UMass Amherst

Erin McNamee

Major: English

Hometown: Attleboro, Massachusetts


"UMass has great study-abroad programs designed to fit just about any student's needs," says Erin McNamee who spent the spring semester of her junior year in England. In addition to her course work, she secured an internship at a book company in London where she helped market their merchandise in an online bookstore.

"I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to participate in a program that provided me with the opportunity to both study and work in another country," she says. She credits these experiences abroad with broadening her view of the country and the world. "Studying abroad is one of the most valuable things any college student can do," she declares. "Traveling by yourself to a foreign country is sometimes frightening and nerve-wracking, but it's also incredibly exciting."

Erin is a columnist for the campus paper, The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, and has been the Dean's Book Course Assistant since her sophomore year. "I have had the unique opportunity to be a part of developing a course that over 1,000 Commonwealth College students take each semester," she says. The Dean's Book Course, designed to bring Commonwealth College students together as a community of scholars, emphasizes writing and communication skills through the study of a contemporary book. Erin says the work has given her confidence in her abilities to work independently and collaboratively. "I've even met established and critically acclaimed authors such as Dave Eggers, Simon Winchester, and Joe Klein," she says. "As an English major, meeting these authors was definitely a dream come true."