Valerie Edge,  the Fall 2012 MALS Graduate Assistant, attended Michigan State University for her undergraduate degree in English where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts.

Her goal is to eventually get her Ph.D. in either literature, sociology or women and gender studies and become a university professor.  Valerie chose OU because her sister attended OU for her undergraduate degree and had great things to say about the school.

"I chose the MALS program because although I had always assumed I wanted to study English through to my doctorate degree, I began to learn about other disciplines that I also found interesting and thought would coincide with my academic interests but never had the opportunity to study them at length.  MALS allows you to take different courses in different fields and combined them into one idea, making the ultimate project much more informed and insightful.  Knowing that I could still take literature courses in addition to sociology or gender courses, for instance, really appealed to my academic goals as well as my natural tendency to draw on different disciplines while studying literature."

Valerie served as Graduate Assistant for the Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies at OU during Winter 2012 under the direction of Dr. Cynthia Sifonis.