Opportunities

To enhance professional readiness, you may undertake a Career Internship in English in any one of several fields related to the study of writing and literary study. Available any time from the your second semester on, the internship is a 3-credit experience conducted under the supervision of the program Director, the field supervisor, and an appropriate member of the English Department, where relevant.

You may take up to 9 credits of work in English and related fields at foreign institutions through Arcadia’s College of Global Studies or other venues for study abroad that the university offers. Short-term summer study led by current faculty is also available to graduate students in several foreign countries.  These options can be especially valuable for graduate students whose personal or professional circumstances prevent them from pursuing long-term study-abroad options.

While most of the study-abroad courses for graduate students are short-term, there is a 9-credit career internship in London option that lasts for one full semester and which may be pursued during either the fall or the spring semester.

Specific information on study-abroad opportunities for graduate students is available on The Civic and Global Engagement website. It is also recommended that graduate students interested in study-abroad opportunities speak with a mentor within The Office of International Affairs and with the English Graduate Program Director.

Graduate Assistantships/Graduate Student Employment may be available to graduate students registered for at least 9 credits per semester.  Students may apply for assistantships upon acceptance and registration.  Questions regarding graduate assistantships should be directed to the Office of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies at 215-572-2925.

Beyond the classroom, students in the program have exciting opportunities to meet professional writers and connect with them personally by participating in workshops open only to Arcadia students. Writers appear here in programs such as the “Writers Return to Campus” Series, the “Visiting Writers Series” and Department faculty host scholars and speakers throughout the academic year.

The “Writers Return to Campus” series invites back to campus former students of Arcadia who have achieved, or are achieving, notable literary success. Novelists, short-story writers, Children’s Fiction and Young Adult Literature writers, poets, playwrights, memoirists, creative-nonfiction writers, even former students who have become noted publishers or literary impresarios—all have been invited to conduct workshops for our students and to give readings of their works that are open to the public. 

The “Visiting Writers” Series attracts both up-and-coming writers and well-established professionals whose works have already gained wide recognition. A host of the best-known writers in our culture have been our guests in this program, which seeks to celebrate breadth and diversity. 

As a workshop participant (limited to ten in each of the workshops), you will be able to submit a sample of your work in the appropriate genre for the visiting writer to read and respond to. The workshops are “closed door” experiences for our students, who may be undergraduates or graduate students; no one—no “guests,” no professors—are permitted in the room with the writer and ten students. What results is a remarkable experience for our students: the chance to have meaningful exchanges with professionals.