From English major to lawyer, therapist, and entrepreneur
Paula Yost ‘02 once struggled to explain to her parents what she could do with an education in English. When people asked her what career she wanted in college, she didn’t have a rehearsed answer. She only knew what she liked, what she was good at, and what naturally intrigued her. It was English.
Now, Yost’s resume reads like three or four lifetimes wrapped into one. She owns and manages her own law firm, works as a licensed mental health therapist, teaches continuing legal education programs across the world, and even co-owns a flower farm with one of her best friends. As far as education, she also holds a juris doctor, a master's degree in mental health counseling, and two bachelor's degrees with majors in English and microbiology.
Yost said she built a career by not forcing herself into any one predefined box, but by listening closely to her instincts and trusting the strengths she already had. In the past academic year, she was the keynote speaker at the annual English Career Connections Conference where she emphasized this advice. The College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences also recognized Yost as a 2026 distinguished alumna from the Department of English.
“You have to calm your spirit down enough to really be honest with yourself,” she said. “What am I good at? What do I like? That is what you turn into a career.”
Yost began her time at Virginia Tech as a microbiology major, but it didn’t take long for her to realize it wasn’t the right fit. She soon added a second major in English, where she found her stride and excelled academically. When asked about a meaningful memory, she recalled the first time she left the country. It was with the Department of English for its summer study abroad program, now known as London Calling.
After graduation, Yost took the LSAT with no prior preparation. Still, she did well enough to earn admission to law school. She went on to receive her J.D. from what is now the Widener University Delaware Law School in Wilmington, Delaware, in 2005.
She took an untraditional law route. She opened her own law practice in her great-grandmother’s former home, a run-down house with collapsing floors that she renovated into her office - the County Law Shack in Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina.
Yost did not stop with there. She had a passion for law, but she also had an interest in helping people. This led her to pursue a master's degree in mental health counseling from Lenoir-Rhyne University, allowing her to support her clients not only legally but mentally and emotionally as well.
For Yost, success came from choosing work that matches her values and from recognizing which skills came naturally. Now, as a member of the English Department's Distinquished Alumni Board, she encourages students to consider this when thinking about their own paths, noting that employers respond to genuine clarity.
“If you can walk into a job interview and say you are going to like the job and be good at it, they will hire you,” she said.
This mindset shaped every direction she took, from English to law, and finally being a counselor.
She said that while technical skills can be taught, qualities like empathy and care cannot. The ability to listen, understand people, and communicate clearly became the basis of her career and the reason she was able to succeed in multiple fields. Those skills, she told students, often matter more than anything listed on a resume.
As a final word of advice Yost urged students to pick a career that calls to them.
“If you hate what you’re doing, you won’t be any good at it anyway," she said. "The secret of your success is not outside of you. The secret is inside of you.”
By Brooke Wager ‘25, who majored in professional and technical writing and English with a pre-law option
