Student & Alumni Mentorship

Professional Development Mentors

Our Professional Development Mentors are undergraduate and graduate students who have received Literary Careers Summer Awards to support their internships and creative projects. Each Mentor has on-the-job experience in their professional field, as well as industry contacts. Their role in the LC program is to guide current students and recent alumni through the process of applying for and succeeding in an internship in their field. Our Mentors are also here to help current students explore the sheer variety of professional fields that are open to literary scholars. If you’re interested in learning about potential career paths with the help of a Professional Development Mentor, start here!

Alumni Mentorship Events

The Literary Careers Program hosts mentorship events throughout the academic year. For a sample schedule, please see our Alumni Mentorship Events page.

• Every Fall, LC hosts a Professional Development Symposium in which our Professional Development Mentors speak about their summer internships and projects. 
• At least once per year, LC invites graduate and undergraduate alumni back to Barker for an Alumni Meet & Greet. At these informal gatherings, students chat with alumni in small groups, to learn about their career paths and discover professions that they may not have previously thought to pursue.
• LC also partners with Harvardwood to plan our annual Spring Creative Careers Symposium, where students learn from novelists, poets, screenwriters, producers, and nonprofit directors about how to get involved in their fields.
• Prior to LC's funding deadlines, we hold workshops to help students prepare their application materials.
• LC has also hosted alumni, administrators, and local professionals for panels focusing on specific career fields and graduate education. If you are an alumna interested in coordinating a panel to help humanities students learn about your field, please contact Katherine Horgan (khorgan@g.harvard.edu).

Look out for our event announcements in The Source, the undergraduate newsletter, on posters around Barker, and in emails from your professors and TFs.

Alumni Mentor Database

Our alumni database that contains a growing list of alumni from the English Department's graduate program, their career fields, and contact information for any alumni who have affirmatively told us that they would not mind being contacted by students. Current students (graduate and undergraduate) and alumni of the English Department will have access to this private resource, which is being developed by Gwen Urdang-Brown. If you want to find a mentor in your field from our graduate alumni network, please reach out to Gwen Urdang-Brown (urdangbr@fas.harvard.edu) or Katherine Horgan (khorgan@g.harvard.edu) for more information.

Calling all Alumni: Graduate and Undergraduate 

If you are an alumnus of the Harvard English department, reach out to us to get involved! We are eager to include you in LC events and/or email updates. Please email Gwen Urdang-Brown (urdangbr@fas.harvard.edu), Lauren Bimmler (lbimmler@fas.harvard.edu), or Katherine Horgan (khorgan@g.harvard.edu) to learn more.