December 1, 2015

I write today to give a very strong recommendation for Jennifer Palmer. I have known Jennifer

since she transferred to Converse her freshman year and we invited her into the Nisbet Honors

Program, which I co-direct. I have also had the pleasure of teaching her in numerous English

and honors courses. Last May I also was delighted to announce to an audience of several

hundred people that Jennifer had won the English Department’s top award, given annually to the

rising senior English major whom we regard as the most promising major. Jennifer’s

intelligence, love of language and cultures, and perseverance make her an outstanding candidate

for many workplace opportunities as well as for graduate work.

Jennifer’s keen intelligence has revealed itself in numerous contexts. First, she won second

place for her short fiction in a national writing contest for college writers. She won first prize in

nonfiction in a Converse creative writing contest judged by a professor from Michigan State.

Next, she frequently will notice a nuance in a text that no one else in the class recognizes. She

wrote very strong essays and exams in an honors course I taught last fall on women in early

modern British literature. Her performance across the college is similarly strong, as her GPA,

election to Mortar Board, and continuing presence on the Dean’s List attest.

Jennifer loves language and culture. As a double major in German and in creative and

professional writing (one of several versions of the English major available at Converse), she is

positioned well to help others learn English while she continues to enjoy learning about other

cultures. Her previous travels to Germany and her family’s hosting of a German exchange

student have intensified that desire to spend a longer time understanding of other languages and

peoples. She has worked as a tutor in German, and recently she was hired to help students in the

Academic Support Center. In addition, she has personality traits that suggest she will make a

strong teacher: she has a good sense of humor, she listens well (even when she disagrees), she

explains ideas clearly, and she has blossomed into a compassionate leader across campus.

Many individuals you will encounter will display similar intelligence and curiosity. But few of

these individuals, I suspect, have shown the perseverance and courage that Jennifer has

displayed. A first-generation college student and only child, Jennifer was badly injured in the

summer of 2013 when a routine medical test went awry and she developed bleeding in her brain.

Because of this injury, Jennifer was forced at 20 into the position many elderly individuals face

when they have a stroke: she lost much of her short-term memory, she had to re-learn to walk,

and she had to re-learn how to talk. She had to audit courses bit-by-bit until her brain recovered

enough for her to resume college full-time. For a student as intellectually gifted and as verbally

skilled as she was and is, these obstacles could lead one to despair. Indeed, there were plenty of

dark moments; she shared a few with me. A person of great faith and courage, however, Jennifer

overcame these obstacles, re-gaining her memory, her ability to walk, and her command of

speech and ability to write.

Now that she is again in good health, Jennifer today shows little evidence that this injury ever

happened. Through this dark valley, however, she gained a tremendous amount of purpose,

focus, humility, and grace. When I announced in May that she had won the English

Department’s top award, I did not give any of these details, but I said that I knew she had

overcome great adversity, and her courage had inspired us all. I learned later that her mother in

the audience heard these words and wept.

Jennifer is a remarkable woman for her skills in language and her intellectual gifts and curiosity,

but most especially she is a person of great inner strength whom I am proud to call one of ours.

If you award her a position in your company or graduate program, I believe you will be proud to

call her one of yours as well.

Sincerely,

Laura Feitzinger Brown, PhD

Associate Professor of English, Nisbet Honors Program Co-director