Cat or dog person? Pineapple on pizza or not really your style? Movies or books? In a world of or’s, why not say both?
For Sarah Sellers, film and English just make sense together, which is why she decided to double major.
“The goal would be to work in LA and be a screenwriter. That’s the ultimate goal,” she said, and the best way to do that was to pursue her passions separately and combine them in the working world. She also wants to be a video editor.
Sellers was not always so clear on what she wanted her career to be. She knew she was passionate about writing, but it was not until her senior year of high school that she discovered her love of movies and writing for film.
Fitting classes from two majors into four years is not easy, Sellers said. In fact, except for general education courses, there is little overlap of her major-specific classes.
“I think some classes can fulfil requirements in both… like journalism was able to fulfil a writing credit for the English Department,” she said.
“It’s cool to see how my classes impact each other,” she said, like in linguistics, an English course, and persuasion, a communication course. In both she was able to study the different aspects of language theory and how they interact with each other.
Seller’s roommate since freshman year, Marissa Smith, has seen how a double major affects Seller’s time.
“She spends a lot of time doing homework,” Smith said, “she works really hard to do well in school and so she makes sure that everything is pretty perfect.”
Splitting her time between two majors does not mean that she does not participate in any extracurricular activities, though. For the English department, Sellers is a TA for a couple of professors, as well as the president for the English Honours Society, Tau Theta. Tau Theta is Olivet’s chapter of the National English Honours Society, Sigma Tau Delta.
According to Olivet’s Clubs and Organizations page, Tau Theta, “exists to encourage academic growth and excellence in the field of English through opportunities such as the submission of personal writings to national competitions.” Sellers’ job as the president ranges from being the main contact between Tau Theta and Associated Student Council, to setting up meetings with her team, to event planning with her team. Recently, they have been working on planning a writing conference event.
“Sigma Tau Delta also has an international writing conference every spring, but that obviously looked different this year, so we planned our own chapter conference,” Sellers said. The team wanted to give recognition to all the writing students in the chapter have done over the past year. Another event they are putting on is a Shakespere event to celebrate poetry month in April.
Something people may not know about Sellers is that she not only played the trumpet for eight years, but she is also an identical twin. One of her favourite ways to pass the time is to watch shows like “Community” and “Freaks and Geeks,” as well as reading, although she has not had as much time to read outside of class because of her commitments. When she can, she also really enjoys hanging out with her friends.
Sellers may be quiet, but she wants people to know that, “I can sometimes come off as quiet and timid… but I try to be super nice. If I look intimidating, it’s probably because I’m nervous.”
To learn more about the English Honours Society, email Sarah Sellers at slsellers@olivet.edu.
