Penn hasn't looked the same since she started working for it.
Marion Wyce
Photo by Candace diCarlo
When Marion Wyce found she couldn't afford to head straight to graduate school, she looked for work in the non-profit sector, and found it at Penn. She went full time working for her old boss, Peshe Kuriloff, in Writing Across the University. Then she got lucky, she said, and heard of an opening in the Health System.
As employee communications coordinator for the Medical Center's public affairs office, Wyce producesWhat's HUP, a biweekly, two-page newsletter that publicizes events for hospital employees. Wyce also writes for UPdate, the Medical Center magazine.
Working at the Health System has been an education. "One major issue is the very competitive marketplace," she said. "I hear about financial issues a lot more than I did as a student." It's been an education in other ways, too. "You'll never get the level of scrutiny you will get from an editor. You learn a lot from someone going through each word."
It has also helped shift her focus as a writer from literature to creative writing in general, thanks in part to the feedback she gets from the staff.
Working at Penn has also changed her perspective on Philadelphia. She now lives in Center City and enjoys exploring the city's neighborhoods: "It's a smaller city that you can get to know well," she said, adding, "It almost feels like a different place to me than it did when I was a student."
