{"id":15198,"date":"2012-08-16T09:44:33","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T13:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=15198"},"modified":"2022-09-28T15:41:36","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T19:41:36","slug":"small-town-girl-launches-english-career-at-wright-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2012\/08\/16\/small-town-girl-launches-english-career-at-wright-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Small-town girl launches English career at Wright State"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Wright State sophomore Elise Hartzell is on her path to becoming a future English professor.<\/p><\/div>\n

When 17-year-old Elise Hartzell was making pizzas or running the register at the Morning Star Convenience Store in the tiny northwest Ohio village of Melrose, she daydreamed of becoming a college English professor.<\/p>\n

At the time, the dream seemed very far away.<\/p>\n

Hartzell\u2019s father\u2014a tool-and-die maker who had worked the third shift for 12 years\u2014had died earlier that year.<\/p>\n

Her mother, a hairdresser, was struggling to pay the bills and support Elise and her two younger sisters.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe only makes about $10 per person because the area is so poor nobody can afford any more than that,\u201d Hartzell said.<\/p>\n

Even though she was a straight-A student, Hartzell knew that her college dream would hinge on her ability to pay for it. So she gave up a spot in the band at Paulding High School to work at the Morning Star in Melrose, a mile from her home in Oakwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to work there as much as I could,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd as soon as I got the job, I started putting money away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hartzell only allowed herself about $40 a week in spending money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt taught me a lot of responsibility,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

With her bankroll slowly growing and her grades sparkling, the only missing piece was a college acceptance. Hartzell had applied to The Ohio State University, but had not heard back. She was growing increasingly nervous.<\/p>\n

A friend suggested she apply to Wright State. Within two weeks, Hartzell had not only been accepted at Wright State for last year\u2019s fall quarter, but was being offered a $10,000 scholarship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised. I was overjoyed,\u201d Hartzell said. \u201cI didn\u2019t even come and look. I just figured the way they were acting, it was the place for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But coming to a university from the small, rural village of Oakwood took a little adjusting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was rough when I first moved here,\u201d Hartzell said. \u201cI was more of a quiet person, so I didn\u2019t really go out and do all of the social stuff. But it got better as time went on. I just had to learn adapt to different personalities and different friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hartzell, now 19, hasn\u2019t broken her straight-A habit. After her first year at Wright State, she has a 4.0 GPA.<\/p>\n

She is currently working two jobs\u2014a summer job at the Morning Star and a job at Wright State\u2019s Student Conduct office. Juggling the two requires shuttling from Oakwood to Dayton and back\u2014a two-hour commute.<\/p>\n

Hartzell is also gearing up for fall classes, which will include a course in British literature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like reading classic literature because I think it takes a lot of thought process,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s important that when you read something you\u2019re actually analyzing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of her favorites is Lord of the Flies, <\/em>a novel by Nobel Prize-winning English author William Golding about boys stranded on a desert island who try to govern themselves. But she also occasionally reads for fun. She brandished The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy <\/em>during a recent interview.<\/p>\n

Reading and writing are like breathing for Hartzell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided that English is my calling,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not good at a lot of things, but that\u2019s something I\u2019m good at.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the small-town girl is getting comfortable at Wright State.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad I came here,\u201d she said. \u201cI see so many familiar faces. We\u2019re our own little small town.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When 17-year-old Elise Hartzell was making pizzas or running the register at the Morning Star Convenience Store in the tiny northwest Ohio village of Melrose, she daydreamed of becoming a college English professor. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":15200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2040,744,725,4863,715,719],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-giving","category-education-human-services","category-home-news-sidebar","category-humanities-and-cultural-studies","category-news","category-special-categories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15198"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130232,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15198\/revisions\/130232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}