To a Prospective Employer:
In 2005, as part of a personal and spiritual renovation, I came up with a simple idea: to pick up litter in my urban neighborhood while walking my dog. I wasn’t trying to change the world, I simply wanted to change my thinking on a daily basis to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. This endeavor proved so full of unexpected consequences that I found it worth documenting on a daily basis. Eventually, as a blogger, I not only recommitted to a career as a writer, but also undertook motivational speaking.
This simple act of making my neighborhood a better place via the most modest of undertakings led to a piece being published in This I Believe: Life Lessons, as well as an exploration of graphic art and design to illustrate each of my blog entries. I have become a true believer in the power of creativity to improve virtually every aspect of life, whether in the personal or professional realm.
After the economic downturn of 2008-10, I decided to get a Master’s Degree in the Humanities at Mount St. Mary’s College. The weekend format allowed me to continue my work as a subtitle editor, but offered the advantage of an academic imprimatur that would allow me to expand my professional horizons. The program offers a specialization in English, History, Cultural Studies or Creative Writing, with classes in each area required. My years of blogging turned out to be excellent preparation for turning out academic papers of the highest caliber, as well as making compelling presentations on a wide range of original topics. I chose to write a screenplay for my Creative Writing thesis. Set in postwar Manhattan, The Exiled Heart is the love story between a holocaust survivor and the pilot who saved her child in the midst of war. The supporting essay, titled, “The Disorientation of Survival,” examines the post-war psychology of those who must readapt to the idea of having a future again after they had accepted the inevitability of early death.
One of my two thesis advisors was Professor Kathryn Boutry, Head of the Creative Writing Program at Mount St. Mary’s. She not only asked me to be her teaching assistant for the graduate Summer 2013 Screenwriting class, but again for her two English classes at West Los Angeles Community College, in the Fall of 2013 and Spring of 2014. Her courses have garnered national attention for teaching difficult authors like Woolf and Nabokov to community college students, many with severe deficits in English and reading skills. The experience has been invaluable to me and strengthened my confidence in my own teaching and counseling skills. (Professor Boutry will be glad to provide a strong reference, likewise Professors Drew Brody and Jennifer Tran Smith)
I am a very good communicator, an excellent writer, editor and teacher. I am gifted with words and with a sharp and entertaining sense of humor, (despite the uncharacteristically dry tone of this essay.) I brainstorm like nobody’s business. I make friends easily and understand the value of personal diplomacy. I am a problem-solver and serious thinker. I read a lot and probably watch too much television, but detect the pulse of the zeitgeist with unerring frequency.
Thanks for taking the time to get to know me a little better.
Mark Olmsted
2014
Mark Olmsted 