Leah Silvieus, '07
Beth Ann (Lindell) Day, '87, considers founding Whitworth's literary magazine, Script, the greatest achievement of her Whitworth years. The publication began at a launch party at a small Mexican restaurant in Spokane and has since become a staple of the Whitworth creative community. Day and fellow English major Mark Eaton, '87, began the journal under the supervision of Professor Vic Bobb during their senior year.
Day is now the associate director of research and the chief talent officer for Sanford C. Bernstein, a Wall Street equity-research firm. "I was hired for my first Wall Street job because of my writing skills," Day says. "My boss wanted a literature or journalism student, not an MBA. We write lengthy analytical research reports in our business, and the ability to communicate clearly trades at a premium – as they say on Wall Street!"
Day began her Whitworth education as a business major, but a conversation with Professor of English Leonard Oakland at sophomore registration convinced her to major in English. After graduating, Day received two master's degrees in English literature, one from the University of Oregon and the other from Stanford. During that time, Day taught writing and Shakespeare, and then transitioned back into the business world, pursuing a career in research.
Although Day now works on Wall Street, the arts are never far removed from her busy life in New York: She subscribes to the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Carnegie Hall concert series, and other arts organizations. She also maintains connections between her literature roots and her business career. "During my 10 years in research management, I've taught many writing classes and programs – my favorite is an interactive competitive workshop I developed." She calls it Editorius Brutus: Stab your colleagues with your pen. "And if you look on my office shelf today you will see, next to the securities manuals and research reports, both Strunk & White and Dante's Inferno," Day says.
"As I look back, even after spending time in the terrific English departments at Oregon and Stanford, the Whitworth department had something special, an intellectual exuberance," Day says. "For students, the department felt both gentle and impossibly demanding – a rare combination, but unusually effective. I do think Leonard Oakland was (and, I'm sure, still is) exceptional at setting that tone. The entire faculty was remarkably supportive of our ideas."
Copies of Script are available (while supplies last) through the English department. Contact Lisa Sem-Rodrigues, '85, at lrodrigues@whitworth.edu.
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