Academics

Penn State Harrisburg course leads student to write for The Huffington Post

Credit: Penn State Harrisburg / Penn StateCreative Commons

While at Penn State Harrisburg, 2015 graduate Cindy Withjack took “Writing for the Web,” a course taught by Rodney Zink. “This course was a major catalyst in the creation of my blog,” she said. With Zink’s guidance, she said she turned, “I should really make a blog” into “I finally made a blog!” Cindy currently blogs at: cindywithbooks.wordpress.com/ on writing, books and lifestyle. 

After changing her major three times and receiving her first degree in visual arts, Withjack decided to look into the humanities program at Penn State Harrisburg. Pleased by the fact that she could combine her three previous majors — journalism, psychology and visual arts — she decided to enroll. This past spring, she received a bachelor’s degree in English and writing.

Withjack attributes her growth as a student writer to the courses and texts she was exposed to as an English major. “In one semester alone I went from Shakespeare to Nietzsche to Morrison, with countless others in between,” Withjack said. She felt as though she thrived as a Penn State student and is proud to have been a part of what she describes as a “wonderfully gifted community.”

In addition to writing for her blog, Withjack’s writing has also been published on The Huffington Post, an online news page and blog. So far, she has written for their blog section on marriage counseling and divorce. “After the first essay went live on their site, I started getting emails from people expressing how helpful and encouraging it was to read my work,” Withjack said. “It has been, without a doubt, immensely humbling.”

In addition to being published in The Huffington Post, Withjack has also had her work featured in theBurg, Greater Harrisburg’s community magazine, and From the Fallout Shelter, Penn State Harrisburg’s creative writing and arts journal.

Withjack will pursue her a master's degree in creative writing at the University of Birmingham in England and eventually hopes to finish her doctorate. “Ideally, in the next few years I will have travelled extensively and started teaching,” Withjack said. “It would be wonderful to experience both with a completed manuscript on my coffee table, but one never knows — maybe two completed manuscripts on my coffee table.”

Last Updated October 13, 2015