Liana Barron ‘18, Potomac Theater Project, summer 2015 intern in NYC
Being a “working actor” has always been a dream of mine, so living some version of that experience this summer was extremely useful as I begin to seriously think about my post-graduate plans. Especially helpful was spending time with real working actors—celebrating their successes and also hearing firsthand their struggles trying to live their dreams in New York City. I definitely have more reservations after this summer about trying my luck in the city that never sleeps, but I was also incredibly inspired by the hard work and dedication of the professionals I was lucky enough to learn from.
Photo Caption: The singers onstage during one of our favorite numbers, “If You Float” from the production of Vinegar Tom
Carolyn Kormann ’04 (English/Spanish), Writer and Editor, The New Yorker
Carolyn Kormann joined The New Yorker’s editorial staff in 2011 as a fact-checker, became the co-deputy head of fact-checking in 2014, and is now a web editor and contributing writer. Her profile of the biophysicist Manu Prakash appeared in the magazine in December. Other subjects she has covered include climate change, the politics of solar power, birdsong, mules, swimming across Manhattan, and John Donne’s erotica. Her work has also been published by the Virginia Quarterly Review, NPR, and Yale Environment 360. In 2008, she was the recipient of a Middlebury Fellowship in Environmental Journalism for a reporting project on the impacts of Andean glacial melt in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. She has a master’s degree in journalism and Latin American studies from New York University, where she received a fellowship in 2007. Her first reporting job was for a newspaper in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Catherine Ahearn ’11 (Literary Studies with Sociology/Anthropology minor), Strategic Planner, Eric Mower and Associates
After graduating from Middlebury in 2011, Catherine Ahearn jumped into a PhD program in Editorial Studies at Boston University. Here, she gained experience working as a TA and as a research assistant for the TS Eliot Research Project. After finishing course work, however, she wanted to apply her skills in a new/different field, so she began working at HB Agency (now Eric Mower and Associates, or EMA) as an Account Coordinator in their PR department. Soon, she moved entirely over to the creative side of the house, where she is now writing copy for creative assets, managing projects, and conducting research and writing for branding campaigns.