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Department ofEnglish

Why English?

Class of 1999

Class of 1999

Shannon M. Nessier, Class of 1999

Litigation Associate at Hanson Bridgett LLP

When you study under some of the most skilled teachers around, who do not minimize the value of the texts, who don't get lost in the rhetoric of esoteric pedagogy but instead commit to being real teachers, making the most of those years studying English at SCU is easy.

When you study under some of the most skilled teachers around, who do not minimize the value of the texts, who don't get lost in the rhetoric of esoteric pedagogy but instead commit to being real teachers, making the most of those years studying English at SCU is easy. To this day, the men and women who taught me at Santa Clara are still the clearest reminder to me of why education matters, how literature changes people, and how mastering one's craft (whether that craft is the satire of Pope or a 20th-century landscape narrative of Dustbowl migrants) is not a solitary path but a choice to impact the world. Without those teachers, we would not be the people we are today.