What career paths are there for English students? Publishing? Communications? Sarah Hevener found herself at a crossroads when she enrolled in a Bridge Experience Program in the spring 2023 semester. For this, she interned for a small publisher associated with higher education.

Hevener came to Virginia Tech from North Chesterfield, Virginia, as a transfer student. She’s currently working toward a dual bachelor’s degree in public relations and professional and technical writing.

As part of Virginia Tech’s commitment to experiential learning, many academic majors, including English, require students to complete a bridge experience before graduation. These are immersive, career-building opportunities to connect classroom learning to real-world professional environments through internships, undergraduate research, study abroad, or community-based learning. By spring 2027, an estimated 4,000 students will complete a bridge experience each year.

For Hevener, her internship was an opportunity to explore a passion of hers: the publishing industry.

“I was very interested in going into publishing and helping other people publish their works,” she said, “So the internship kind of spoke out to me.”

Doing the internship as a professional and technical writing major, she believed she would do a lot of writing.

In fact, she said, it was the opposite. She had to critically read, analyze, and discuss submitted works with the rest of the student interns. Most of the submissions were prose and poetry, two genres that Hevener was not enthusiastic about compared to novels and novellas. As a result, she struggled with the workload.

During this time, Hevener concluded publishing wasn’t the right fit for her.

“It’s the competitive job environment,” she said. “Reading the submissions and everything, it wasn’t something I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Despite her realization, she continued her internship, developing critical reading and analysis skills. She knew that in technical writing, there would be complicated material that might not be easily understood at first glance. Although with the internship, she read for a creative environment, the skills would easily transfer into a technical field.

“What am I really looking at here?  What are the themes? What’s the important information?’ That’s what we were doing with the submission process,” Hevener said.

Although the bridge experience had a different result than Hevener intended, she looked back on her time fondly. It had shut the door on publishing, but more importantly, countless other opportunities were open. Before, Hevener focused primarily on the publishing industry; now, she was exploring career options beyond the industry and seeing which field would suit her best.

“When it comes to internships or bridge experiences, even if it ends up being something you don’t like, you know that’s one thing you don’t want to do,’” she said.

After much contemplation, Hevener realized communication and public relations were perfect for her. Shortly after her bridge experience, she added public relations to her degree. Instead of working for a publisher, she saw herself working at a company or a school.

During a past summer internship, she worked for a manufacturing company that produces windows, furniture, and plumbing products. Her role was a combination of communication and public relations. While she wasn’t interested in the products her company sold, she produced satisfying writing that further cemented her decision.

“I enjoyed promoting and writing stories and press releases for them. That’s what I’m trying to do, either for another company or a school,” she said.

Currently, Hevener has applied for communication positions at Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University, hoping to pursue her passion within a higher education setting.

These developments wouldn’t have happened without the bridge program.

“The Bridge Experience Program allows students to explore different career paths that they may be interested in,” said Kate Renz, assistant director of employer relations and career services for the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

“It helps take the pressure off of students thinking they have to have it all figured out," she said. "The great thing about a liberal arts degree is that it allows students to go into a wide variety of industries. Students can find a lot of career choices to be intimidating, but that is what is so great about the bridge program. It allows students to complete these experiences as a part of their curriculum and help figure out what they want to do, or what they don't want to do. I always tell students: figuring out what you don't want to do is just as much of a success as figuring out what you do want to do.”

As Hevener discovered, she likely would have pursued publishing after graduation only to come to the same conclusion. By having that knowledge about herself, her purview was broadened beyond the framework she had initially set. As a result, she has already found success.

“Your experiences get you one step closer to figuring out what you want to do. I think my bridge experience was definitely that for me. It got me one step closer to figuring out what I want,” Hevener said.

Written by Somros Chang, a professional and technical writing major in the Department of English

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