Going to the University of Denver‘s Publishing Institute (DPI) had been my dream since my freshmen orientation. I hadn’t even known there were actual courses to study publishing prior to my professor telling me about the program (I still have the sheets she gave me!). So, when it came time to apply to DPI (as well as Columbia and NYU‘s programs), my stomach was in knots as I held the cursor over the “submit application” button.
I will gladly admit that the tears were flowing on the three separate occasions of me learning my results: one in Guatemala with my professor reading the letter with me, one in my apartment alone talking to the Program Director on the phone, and the last being in the middle of campus. Tears were everywhere! But these acceptances, and my ultimate decision to attend DPI, only solidified my goals and dreams of learning more about and working in book publishing.
DPI (like other programs) is rigorous and SO WORTH IT! In addition to the pre-assignments, my classmates and I were thrown into four weeks of editing, marketing, manuscripts, “does the comma sound better here or here?” “does this sound right?” and meeting many of the industry’s top professionals, spanning across the disciplines. But these four weeks are what pushed us to learn. And that’s what DPI, and any program worth its salt, is truly about: your passion to dive right in and learn what you can alongside others who wish to do the same thing, and who will one day be your coworkers (or boss).
DPI truly solidified my love of books, reading, and wanting to bring these projects to the world. But what DPI really gave me was the knowledge that expanded my goal of wanting to work specifically in book editing and marketing to marketing and editing in general!
One of the biggest, and most repeated, lessons I learned while in Denver was that most do not start out in book publishing. We heard from top professionals who started in stock trading, teaching, even acting on off-Broadway! But so many find publishing and come to it in their own time. This really helped in my feelings of expanding (not changing) my goal as I know that one day I might just end up in publishing and seeing my name in an acknowledgement section and seeing a project I worked on find its place in the world.
Kailey Katzfey
Summer Program Scholarship Recipient, 2022
Alpha Kappa Upsilon Chapter
Columbus State University, Columbus, GA
Summer Program Scholarship
The Summer Program Scholarship provides up to $1,500 for the purposes of attending a special 2023 summer program, in the student’s home country, which furthers the applicant’s engagement with Sigma Tau Delta’s mission. Qualifying summer programs must be at least three weeks in length and no longer than three months. Applicants should demonstrate academic scholarship and chapter service and must explain the relevance of their summer program to fostering their engagement with the English discipline, including literature, language, writing, or literacy.
Application Deadline: November 7, 2022 for programs in summer 2023
Past Summer Program Recipients
Summer Program Scholarship Supports Study in Greece
Summer Program Scholarship Funds NYU Publishing Institute Experience
How Can A Summer Program Change Your Life?
Add Comment