Alumni Spotlight: Morgan Graham
From helping lead Sigma Tau Delta to performing a research project in Chile to serving on the USU Honors Student Advisory Board, USU English alum Morgan Graham made the most out of her time in her undergrad. Now, with a PhD in English from the University of Minnesota, Morgan is the chief of staff and head of operations at Factory for Good, a small nonprofit that helps families give strategically and effectively to high-impact charities.
Morgan came to USU wanting to be an English teacher, and along the way, she realized she also loved research. No one she knew growing up had a PhD, but she realized graduate school seemed like the best place for her to pursue writing, teaching, and research.
“My research skills had direct application in grad school — my Honors thesis was the writing sample I used to apply to grad school, and the questions I started asking in my Honors thesis carried all the way through to my dissertation,” Morgan reflects. “But I’ve also used my research skills to explore career fields and figure out what kinds of work are meaningful to me. I am only in my current job because I learned how to do research in college.”
During her time at USU and in grad school, Morgan learned how to say “yes” to new opportunities. This led her to building a literary event series from scratch, serving on a board of directors, working as a consultant, and helping to plan a grad student career exploration conference. All of these experiences allowed Morgan to realize her passion for building, making systems run smoothly, and designing elegant solutions to problems.
“I knew that much when I graduated,” Morgan notes, “but I did not know what I wanted to do for work. I spent a whole summer and most of that fall doing research — much like I’d done as a graduate student, but now with a different purpose: to find a career where I could build things, make systems run more smoothly, and design elegant solutions. This led to a chance encounter with an old friend on a hike and an informational interview that led to my new job.”
For Morgan, the most helpful advice she got when trying to figure out what to do career-wise was to think about a job in terms of skills and not content.
“Nothing is really off limits to you. Zoom out from the jobs everyone says are for English majors: publishing, libraries, teaching, or bookstores. Those can be a great fit, but they’re not the only jobs you can do,” Morgan explains. “If you think about the skills you’ve used in your classes, such as reading analytically, synthesizing complex information, making arguments, and communicating clearly, those skills are applicable pretty much everywhere.”
Morgan advises students to get out and talk to people in order to find out what jobs could be a good fit for them. Networking — or rather, building relationships — can look like scheduling informational interviews, keeping in touch with friends, and asking people questions about the kind of work they do.
“Building a satisfying career is all about finding jobs that let you use skills that energize and excite you,” Morgan comments. “It takes work to find those roles. You may not have heard of them yet, or know anyone who has them, but through research and networking and leaning into the experiences that are exciting to you, even if it’s not always clear where they will lead, you’ll be able to find a job that leads to a fulfilling, happy professional life.”
Contact
Brian McCuskey
Department Head | English
brian.mccuskey@usu.edu