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Biography
Like most Linguistics majors, Adrienne Muncy’s interest in language developed even before she realized that it could be a viable career option. In middle school, Adrienne developed her own phonetic alphabet because she was “frustrated with the English spelling system.” Her burgeoning interest led her to read Stephen Pinker’s The Language Instinct in 7th grade and later give a report to fellow classmates about endangered languages—all to the discouraging sound of laughter by students in her English class. Adrienne didn’t let go of her interest but it wasn’t until college that she found out about the Linguistics program at EMU, thanks to some good advice from [former] Honors Program director Dr. Bill Miller, who directed Adrienne to take a few Linguistics courses.
Adrienne flourished in her linguistics classes, and she promptly declared Linguistics as her major [with a German Literature minor] during her second semester at EMU in January 2001. Adrienne was intrigued by the fact that “undergraduates ... have the chance to take classes directly from tenure-track faculty—I was never taught by a teaching assistant.” She was also impressed with the small class sizes that allowed faculty plenty of opportunity to devote individualized attention to students. In addition, Adrienne loved that even for undergraduates there were plenty of opportunities to do research in fields of interest and to present at the Undergraduate Symposium which, according to Adrienne, “definitely looks good when you’re applying to graduate school, as well as giving you experience in talking about your research with others.”
This experience helped Adrienne obtain a position as a Fulbright-Pedagogical Exchange Service Teaching Assistant where, for the past two years, she has taught German students in grades 5-12 English as a second language. Adrienne’s hard work and dedication have paid off. She has been accepted into graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she will study Germanic Linguistics.
-- Venus Gregory
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