Kaylin Speth is the Content Coordinator at TriMedia in Marshfield. She is a 2017 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay with a major in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing, and a Minor in Design Arts.
What do you do now? I’m the Content Coordinator at news and tourism websites through TriMedia, including OnFocus.News and ExploreMarshfield.com. I manage the news section of the online newspaper and write articles for both sites, produce and edit short videos, and manage social media.
Why did you decide to major in this? I decided on English during my sophomore year at a 2-year college once I realized it checked all my boxes for topics I was interested in, particularly creative writing. I assumed that by pursuing an English major, I could apply the skills I’d develop to whichever career I ended up in. Though it was stressful not knowing exactly what job I would land after college, I was at least highly interested in what I was learning.
I felt it was important to pair my English degree with a minor in design to have more obviously marketable skills. It was a steep learning curve to learn various Adobe CC applications, but highly useful. Looking back, choosing to expand my skillset was an excellent decision and one I recommend for other English majors.
What academic experience or accomplishment are you most proud of? The most meaningful accomplishment was finishing an entire novel in one semester in workshop. At my other college, I was editor of the school newspaper which arguably prepared me well for my current position, and at UWGB I was an editorial assistant intern for Voyageur magazine. I’m also proud of graduating UWGB with highest honors.
What is an important goal or accomplishment you are currently working on? I’m pursuing traditional publication for the novel I finished in college, and then rewrote and polished afterwards. I’ve also started a humor website called Snickerdee.com which features comics documenting the angst, pitfalls, and uncomfortable emotions experienced as part of the writer’s life, which has been a great outlet!
What do you do for fun? A side effect of my job is becoming much more aware of everything Wisconsin and even my small hometown have to offer – therefore on free weekends I enjoy traveling around the state visiting our fantastic state parks (especially in Door County) and all of the neat stops in between. Otherwise I’m tackling my to-read list, drawing my next comic, or world-building for a novel idea.
What else do you want people to know about you? I’m grateful for the opportunities I had during my course of study at UWGB and hope those only continue to grow and evolve for current and future writers. At UWGB, I was able to make an academic study of Tolkien, science fiction, and even graphic novels, the latter of which inspired me down the path to launching my website. My design coursework was surprisingly compatible with the English tract: at the same time I was learning how white space in a text layout can create meaning in design, my poetry class was teaching the same idea in a slightly different way. I still apply those lessons today.
