Clemson student Caroline Warner is turning her passion for books into a career path.
A native of Atlanta, Warner has been part of the Clemson family her entire life, with both of her parents being Clemson alumni. But what really set Clemson apart for her when she was making her college decision was the Honors College.
“It was ultimately getting into the Honors College that made me decide to come to Clemson,” she said. “The special opportunities they had, the seminar classes, the accommodations, the advising and other resources — I just felt like it was a great place to start my higher education.”
Warner decided to major in English because of her lifelong love of books.
“I have always loved reading and writing, and when I got to middle school and high school, it became more of a force that my life revolved around,” she said. “My love of reading was something that kept me anchored … it really was my passion. I knew that I wanted to work with books. I wanted books to be my life … I felt like English was the best major for that.”
Publishing is a notoriously competitive career field, but fortunately, Warner was able to get an internship in publishing without ever leaving campus. She now works as an editorial assistant for Clemson University Press, which publishes prize-winning scholarship on modernist literature, 18th-century literature, music history and more.
“I found the Press on a tour of the library … I knew we had a Press, but I didn’t know that much about it, but when I got a closer look at what they published — so many books about [W.B.] Yeats and [Ezra] Pound — I got really excited,” said Warner.
Warner assists with reviewing proposals, reading sample chapters and working with manuscripts. She recently was able to attend the Modern Language Association (MLA) annual convention in Toronto as a representative of the Press, where she worked at the Press’ table, met with authors and other publishers, and was able to attend panel discussions.
“MLA was amazing. I was just floored by the number of professional connections I could make in one weekend,” she said. “It also gave me good insight into what a job in academia and literature would look like if I decided to further my education and go that route.”
Warner also works for Clemson Athletics in their communication department. She assists with media credentials and post-game press interviews at football games and writes profile pieces and human interest stories for gameday programs, Orange: The Experience magazine and other athletics publications. She says the job gives her a chance to put her communication minor to good use.
In addition to her jobs, Warner also writes a regular book review column for The Tiger student newspaper called “Thoughts from a Bookworm.” She is also a member of Gamma Phi Beta sorority.
Warner will be taking a break from all of this for the remainder of the Spring semester, and she is set to travel to Florence, Italy, to study abroad for the rest of the semester. In Florence, she will take classes on Shakespeare, fashion communication, and art history.