1. December 1, 2015
I write today to give a very strong recommendation for Jennifer Palmer. I have known Jennifer
since she transferred to Converse her freshman year and we invited her into the Nisbet Honors
Program, which I co-direct. I have also had the pleasure of teaching her in numerous English
and honors courses. Last May I also was delighted to announce to an audience of several
hundred people that Jennifer had won the English Department’s top award, given annually to the
rising senior English major whom we regard as the most promising major. Jennifer’s
intelligence, love of language and cultures, and perseverance make her an outstanding candidate
for many workplace opportunities as well as for graduate work.
Jennifer’s keen intelligence has revealed itself in numerous contexts. First, she won second
place for her short fiction in a national writing contest for college writers. She won first prize in
nonfiction in a Converse creative writing contest judged by a professor from Michigan State.
Next, she frequently will notice a nuance in a text that no one else in the class recognizes. She
wrote very strong essays and exams in an honors course I taught last fall on women in early
modern British literature. Her performance across the college is similarly strong, as her GPA,
election to Mortar Board, and continuing presence on the Dean’s List attest.
Jennifer loves language and culture. As a double major in German and in creative and
professional writing (one of several versions of the English major available at Converse), she is
positioned well to help others learn English while she continues to enjoy learning about other
cultures. Her previous travels to Germany and her family’s hosting of a German exchange
student have intensified that desire to spend a longer time understanding of other languages and
peoples. She has worked as a tutor in German, and recently she was hired to help students in the
Academic Support Center. In addition, she has personality traits that suggest she will make a
strong teacher: she has a good sense of humor, she listens well (even when she disagrees), she
explains ideas clearly, and she has blossomed into a compassionate leader across campus.
Many individuals you will encounter will display similar intelligence and curiosity. But few of
these individuals, I suspect, have shown the perseverance and courage that Jennifer has
displayed. A first-generation college student and only child, Jennifer was badly injured in the
summer of 2013 when a routine medical test went awry and she developed bleeding in her brain.

2. Because of this injury, Jennifer was forced at 20 into the position many elderly individuals face
when they have a stroke: she lost much of her short-term memory, she had to re-learn to walk,
and she had to re-learn how to talk. She had to audit courses bit-by-bit until her brain recovered
enough for her to resume college full-time. For a student as intellectually gifted and as verbally
skilled as she was and is, these obstacles could lead one to despair. Indeed, there were plenty of
dark moments; she shared a few with me. A person of great faith and courage, however, Jennifer
overcame these obstacles, re-gaining her memory, her ability to walk, and her command of
speech and ability to write.
Now that she is again in good health, Jennifer today shows little evidence that this injury ever
happened. Through this dark valley, however, she gained a tremendous amount of purpose,
focus, humility, and grace. When I announced in May that she had won the English
Department’s top award, I did not give any of these details, but I said that I knew she had
overcome great adversity, and her courage had inspired us all. I learned later that her mother in
the audience heard these words and wept.
Jennifer is a remarkable woman for her skills in language and her intellectual gifts and curiosity,
but most especially she is a person of great inner strength whom I am proud to call one of ours.
If you award her a position in your company or graduate program, I believe you will be proud to
call her one of yours as well.
Sincerely,
Laura Feitzinger Brown, PhD
Associate Professor of English, Nisbet Honors Program Co-director