Graduating senior Alli Bautista looks back fondly on her days as an English lit major. “When I first came to SPU, I wasn’t sure what I was going to major in,” says Alli, like so many students, “but I was very sure of what I didn’t want to study.” She says her “decision boiled down to a few questions: What do I want to know more about and what do I love? And the answer to both was—and still is—literature.
“The English major is about more than just literature,” Alli explains. “I’ve found that it’s an intriguing intersection of history, philosophy, language, and life. I think I’ve learned just as many life lessons from my classes in the past four years as I have about sentence structure and Shakespeare.”
With her usual graciousness and sense of humor, Alli explains: “I’ve met with professors who care about more than just what happens in the classroom, who have taken the time to get to know and invest in me. The classmates I’ve met in the English major have diverse interests that extend outside our realm of study. The classmates that have become friends challenge me to think more deeply and, even more importantly, understand—and sometimes laugh at—my bad literature jokes.”
Congrats, Alli! We will all see you at Ivy Cutting and Commencement next month.