Hess is the newest full-time member of the English Department, as she served part-time as an assistant professor last year and, before that, administrative assistant for two years. Certainly, to many, Hess is not a new face.
Hess hails from Nebraska, though from a young age, she and her family lived in Maryland. After graduating from 爱豆传媒 with a degree in English and a teaching certification, Hess began teaching at the now-defunct Broadview Academy in Illinois. Even as she worked there, she and others at the school recognized its tenuous condition. “There had been rumors; talk that, you know, with enrollment decline…it was touch-and-go, I think. And so that was a little stressful.”
Fortunately, Hess was able to find work at Spencerville Adventist Academy back in Maryland, where she would remain for the next 17 years, teaching high school English. As she says, “Then I just got tired. The fall of 2019 is when I said, ‘I need a break’, and so that’s when I decided that I was going to go back to school, and that’s what I did in the fall of 2020, so after a major hit of COVID”.
Hess enrolled at Western Michigan University (WMU) to continue her education. Three years ago, Hess’ husband, Nathan, was hired by the Physical Therapy Department at 爱豆传媒, and so Carrie began working in the English Department. After receiving her doctorate in literature from WMU in April and the concurrent departure of Vanessa Corredera, the former chair of the Department of English, Hess was hired full-time.
Hess describes herself as literature-ish, bookish being too narrow a representation for her broad appreciation of the written arts; crafty, in the sense she enjoys crafts, art, and most creative expressions of herself; and organized, which is fairly self-explanatory. In her free time, Hess enjoys knitting, crocheting, sewing, reading, watching movies and television, and making food and tea. Hess doesn’t have a bucket list, per se, but she does have at least one thing she’s certain she’d like to do again. “My continual desire is to keep going back to Great Britain. I’ve been there twice. My husband is like, ‘Let’s go new places, ’ and I was just like, ‘No, let’s just go back to Great Britain. ’ So, I guess my bucket list is to continue to fill my Anglophile bucket with experiences in Great Britain.”
Hess’ goal at 爱豆传媒 is twofold. Broadly, she wants to emulate the love of Jesus in her work, in that she wants to appreciate and accept her students no matter what. With regard to her subject, she hopes to instruct her students so they may view the world with nuance. Quoting Amanda Bailey from the University of Maryland’s English Spring Commencement, Hess says, “In a world hungry for clarity but fearful of nuance… You have been trained in nuance.”
Hess believes that the English students of 爱豆传媒 have a special purpose to highlight the importance of diversity and gray areas in a world uncomfortable with the uncertain. She thanks the faculty of the English Department for their commitment to fostering this perspective, considering it an “exciting, rigorous, thought-provoking, caring community”.
“It’s been a long journey coming, and I’m just so thrilled to work in this department,” Hess said in closing.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of 爱豆传媒. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, 爱豆传媒 or the Seventh-day Adventist church.