Laura: Laura McPherson and I am a writer and editor
Tell us about your family and background.
Laura: So, my family primarily raised me up in Chicago, actually a suburb of Chicago, West Chicago. With brief interregnums living in other places I've mostly stayed in the Chicago area since about the age of 8. I have known that I wanted to be a writer since the 2nd grade, that's when I started being given like the serious Chapter books. Like the really long ones because the short ones I was going through too fast. So the librarians at my school gave me a special dispensation to be able to start checking out the 4th and 5th grader books, and I discovered the Redwall series that way. And that really brought me into like, this whole world of like fantasy and creating and everything. So that was pretty much the track I was on from a young age, but it's not easy to make it as a writer, so I didn't actually become a writer actually until I was almost 30. I tried a bunch of different industries, gaining experience in the workplace and eventually added writing on to my tasks and business and then struck out as a freelancer in 2011.
Why did you chose to attend ENMU?
Laura: I was actually writing an article on for year colleges in New Mexico, and as a part of that, I was researching the schools and what they offered. And at that time I had equivalent to an associate's degree that hadn't been awarded in transfer credits. And I saw ENMU had a competitive transfer scholarship, and they also had some majors available online. And this was in like 2013 that I was that. So it was just when online was really starting to get its feet under it. So I applied and I got accepted with the transfer competitive scholarship and I attended online here from Chicago.
What do you hope to achieve in your career?
Laura: This last year in 2022, what is technically my first book came out, but it's a chat book and I shouldn't say "but it's just a chat book" which is experimental nonfiction and poetry out now, and my next major goal is to be published as a novelist. I have a surreal, postmodern type novel that I am currently working on baking with some of my writers groups for feedback and I'm really hopeful that I can get that in print.
What professors have helped you during your time at ENMU?
Doctor Elder in the Department of History, Social Sciences, and Religion. I took a history course with him and even though it was online and our communication was primarily through Blackboard and email, he was giving me a lot of encouragement in the assignments I was doing for the history class, and I knew at the time that I wanted to go to Graduate School for history, which is one of my passions and one of the concentration which is actually on my degree from ENMU or go for creative writing in English, which actually is not part of my degree plan, but what I ended up doing anyway. But Doctor Elder was so helpful in just guiding me as a first generation student and even knowing what questions to ask when you're considering something like graduate school, weighing whether or not it's for you, what you would study, what the application process would look like. And without his guidance, I wouldn't be nearly as confident as I was going into the graduate admissions process for this past cycle. Huge shout out to Doctor Elder.
What academic honors have you had at ENMU?
I was Dean's list for all four semesters I was full time and magna cum laude.
Tell me more about your experience as a first generation college student.
I was lucky in that I was able to go to a really good high school and I had a bit of a disadvantaged background, so it was a little bit of a question how I would make college work. When it came time for me to start studying, so I began at the closest college to where I was living, then at northern Illinois University. But I found it at the time as an 18 year old, just too difficult. Working full time and try to study at the same time and balance the social life. So I did one semester which wasn't a complete disaster, but it wasn't going to get me on the track that I wanted to be on. So there was this kind of pattern where I would be working full time and save up enough money and then get a kind of job that would let me go to school for a little bit, then go to school for a couple semesters and then rinse and repeat the cycle. As I mentioned I was a transfer student. So I didn't really have any guidance on how to be making it work for me, but when I got to ENMU. With the online and also with professors who were maybe a little bit more used to working with non-traditional and adult populations of students. And also I was a little older at that time. It was a bit easier. I'd like to say it is definitely challenging for first generation students, so finding a school like ENMU that has not just advisors on staff, but faculty like Doctor, Elder and also doctor Shirley Rollinson, I believe she's still an ENMU. I had a very positive experience with her as being kind of like a faculty advisor, encouraging me and what I was doing and what I could do and what to reach to. And that meant a lot. And I think that's why ultimately was able to finish my degree.
What are your hobbies?
Reading, I read quite a lot and I'm actually a freelance academic right now. I've been doing some work in Pynchon and postmodernist studies. But I actually presented at international pension week last year in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. So my hobby was writing the paper that got accepted to the conference and for a few months and now I'm trying to get that published in a peer reviewed journal and I'll be doing a guest lecture on pension at the University of Alaska Fairbanks later this semester. I do also have a dog. I love my dog. He's a hunting dog mix named Han Solo. So we do a lot of local hikes and things like that.
What other dreams do you have?
I am super fortunate right now in that I'm in a place where I'm pretty happy. I will be going to Graduate School this fall. My apologies to Doctor Elder, but I decided to go for creative writing and literature rather than for history. I suppose history could also be like one of my hobbies. Actually, now that I think of it, I'd like to remain involved in history, and I still do a lot of reading and thinking about my favorite eras. I'm particularly interested in Tudor England, and I'm working on a book that is creative writing historical fiction on that takes place in Tudor England. I think right now you know it's just. Becoming more established as a writer, something that I'd like to do. I I've had some short stories and poems, and the chat book out, and I'd like to just keep on that grind and see how far that I could take it.
Are you working on any other projects right now?
I'm working on a book and then I am long term trying to get myself situated to possibly pursue a faculty position in creative writing and literature. As I mentioned, I've done the some conferences and I have the guest lecture coming up which I'm preparing for. I really do love to teach during the pandemic, I've been volunteering as an English as a second language tutor as well. And so trying to juggle that, you know, reading, writing literature, being an active participant in creating literature, but also in the teaching of it, I think this long term, something that I am setting my sights on, it's a major reason that I'm going to grad school.
What was your favorite part of being a Greyhound?
My favorite part of being a greyhound was even though I was studying online, ENMU put its resources behind those online classes and those online degree tracks, so I never felt disconnected from my fellow students or from the professors. It was always very clear to me, you know, you can talk to people, you can form relationships with people. And so I think being part of that community, even from a distance, being here in Illinois was the standout part of my education. Besides the education itself.
