Whittier College English majors graduate with a wide variety of opportunities before them.
Graduates have gone on to successful careers as novelists, elementary or high-school teachers, college professors, technical writers, and travel writers, to name a few.
Yasmin Mendoza '21
PhD Student Studying Contemporary American Literature
Yasmin is an award-winning PhD student at the University of California, Davis studying English literature.
Her interest in research began at Whittier and has flourished since. At the College, she was selected for the prestigious Mellon Mays fellowship, which funded her undergraduate research into censored, banned, and even burned literature. That led to an award-winning essay, "Banning Without Bans," which she polished with the guidance of her professor, Jonathan Burton.
“At Whittier, I’ve had the chance to work with amazing faculty and interact with peers who made my college experience unforgettable," she said.
Her academic career continues at UC Davis, where she's focusing on contemporary American literature. She's also pursuing a Science and Technology Studies Designated Emphasis to research the implications that technology in speculative fiction has on our concept of privacy within our homes. She's also won the Public Engagement award for her 2023 UC Davis Grad Slam presentation entitled: "Don’t Say - - -: An Exploration of the Censorship of Literature in the US.”
She attributes much of her success to working closely with faculty in the English department at Whittier College, particularly Burton and dAvid pAddy, and the immense amount of support she received from the Mellon Mays Foundation.
Adam Pava ’99
Screenwriter
If you’ve laughed at the antics of The LEGO Movie, The Boxtrolls, or Harvey Birdman, Adam had a part in that. With his wit and writing talents, Adam has been hired by the likes of DreamWorks Animation, Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. and Laika to help tell beloved stories. He’s now adapting a popular comic book into a film for Walt Disney Pictures, and writing an original movie for Legendary Entertainment. He earned those jobs after double majoring in English and the Whittier Scholars Program—in which he designed his own course plan—at Whittier, where he wrote one-act plays and, for his senior project, a full-length musical.
"Whittier gave me the unique opportunity to try many things inside and outside the classroom," Adam said. "Through the theater program, the student newspaper, the fiction and poetry classes in the English Department, and elsewhere, I was able to develop my love for writing. I wouldn’t be where I am today without being able to try it all."
Dawn Finley ’00
Co-Founder, Feminist Library on Wheels
Dawn promotes feminist literature with a mobile library, Feminist Library on Wheels (FLOW). With a bicycle loaded high with books, Dawn and co-founder Jenn Witte traverse the Los Angeles area to share a wide range of feminist books, textbooks, and movies with patrons. The project that’s garnered the attention of the Los Angeles Times and more.
One of Finley’s goals with FLOW is to inspire similar feminist book bikes in places outside of LA.
Floyd Cheung ’92
Vice President for Equity and Inclusion, Professor of English Language and Literature and American Studies at Smith College
Author, editor, award-winning professor, restorer of lost literature. Floyd has been a major figure in the recovery of forgotten and lesser-known Asian American writings. He’s edited the collected poems of Sadakichi Hartmann, the novels of H. T. Tsiang, and co-edited Recovered Legacies: Authority and Identity in Early Asian American Literature, to name only a few. He’s also penned his own book of poems, Jazz at Manzanar.
"Professors at Whittier set the high bar I now try to reach when teaching and advising my own students," Floyd said. "Their dedication, intellect, and kindness still inspire me."
