Second-Year BA/MA Students

Ash Earyes is a second-year BA/MA student, fully focusing herself on the craft and art of fiction. She writes short stories and finds them to be the easiest form to work with, and her topics revolve around teenagers/young adults battling and evolving with the environment around them. Her other things to do during her downtime, when not writing, is typically drawing for her own enjoyment, or playing strategic video games. She hopes to pursue a secondary education degree and find herself working at the high-school level.

Paige Harris is a second-year BA/MA student with a concentration in fiction. As an undergraduate, she majored in English with a double minor in Anthropology and Women’s Studies. Originally from Florida, she now enjoys marginally more temperate summers in Northern Virginia when she’s away from Penn State. Paige is a lifelong bookworm bursting at the seams with her own stories to tell and is ecstatic for the opportunity to nurture her passion. In her free time, she enjoys watching football games, spending time with her friends, and finding new TV shows to binge.

Julianna Herriott is a second-year BA/MA student with a concentration in fiction. During her undergraduate, Julianna studied English and minored in chemistry and biology. Julianna spent much of her undergraduate career torn between science and writing and has spent the years finding creative ways to incorporate science into her works of fiction. After graduation, she plans to continue writing while attending pharmacy school to receive her PharmD in ambulatory pharmacy.

Karysa Infante is an MA student and intern specializing in poetry. Her primary focus as a poet is on confessionalism. She uses her passion for poetry to navigate and articulate living with several chronic health conditions, as well as coping with the complexity of human emotion. She sees it as a form of activism. Coming from a Cuban background, she also likes to explore familial history and trauma. When Karysa isn’t writing poems, she is almost enjoying nature, singing, spending time with family and friends, learning a new language, or just relaxing in bed with her cat and a book.

Dana Lynch is an English Instructor and Graduate Creative Writing Student at the Pennsylvania State University. Alongside academia, she works at the Pattee and Paterno Library to pay for her book addiction. She is an avid writer of both nonfiction and fiction, focusing on her bi-racial Korean identity. She hopes to escape the desk job lifestyle and write for a living. For now, you can find her buried underneath writing submissions at a State College local coffee shop near you.

Matthew Ramos is a second-year BA/MA student focusing on fiction writing. He completed his undergraduate years at Penn State with an English major. He grew up in Bogota, Colombia, where he graduated from High School before attending Penn State. During his free time, he enjoys anything soccer-related, both playing the sport and supporting his favorite team, Liverpool. When he’s not watching soccer, he’s playing soccer-related video games or going out with his friends. It’s honestly fifty-fifty. After graduation, he intends to pursue a career teaching English internationally so that he can see the world.

Claire Williams is from Hershey, PA and is a second-year BA/MA student focusing on poetry. As an undergraduate, she worked as a peer writing tutor with The Writing Center @ Penn State Learning and was the Bednar Intern for Penn State Libraries’ Open Publishing Department. During her MA year, Claire is continuing to work with the Writing Center as an Outreach Specialist and the Opening Publishing Program as a graduate intern. In her free time, she loves being outside, writing, listening to music, reading, playing guitar, and going on drives.

Melissa Zavala is a second year BA/MA student studying creative non-fiction. Her writing often deals with themes of girlhood, religion, sexuality, and post-colonialism which she studied internsely in her undergraduate career. Melissa has worked various jobs in tutoring including the Writing Center at Penn State and The Search Bar at Penn State Libraries. She was also acknowledged in Volume 6 of The Letters of Ernest Hemingway published in May 2024. In her free time, Melissa enjoys watching horror movies and eating spicy snacks.

First-Year BA/MA Students

Carter Cavaliere is a first-year BA/MA student concentrating in poetry. Born and raised in Beaver, Pennsylvania, Carter always dreamed of two things: studying at Penn State and becoming a writer. During the first years of his undergrad studying English, he discovered his love of poetry. His work is very self-referential as he aims to find poetry in every corner of his life. During his free time, he enjoys listening to Taylor Swift, watching rom-coms, and going for walks around State College.

Jade Ciampichini is a first-year fiction BA/MA student, getting bachelor’s degrees in both Art History and English. Her many loves include horrible high school rom coms, chickpeas, and wearing shirts with her opinions on them. When Jade is not writing, which is more often than she cares to admit, she is spending time outside, buying sugary drinks, or going to art galleries where she can perfect her museum whisper. When she is writing, Jade engages with themes of nostalgia, introflection, and the inclination to list things in threes. Her inspirations range from Rothko to Paramore to Holden Caulfield, and she knows you already think she’s annoying now.

Aidan Fletcher is from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, which means he likes writing about mountains and rivers and the smell of manure. He grew up rural with city-born parents and considers himself exceedingly lucky for this combination. They are teachers. Aidan is in his fourth year pursuing BAs in English and Philosophy. He’s done a lot of reading. He credits his love of words to all that was stated previously in addition to the Wellsboro Public Library, the roof of which he can see from his front porch. He looks forward to the opportunities presented by the BA/MA program and would like to express his profound thanks and appreciation to all the professors whose recommendations and kindness led him on his way, namely Camile, Beth, Toby, and Nicolas. 

Lanie Godines is a fourth-year English major and first-year BA/MA student attending Penn State University Park. Lanie’s personal works focus directly on immersing their culture and upbringing into American writing, describing details and anecdotes of their childhood being brought up in Mexico as a heavy contributor to their creativity and their passion towards writing. Through the Penn State BA/MA program, Lanie plans on achieving their personal goal of becoming a realistic fiction writer and pursuing a career as an Ivy League professor of literary and liberal arts. In their free time, Lanie loves to watch films and dissect their meaning at Penn State’s student film organization, a club they are on the executive board for. Lanie is an IDEA Ambassador, a resource-hub for first year students regarding the opportunities and aid Penn State has to offer, as well as a peer mentor for Mexican-American students on campus. Lanie loves to visit parks and loves to read kitschy novels, as well as listening to music sitting in the sun. As of lately, Lanie has been working on writing a story about a young girl’s last few months in her home country, diving into the severed ties and emotional crashes of being far from home, as well as looking forward to graduating this coming May.

Katherine Joyce is a first-year BA/MA student focusing on fiction. She is also a Schreyer scholar majoring in English and minoring in History. A native of Schuylkill County, PA, she loves movies, flowers, coffee, film music, and spending time with her favorite people. She is a true believer in happy endings and writes every story with a glimmer of hope to see her characters – and readers – through. Katherine dreams of following in the footsteps of her literary hero, J.R.R. Tolkien, teaching future generations about the power of fiction as a professor while using her writing to bring faith, light, and beauty to as many hearts as possible.

Ky McKenna is a first-year BA/MA student concentrating in poetry and finishing her undergraduate studies in English and Art. Born and raised in the scorching heat of southeast Florida, she spent most of her childhood indoors or underwater before heading up to central Pennsylvania. Her loves include girlrock bands of the 90s, obscure children’s fantasy novels, Kate Bush (who she shares a birthday with, that wild woman!), and the works of Lisel Mueller and Mary Oliver. Growing up with a book always close at hand has instilled a neverending love of finding the magical in the mundane, something she intends to utilize while in the BA/MA program. When not in class, you can find her hiking the nearby hills or working in the university’s glassblowing and ceramic studios.

Ashley Person is a first-year BA/MA student with a concentration in poetry. Currently, she is finishing her undergraduate degree in English with a minor in World Literature. While her home is back in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, she was born in Freehold, New Jersey. She spends her free time reading, crocheting (or working on any kind of craft she can get her hands on), learning guitar, and spending time with her closest friends. With aspirations of becoming a professor, Ashley is honored to be a member of the BA/MA program.

Andy St.Clair is a first-year BA/MA student and a senior undergraduate in English. Having grown up on a goat farm (specifically a fainting goat farm), the experiences of daily labor, isolation, and rural living intersected with Andy’s love for comic books, alternative culture, and philosophy to form a creative drive that’s expressed itself in his music and writing. Once the farm was sold and his parents left,  Andy dove into worlds of literature, drag performativity, and hardcore music scenes, embarking through early adulthood to pursue artistic prospects. Writing and drumming in crossover thrash group Chlamydiot, creative expression has, and still serves as a fundamental component of Andy’s life. It’s the harsh realities of music subcultures, family trauma, and daily hardships that originally invigorated his initial interest in non-fiction writing. But now, it’s the spirit of human perseverance, the power of community, and the sensationalism of American daily living that currently fuels his writing prospects.

Daniel Woodruff is a first-year BA/MA student focusing on creative writing and an English major with minors in German and Technical Writing. Born and raised in Pennsylvania’s Cumberland County, the Appalachian environment made an impression on him and many of his stories continue to be set in this region. During this time, he developed a passion for the outdoors, language, and writing down every story idea that popped into his head. His love for writing was reignited in adulthood by authors like John Steinbeck and Frank Herbert, the works of whom he still obsessively reads. After graduation, he hopes to either enter the workforce as a Technical Writer or begin a career as an educator.  

Rachel Wozniak is a first-year BA/MA student focusing on fiction and creative nonfiction, and she spent her childhood living on Long Island before moving to Pennsylvania. She is currently pursuing a double major in English and Psychology, and she blends these interests in her writing by using language to provide creative insight into human realities. Rachel is also drawn to stories that delve into individual experiences and let her lose herself in lyrical prose. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys being surrounded by books at her job at the Pattee and Paterno Library, going on long runs, and listening to old music.