For many graduating students, the transition from full-time student to full-time professional can be daunting: transferring classroom skills to a resume and cover letter and persevering through potential rejection is a worthy process, but often a difficult one. For English major Kira Kadar, however, following her interests, regardless of whether they are “typical” for an English major, has diversified her experiences and provided her with skills that have propelled her into her career long before she has even graduated.  

Kadar has always been passionate about reading and writing and began her freshman year as a journalism student. Though the focus on journalism fed her passions, she found herself “diving into those things deeper” in her English classes. “The English major was a little bit broader, and it feels like you have a lot of options,” she says. When she took her first fiction workshop, she knew she had made the right decision. The course enriched her appreciation for the writing process and all its technical aspects, and she recalls, “after my first class I knew I wanted to keep doing this.” 

As she continued her studies in English, Kadar began to look for opportunities to supplement her classroom learning and prepare for her post-graduate career. She first joined the department’s student communications team, where she developed skills in professional writing, content creation and course promotion. To further build her portfolio, she also began to pursue off-campus positions and internships, and in 2023, she joined the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA) as a digital marketing intern, working on the organization’s social media and email campaigns to provide event coverage and promotion. Throughout her time with CAPA, experiential learning opportunities have been her favorite part of the job. “Anytime that I get to go and be in person, we're in the Ohio Theatre, which is an amazing experience,” Kadar reflects. “It's just really fun to get to see everyone react to the shows.” As a marketing intern, she says the English major’s focus on “developing skills in oral and written communication” has served her very well in this position.  

This past summer, Kadar also took a position as an intern producer for All Sides with Anna Staver at WOSU Public Media. She describes it as a “very hands-on" role, where she gets to “collaborate with everyone on the All Sides team to create the daily live shows.” As an intern, her responsibilities range from pitching show or segment ideas to booking guests and helping to write scripts. While scriptwriting was a new skill for Kadar, her experience in creative writing workshops, with their focus on writing technique, analytical skills and storytelling, made the transition much smoother. Especially when collaborating on scripts for book-oriented shows or segments, a background in literature has taught her how to “approach a book and use those different tools to extract what would make for good conversation.” One favorite episode featured artist and writer Anna Marie Tendler, following the release of Tendler’s memoir, Men Have Called Her Crazy. Kadar pitched and assisted with scripting the segment, jumping at the opportunity to spotlight one of her most anticipated reads of the year. 

In addition to a major’s worth of classroom experience and a wealth of practical experiences in her intern positions, the new connections her internships have brought into her life have further enriched Kadar’s educational experience. She explains that “learning from professionals through collaboration and seeing how they move through professional spaces is helpful and comforting as a college student, and it can be interesting to learn how they've gotten to where they are in their career.” Knowing how people who were once in a position like hers have built their careers has provided Kadar with a clearer path toward her own postgraduate career. 

For Kadar, her classroom and professional experiences complement each other. The English major, she says, provides a firm grounding in skills that are “applicable to different fields.” But she also encourages majors not to “box yourself into just going for ‘typical English major things.’” While her classroom experience has been vital to her success, expanding her education beyond campus has allowed Kadar to grow her network and gain a wide range of experiences. Taking on diverse internships has not only strengthened her qualifications but has also shown her that she can adapt to new environments and expectations. As she completes her final semester, Kadar wants her peers to be unafraid of pursuing new or unconventional opportunities and gives this parting wisdom: “anything that sounds interesting to you is worth pursuing in an internship.”  

Kira Kadar graduates with a BA in English at Ohio State’s autumn commencement on December 15, 2024 — congratulations to her and to all our graduates!