Integral Education: The CIIS Blog

An Interview with CIIS Alum Katie McCleary

By LOIS KEANEY SMITH, student in the Writing and Consciousness MFA program and intern in the CIIS Communications Department.

The more I learn about careers, the more I wonder to myself: Who do I know who is actually doing these things? Do I know anyone who is actually managing to create their own work life, or developing a portfolio career? Instantly I thought of someone—Katie McCleary.

I first met Katie when she was working as the writing coach at Susurrus, Sacramento City College’s literary journal. Katie is a graduate of the CIIS Writing and Consciousness MFA program, and the person who brought me to CIIS. I caught up with Katie to talk about her book, her new nonprofit, and her work life before and after CIIS.

What were you doing in terms of your creative writing practice/career before you got to CIIS?
Before I entered the Writing and Consciousness program, I was writing very little, helping out a local literary journal, and working 60 hours a week at a nonprofit that mentored at-risk youth. Needless to say, I was completely burnt out. I remember calling in sick to work to have entire days at home to write. I spent a lot of time daydreaming about a writing life and being in the world of books, but was failing miserably at producing one.

What tools did you learn at CIIS that have helped you to develop your career?
Well, I learned how to cultivate a writing life—everything from creating a writing practice, learning craft, and integrating myself into a community of passionate writers. The consciousness piece fit well with learning how theory can be bridged into action. I was already “in action” prior to entering the Writing and Consciousness program, but now I had theory to back up what I already knew in my gut. This may sound silly, but in a way I was able to not feel so guilty about leaving my nonprofit job to pursue a “selfish, ridiculous dream.” I felt that I had walked out on teens and parents and teachers who needed me. I was able to actualize that writing has a place in social action and movements, particularly storytelling.

How has your career path changed since CIIS?
Since CIIS, I’ve had two children—that’s taken up a lot of time. However, I’ve been able to balance a writing life with work and parenting. I’ve taught at various community colleges, edited a literary journal, published in my community, and spearheaded The Writing Table, a collective of writing teachers who offer workshops around Sacramento. My latest project, 916 Ink, has bridged my past with my education at CIIS.

What career goals do you have that you didn't before CIIS?
Well, I had dreams of writing a novel, but without CIIS I wouldn’t have actually completed one! I wrote a collection of short stories and the first draft of a novel at CIIS. Since then, my novel has been re-drafted at least 13 times. Excerpts have been published and one awarded me a fellowship at the Tomales Bay Workshops, where I personally worked with Dorothy Allison for a week. Beyond publication, I’d love to teach in an MFA low-residency program in the future—but that’s pretty far off, I think.

What teaching/writing jobs are you currently doing/have you done recently?
I am revising my literary young adult novel, "The Chandelier Forest," with agent Amy Tipton of Signature Literary Agency. I’ve just finished a draft of my second novel, which is about a group of orphans who inherit a zoo for injured creatures.

I am actively teaching creative writing through The Writing Table, and at UC Davis Extension. I also coach beginner writers on their manuscripts, which is rewarding.

But my biggest project is starting 916 Ink. We are dedicated to promoting literacy by empowering youth in the Sacramento region to engage in literary arts. 916 Ink seeks to excite young people with language, particularly written language; to instill in children a sense of joy, wisdom, whimsy, and wonder with words; to celebrate syntax; and to support teachers, schools, and libraries in their efforts to share the benefits of reading and writing with all area youth.
 
Currently, I am the executive director, and in spring our organization will be inspiring 70 students (ages 8–18) to write. Once our programming is complete we will publish their creative writing in real, beautiful books in partnership with the Sacramento Public Library.

An Interview with Career Advisor Margie Lam

By LOIS KEANEY SMITH, student in the Writing and Consciousness MFA program and intern in the CIIS Communications Department.

At several points in my life, I have faced a dreaded beast: the Craigslist job search. I sat at the computer, watching my hope free-fall until I felt only despair, clicking through listing after listing and finding nothing. By the end of the day’s job hunt, I felt desperate, hopeless, and, worst of all, directionless. There are no jobs at all. There are too many jobs. I don’t know where to look. Back then, I didn’t really know what I wanted to be, so where would I even start looking?

We did not have a career counselor at my high school, just a college counselor. I never visited the career counselor as an undergraduate—it simply did not occur to me to go. So, on a Friday morning this fall, at age 28, I visited a career counselor for the very first time in my life.CIIS career counselor Margie Lam made the experience as painless as possible. She grabbed her mug of herbal tea and we headed into a meeting room.

Margie listened patiently as I described my wayward journey towards a career. I asked her if she had any general job hunting advice that would help anyone who was in graduate school. The first step, Margie explained, was to develop a “career action plan.” A career action plan, as Margie described it, works best when broken into small, orderly, bite-sized pieces. The necessary steps for any job search should function in much the same way. Here are some of the steps:

• Start in school
• Know yourself
• Stay specific
• Ask for help
• Be realistic
• Be flexible

Start In School
“Don’t see yourself as just a student,” Margie warned. Instead, she stressed the importance of seeing graduate school as an opportunity to further your career and to make connections that might benefit you in the future. There are many ways to do this, she said. One is to make connections with people in this community. Another strategy is becoming close to other students and to professors, and knowing what projects they are working on.

Margie recommended taking on “internships or volunteering, paid or not. Take on leadership projects, coordination, anything to add to your experience and skill set.” There might also be a professional association to get involved in through your program. The goal of all this, of course, is to build connections, and to learn what is out there in your field.

Know Yourself
But before you do any of this, you have to know what your field is. If you are still figuring this out, or have many interests and have trouble narrowing it down, as was my problem, there are several resources that might help. One is a personality-based career test. Two tests Margie recommended were the John Holland Typology test and the Meyers-Briggs type indicator. Both ask you a variety of questions about your personality, interests, and skills, and then based on your answers, classify you into a particular group.

I took one test and found that I was categorized as: ASE: Artistic, Social, and Entrepreneurial. Artistic and social were not a huge surprise, but I’ve never seen myself as being particularly entrepreneurial, so that was news.

Stay Specific
Many of my ambitions over the years have been vague, which made it incredibly difficult to know how to begin working toward them. I knew I wanted to write, and I knew I wanted to help people. I had no idea what career those vague aspirations might translate into. The trick, Margie explained, is to find ways to narrow your dreams down into something achievable: “Look at your dream and see it as a goal. The more you can narrow it down and be specific and concrete, the better.” It is far easier to start researching organizations if you know what you’re looking for. It’s also far less scary and overwhelming if you have a specific place to start.

One resource to help you concretize your dreams is the Occupational Outlook Handbook provided on the United States Department of Labor. This handbook provides useful, specific information about skills required in different fields, what the job market is like in these fields, and the training and education needed.