Schroder: Act Two<\/p>\n
by THE CLASS<\/p>\n
Maryann Schroder grew up in upstate New York, about an hour-and-a-half from New York City during the 1950s and \u201960s when children had a lot of freedom to roam about.\u00a0 As long as she headed home when hearing the family dinner bell, she could be gone all day without anyone being worried.\u00a0 She considers it to have been an idyllic and safe environment for childhood exploration.<\/p>\n
Perhaps that sense of freedom contributed to her resistance in high school to being contained in school all day.\u00a0 It was pretty easy to just walk out the door, affording a situation she took advantage of regularly.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that\u2019s called truancy!\u00a0 As a result, the best advice she ever got was something she deduced after being confronted by her high school principal at the time of graduation.\u00a0 He reminded her that, in spite of good grades and having never gotten into any real trouble, her record of absence was not something to be proud of.\u00a0 From this, Schroder came to realize that it\u2019s not just what<\/em> you accomplish that matters but how<\/em> you go about it \u2013 your integrity and character.\u00a0 This became a wake-up call and the most meaningful advice she ever got.<\/p>\n She has applied this advice to endeavors since then, including academic studies.\u00a0 After receiving an undergraduate degree in psychology and a doctorate from Fordham University, Maryann has worked in the field of psychology.\u00a0 She decided to return to school to begin a new area of study after moving to Georgia. \u00a0UGA seemed like \u201cthe best opportunity for a new adventure\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Schroder took spring and summer courses, including one on rhetoric, with her sights set on journalism courses through Grady College.\u00a0 She is now at Grady as a part-time, nontraditional student, not pursuing a degree \u201cin a traditional sense of preparing for a career.\u201d\u00a0 Maryann said about her work in psychology, \u201cIt is something that I enjoy, but I would like to explore writing.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIt is a time of new beginning,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n When asked where she saw herself in 5 years, Schroder paused before saying, \u201cI think that question has a different weight at different times in life.\u201d\u00a0 She acknowledged being a senior citizen now and not sure what that would feel like in 5 years.\u00a0 However, she was certain about the general direction.\u00a0 \u201cI see myself as contributing to a broader understanding of the world around us.\u201d<\/p>\n Although she has not done work as a journalist, Maryann\u2019s favorite writing project so far was about her encounter with a homeless man in Athens.\u00a0 According to Schroder, the story\u00a0is her favorite because it allowed her to take a personal journey through which she had to confront her own reactions to the realities of homelessness and to this individual. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t published. I wrote it for myself, but I loved writing it because I learned something about the world and my community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Maryann\u00a0imagines that she would prefer to use a recorder over a notebook while interviewing.\u00a0 She thought that carrying a notebook, for her, might become more of a prop than a true tool.\u00a0 She also thought that it could be a barrier, as people may find it intimidating to see their words being transcribed.\u00a0 There is less distraction with a recorder, she said, though she would still carry a notebook to record her own thoughts, impressions, and questions during the conversation.<\/p>\n Schroder enjoys reading fiction, satirical essays, and journalistic nonfiction.\u00a0 One of her favorite books in recent times was\u00a0The Kitchen House<\/em> by Kathleen Grissom.\u00a0 She described it as an inspiring work of historical fiction about an Irish girl who immigrated to America and, upon becoming an orphan, is raised by slaves on a plantation. Maryann loved this book because it is an inspiring and powerful story about the meaning of family and identity, exploring issues of free will and determinism at the same time.\u00a0 When asked about her favorite author or journalist, she said that two came to mind, first citing David Sedaris.\u00a0 Schroder explained that Sedaris writes humorous essays about his life in a way that reflects on absurdities of life.\u00a0 She enjoys looking at those kinds of things, particularly contrasts that are in our everyday lives. The second author she cited was Malcom Gladwell, a journalist who offers unique perspectives on different aspects of life, often centering on social phenomenon.<\/p>\n Maryann Schroder is not yet envisioning a departure from UGA since she has just gotten started!\u00a0 However, she expects that, when that time comes, she\u2019ll miss interacting with the bright and vibrant students of UGA.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Schroder: Act Two by THE CLASS Maryann Schroder grew up in upstate New York, about an hour-and-a-half from New York City during the 1950s and \u201960s when children had a lot of freedom to roam about.\u00a0 As long as she headed home when hearing the family dinner bell, she could be gone all day without … Continue reading Mary Ann Schroder<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":313,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classmate-profiles"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Ndkv-1g","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/313"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/magwriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}