Meet Jesse Cole–she is a senior English Writing major, with Spanish and Philosophy minors. She is involved in various organizations around campus. Jesse is President of the IUP chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, an Editor of the literary magazine, “New Growth Arts Review”, and a tech crew member for “Tost and Turned”, a theater organization at IUP.
Jesse was recently picked to be the Outstanding English Major student for IUP. She was picked based on her G.P.A. and from a creative nonfiction piece that she has been working on since last fall. Last spring, this piece won in the creative nonfiction category of IUP’s undergrad writing awards. She recently represented IUP and presented the piece at the EAPSU conference held at Slippery Rock University this past October.
Jesse loves to write in every genre, but creative nonfiction is the one that comes most naturally to her. She told me that she has to be struck by inspiration to write in other genres like fiction and poetry, which is something I’m sure all writers can relate to. Her mom used to read stories in different voices, and Jesse thought it would fun to make up stories, as well as be a ballerina. Jesse always went back to writing and it has stuck ever since. Like most writers, inspiration always strikes when she is without a pen. All writers should have a recorder for times like this. Jesse is unsure if she would want to be a professor, although she thinks it would be cool to share her knowledge with others. “If I could be half as amazing as Dr. Branscum I’d be the best person I know.” She expressed about one of her favorite teachers. After graduation Jesse wants to continue to edit as well as work on her writing. She is not quite sure where yet, but she is definitely building up her skills.
As the Sigma Tau Delta president, Jesse has been following in past presidents’ steps. “The last two presidents brought it back from the dead, so I’m trying to keep it vibrant.” She certainly has been doing so, and every Sunday meeting brings her more knowledge. She told me that being the president involved a lot of winging it. “You just have jump out of the nest and hope your wings will catch you.”
Being a New Growth Arts Review Editor has been Jesse’s most relaxed contribution this semester. Her training as a writer has been a help for this activity, so she automatically does editing as well as developmental editing; She likes to bounce ideas around. She also likes to be busy, but it has been a challenge this semester. “It has broken my back a bit.” But, she is planning on going out with a bang!
When it comes to her writing Jesse takes pieces from things around her, even in her fiction. “I take inspiration from life and music.” She has a muse that she likes to inspire characters from. When I asked about the person she told me that they “had interesting character traits that she likes to discover through writing.” Her recent music choices to listen to during her writing sessions are: Fall Out Boy, River of the Dance, and 21 pilots. It’s an unusual mix but Jesse says when she is writing, “she likes to bring in as many parts of the emotion spectrum as possible.”
Jesse’s novel course has been doing a NaNoWriMo style for the last few weeks. She has been working on a novel piece for this class; the story has plenty of elements that she has been forming from both experience and her imagination. So far Jesse has written around 60 pages, or 10,000 words, over the last few weeks. Her goal is to finish it for this class, and it is also the longest thing she has written in her career, so far. “It’s been real,” she told me. I’m excited to read it when she is finished with it.
We wish her luck in finishing her novel and for a good spring semester!