up really liking that the people were interested in the same things I was.” This resulted in Ernest pursuing Gender and Women’s Studies as a second major, giving them the opportunity to take what they describe as “fascinating classes” that included Feminist Art, where they got to experiment with visual and written art, and Digital Rhetoric/Feminisms, an upper-level writing course in which Ernest got to combine both their major’s core ideas and skills.
After graduating in 2017 with a double major in Writing and Rhetoric and Gender and Women’s Studies, Ernest utilized the recommendations they received from five of their URI professors to go on to pursue their MFA in writing at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. “It’s a new, really experimental program that encourages you to experiment with thought,” Ernest states, “My thesis became a poetry manuscript that plays with the relationship between text and white space on the page.” Ernest now works as a publicist at a nonprofit press in Brooklyn that concentrates on publishing non-traditional works, the small press world being somewhere Ernest would like to stay for the foreseeable future. To those looking to follow in their footsteps, Ernest has this to say: “Try out as many classes as you’re interested in. Explore and experiment, and don’t be afraid to be challenged. Also, definitely develop relationships with your professors. They can become both a resource and a friend.”
~Written by Chase Hoffman, Writing & Rhetoric and Anthropology Double Major, URI Class of 2021
