Career Roadmap
Dori's work combines: Education, Non-Profit Organizations, and Helping People
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Here's the path I took:
High School
South Side High School
Bachelor's Degree
English Literature (British and Commonwealth)
Indiana University-Purdue University-Fort Wayne
Graduate Degree
Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults
Hamline University
Here's the path I recommend for someone who wants to be a Librarians & Media Collections Specialists:
Bachelor's Degree: Elementary Education or Early Childhood Development
Learn more about different paths to this career
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
I graduated from high school with an Academic Honors degree and a clear plan to go to Ball State University to become a Criminal Profiler. (Those plans changed almost immediately.)
2.
I attended Huntington University and within one year had changed my major from Elementary Ed to History to Psychology to Undecided (which I recommend as a starting point). Then, I took a semester off.
3.
I transferred to IPFW and studied English Lit. because my best friend's dad said to study what made me happy because he had changed his career five times in 35 years, and never even used his degree.
4.
I finished college and continued working at the daycare I'd been working at while still in school. Then I nannied, substitute taught, and eventually started working as a librarian's assistant.
5.
I worked as an assistant for three years before becoming a children's librarian.
6.
While working as a children's librarian, I did a low residency graduate program where I studied creative writing for children and young adults.
7.
I finished my graduate degree, and now I write in my free time. I am working on a middle grade novel, a young adult novel, and just finished a picture book series.
8.
One of my picture books was recently picked up by a small publishing imprint, and will be out sometime in 2020.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
"Don't get a degree in English Literature. What are you going to do with that? It's a useless degree."
How I responded:
I would usually remind people that studying literature and writing papers was an excellent education because it taught me vocabulary, history, critical thinking, persuasive speaking, logic, psychology, languages, grammar, human nature/personalities, communication, cultural diversity, ethics, and so much more simply by reading.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
Coming out was a scary thing, because I knew that my orientation would challenge some people. Some of my friendships and relationships changed and/or became strained, but is was ABSOLUTELY worth it. And I value myself greater than I ever did before.