Initially, Margaret McKinnis didn’t know what she was going to do with her writing degree, but after taking various nonfiction courses and completing her senior project, she gravitated towards spaces that facilitated interdisciplinary thinking. She became the first writing intern from IC to work at the History Center at Tompkins County, assisting the archivist in writing summaries of archival collection. Margaret will be pursuing a graduate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at NYU.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began during her senior semester at the History Center, Margaret worked remotely, helping to create a COVID collection of resources received during the pandemic. This showed her “how archiving is still relevant as we were trying to figure out what the world was like.” She’s pleased to be continuing her work with the History Center throughout graduate school.
Margaret also works for Teen Day Ithaca, a nonprofit organization that gives educational opportunities to homeschooled middle and high school students. She teaches a creative writing course, similar to her experience at IC when she was teaching assistant for the Ithaca Young Writers Institute. Margaret also tutored at ICs Writing Center and interned for several nonprofits, including Community Arts Partnership and The Sophie Fund. She also served as the student director for the New Voices Festival. Reflecting on her time at IC, Margaret says the community in the Department of Writing is what stands out the most.