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Study What You Love

Bieber to Bees

After making it big as a member of a popular boy band, Andre Burnham ’18 is looking forward to his next gig — medical school.

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Be Who You Are

In Deep

In the pool or on the stage, for Ryan Cassidy ’17, it’s all about the journey.

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Find Your Future

Hip-hop nonstop

Dance, write, choreograph. After a year of research and travel thanks to a Hamilton grant, Kiana Sosa ’15 wants to do it all.

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At Hamilton, study what interests you, be accepted for who you are, and prepare to be the person you were meant to become.

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On Writing & Speaking

A fortune cookie once told me: writing is a craft, not an art. I try to live by this fortune cookie's wisdom. I definitely don't view writing as a talent; my writing is full of practice, hard work, perseverance and diligence.

Lauren Magaziner ’12 — author of children's books

Of little value are your wisdom and discoveries if you cannot successfully express them and thus impress the public and render a social service. Never let Hamilton’s emphasis on composition and delivery be lessened.

Archibald L. Love, Class of 1876

Hamilton focused on speaking, writing and critical thinking. I do those every day. If you can do those three things, you can do almost anything.

Bill Smith ’80 — special assistant to the president and general manager, Minnesota Twins

Writing clearly is a prerequisite to being able to think clearly, which in turn is a prerequisite to almost everything else in the real world. One could not escape from Hamilton without mastering those skills.

Gordon Boak ’64

As an attorney, being able to write persuasively and to present effective oral arguments are essential tools. I can honestly say that I apply the skills I learned as a writing tutor literally on a daily basis … As I’m writing I almost have a mini-conference in my head as I ask myself what I’m trying to say and how to best organize my thoughts.

Kajal Chattopadhyay ’93 — former Writing Center tutor

Expressing yourself clearly and effectively is the single most important tool you can develop, and it carries with you through your life. Today, I’m in the business of communicating at one of the most highly respected communications companies, and what got me here didn’t come from Columbia Business School. It came from Hamilton.

Barry Seaman ’67 — former special projects editor and White House correspondent, Time magazine

Writing is fundamental to learning. Most students read something from beginning to end, highlighting information along the way, but they aren’t really processing any of what they read until they analyze, discuss, summarize, synthesize and write.

Barbara Tewksbury — Upson Chair for Public Discourse and professor of geosciences

Being in medicine, you think that science is the most important part of your education, but through the course of my career, being able to write well and be a reasonably good public speaker have proven to be tremendously important.

Christine Laine ’83 — editor, Annals of Internal Medicine (youngest in the journal’s history)

Hamilton’s writing-intensive curriculum and my experience in the Writing Center have been invaluable to me in my professional career. Although I arrived at Hamilton with a general understanding of how to formulate an analytical argument, I truly learned how to write at Hamilton.

Bethany Baker Booth ’98 — former Writing Center tutor

The advice I give my clients is what I learned and shared every day in the Writing Center: A good idea is worthy of the time and effort required to communicate it effectively.

Sean Ryan ’97 — former Writing Center tutor