Regina Mills ’09 Ph.D. Student, University of Texas at Austin

After graduation, I became a 9th grade English teacher at a Title I school through Teach For America. I earned my Master's in Education from Arizona State University in 2011. I taught for three years, getting the opportunity at the end of my second year to write the curriculum for an Honors section for which I was the sole teacher. I will now pursue a Ph.D. in English (Ethnic and Third World Literature) at the University of Texas at Austin. The knowledge I gained as an English major at W&L led to more confidence in teaching my content area, the ability to have my students read and enjoy such difficult novels as Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, and successful entrance into a Top 20 graduate program in English.