Quick Facts

Pen or pencil?

Felt tip marker

Word you always misspell?

Cancelled

Favorite punctuation mark?

Semicolon

 

Courtney LaGanke
Residential Area Manager

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SJU Writes: What is your favorite aspect of the writing process?

CL: Not the final product–except getting something off your desk sometimes, which is nice. I would say brainstorming and doing an outline of all the possibilities of where your piece is going to go.

SJU Writes: Who was the most influential English teacher you’ve ever had?

CL: My first year English 101 professor. She was just very eccentric; she taught in a very different way. She was relatable to students, but sometimes she was really harsh because she was so blunt. But I really connected with that because she gave us so much freedom in what we could do.

SJU Writes: Where do you feel like you learned a lot of your writing skills?

CL: I would say this job, truly. My involvement in writing things that impact the university taught me that you have to write things very clearly, be very detail oriented, and make sure you get names, dates and times right–all those things are important because they could impact processing those concerns.

SJU Writes: How does your writing of community standards connect hands-on to your job?

CL: As a hearing officer, I help to enforce any policies of ours, interpret them, and explain them to students. So, upholding our standards of the university is really important, and of course the language in there is important. How you interpret that and break it down more for students is helpful, too. It’s making sure that it’s clear, or if there are questions or maybe perspectives that are not being considered–I love when students tell me that. I think it’s important for students to ask questions and to think about those things, too.

—Lisa McKeon ’21