Pam O'Brien
Last year, the English department began offering a Public and Professional Writing major due to repeated requests from students to expand the program. What made students find PPW courses valuable enough to demand a major? Well, I certainly think Pam O’Brien had a lot to do with it. Pam, who recently retired from the English faculty, taught an array of courses such as Grant Writing, Persuasive Writing in Advertising, and Professional Writing in Global Contexts, which are all courses that she herself proposed. These courses have provided students with skills that prepare them for future jobs and set them apart from other candidates. Pam also served as the internship coordinator for the PPW program after she was asked to do so by PPW Director Jean Grace in the fall of 2003. This was the first term that the PPW certificate was offered, and Grace noted that the PPW program was "profoundly influenced by Pam.” Pam taught at Pitt from the start of the certificate’s existence to this year, when the first cohort of majors graduated.
What was significant to me about Pam was that she served not only as a professor, but also as a mentor. Whenever I did not know where to go next, she had the answer. I first met Pam in my Public Relations Writing course. She warned the class on the first day that the course would be tough and that we should consider dropping it if we did not feel prepared to take it. Straightforward. Just like Pam.
One thing Pam’s students were always amazed by were her connections. As I talked with the other students in the courses I took with Pam, they whispered in awe of the way she could list people she knew at every company and organization we mentioned to her. Grace said Pam used these connections "to develop an amazing network of sites where students could intern, and she created the internship course, which allows students to hone their portfolios and reflect on their experience at their sites.” Celebrating hard work and newly made connections was essential to Pam, and she showed this through her tradition of hosting the last class of the semester—for all of her courses—at an Oakland restaurant. We spent time discussing the course and our future goals while seated among our classmates, and we learned to have conversations that sometimes led to connections with one another for future networking.
After completing my first course with Pam, I knew I needed to take the skills I had learned from her and put them to use at an internship. Since then, I have completed four internships within twelve months, and this internship network of Pam’s has helped me to find new internship opportunities that I otherwise would not have discovered. Thanks to my internships, I have had a significant amount of experience in the working world while still in school. And I absolutely have a better certainty about the challenges I will face once I graduate from Pitt.
I was fortunate to have taken three courses in the two years that I knew Pam. Had I not met her, I never would have reached a place in college where I felt that I was learning something that was applicable in the real world. I agree with her that the PPW Program lets students figure out what they want to do with their lives. Pam is filled to the brim with advice, always providing guidance to any student seeking to work or intern in the writing field. She once took time out of her day during the summer to call me and steer me toward more suitable internships to apply to. Grace captured Pam’s influence perfectly when she said, “So many former PPW and Writing interns will testify to the impact Pam had on them, on their professional development, on their ability to get and keep a job, and on their ability to write powerful words that make things happen in the world.” Pam taught us how to arm ourselves with a portfolio to share with employers during interviews, how to sell the skills and talents we gained in our courses—so that nothing we learned became stagnant. Everything we learned in class was something we could use again at a future job.
Though I know first hand how valuable Pam has been to me as a teacher, others have told me how valuable she has been as a resource and support for her colleagues and the Department of English. At her retirement party, other instructors in the PPW program reflected on their time with Pam and told me how thankful they were to have had her, because she was the person who would talk to everyone in the room and make them feel welcome. She was not insincere when speaking with others, genuinely expressing interest in those that she conversed with. Pam certainly had a knack for forming relationships, and she taught me the importance of creating relationships with people who could mentor me.
Recently, I had the chance to speak with Pam on the phone. The newly made Floridian told me about the incredible weather Florida was having, and it sounded like her time there so far was everything she had hoped it would be. We talked about how to best navigate the many course options offered for the PPW major; she told me to start out with a variety of classes but decide on a more specific career path by junior year. Since there are many different types of writing, it is vital to choose courses that correspond to the writing path you want to choose, whether that be scientific or educational writing. Due to the variety of classes that count toward the PPW Major, classes can conveniently be chosen with consideration for the skills taught in each course.
For students and alumni who were unable to take a course with Pam, I can share a bit of her advice that she gave during our phone call. She wants us to not be afraid to network. She finds that our generation is “so nice that [we] feel like [we’re] imposing on people if [we] ask for help.” As she was quick to remind me, “There are so many people out there who want to help you get jobs.” Pam is right. The young professionals she invited to our courses to speak on panels were always approachable and made themselves available to students. Pam proved that there are people out there who do indeed want to help us get our feet in the door. And these alumni who were invited to speak by Pam repeatedly expressed their gratitude for the help they received from Pam during their undergraduate and postgraduate years. Any student who paid attention to these speakers quickly realized that having her as a resource was very special.
Pam told me her most rewarding experience from her time at Pitt was working with students and watching them turn their passion for writing into a career by developing their skills in PPW courses. This is precisely what happens for the students who study in the PPW program. Pam and the rest of the faculty shape students’ passions into fulfilling careers, which is why her retirement has not gone unnoticed. Grace added, “Pam’s students have loved her for her warmth, her knowledge and willingness to share her expertise, and her support of them beyond their classes and even into their working lives. We miss her terribly, but I am so happy that she is enjoying her retirement.” On our phone call, Pam listed name after name of her previous students, recalling where they first started working in their careers and where they work now. She keeps up with her students’ work long after they leave Pitt.
Besides enjoying her newfound home’s weather, Pam is busy creating new work. One of these projects is a poetry book that retells stories in the Bible, which has been given a working title of Just That Simple. She is also a part of the Florida Writers’ Association and is serving as a poetry judge for the Royal Palm Literary Awards as part of the association. While I wish I could have continued taking courses with Pam, I know that I can always reach out to her for advice, and with my senior year quickly approaching, I certainly will. She dedicates herself to mentoring and sharing her expertise with others— even if she is no longer doing it from her office in the Cathedral of Learning,
—Corrine Hebestreit
Corrine Hebestreit, who majors in German and in Public and Professional Writing, just completed her junior year. With an interest in public relations, she has interned for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the National Blood Clot Alliance, and other organizations.