Our Alumni

Graduates of the English Department are helping to build its reputation through their own accomplishments in industry and academia. The best way to learn the value of a Saint Peter’s Jesuit education is from those who have experienced it. Here’s some information about a few English major graduates.

Anne M. Ronan, ’83
Of Counsel, Davis Environmental Law
General Counsel, AlpineFund, LLC.
Majoring in English, I learned how to grind my literary reactions into clear ideas. And writing and re-writing the essays assigned in English classes gave me my first taste of creative flow. I left Saint Peter’s with curiosity, confidence and work habits that help me achieve what I put my mind to. I graduated cum laude from Fordham Law School and clerked for the Supreme Court of New Jersey. From there, I became a senior litigation attorney for a major Wall Street law firm. After that, I took a break from lawyering and wrote a children’s book. Later, I joined a boutique environmental law firm in New Jersey and got an advanced degree in Environmental Law. My work on one environmental case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court and led me to write two books about legal privacy for non-lawyers. Now, I am concentrating on building a class action practice, with a focus on greenwashing and consumer fraud. Recently, I also became General Counsel of a corporation developing a web app intended to encourage real-life, rather than digital, inter-personal communication.

Patrick Caoile, Ph.D. ’18
Visiting Assistant Professor of Literature and Creative Writing
Since graduating as an English major with honors from Saint Peter’s University in 2018, Patrick has continued to pursue a career in higher education and life as a writer. After completing his MA in English from Seton Hall University in 2020 and a Ph.D. in English—Creative Writing from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2023, he was appointed to the faculty at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Literature and Creative Writing. At Hamilton, he teaches introductory and intermediate creative writing courses. Starting this year he’ll also be teaching a first-year course on the Global Gothic. Recently, he received a Poet & Author Fellowship to attend the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing 2024 Summer Writers’ Conference. His work has been featured in storySouth, Porter House Review, the anthology Growing Up Filipino 3, and elsewhere. Read more about Patrick on his website.

Dimana Kornegay ’11, MBA ’14, Ed.D. ’24
Director of Admission and Recruitment Marketing, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Majoring in English was one of the best decisions I ever made in college. Not only was I able to take exciting classes like Gothic Literature, Modern British Novelists, and Shakespeare: from the Page to the Stage, but I also had the opportunity to be taught by brilliant, dedicated, and caring faculty. My experience as an undergraduate student helped me obtain a job in the Office of Admission at Saint Peter’s, where I was Assistant Director of Admission and Communications. I traveled extensively to recruit prospective students and regularly gave presentations to a variety of audiences about the value of a Saint Peter’s education; at the same time I earned an MBA at Saint Peter’s.

Since then I have advanced in the field of higher education, now serving as Director of Admission and Recruitment Marketing at nearby NJIT; however, I have stayed connected with Saint Peter’s the entire time, even earning a third degree from alma mater: an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration. The skills I acquired as an English major at Saint Peter’s are skills that I use every single day – critical thinking, attention to detail, logical and organized thought, and most importantly, the ability to communicate clearly and engagingly. I will always be grateful to the English Department at Saint Peter’s and for that one Fiction core class that opened my eyes to the beauty of English Literature.

Bill Price, ’91
Communications leader at Zoetis, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Lucent Technologies
I like to think of my career as being a corporate storyteller. Every company I have represented has had a story to tell — a message about its image, its industry, its crises and successes. As a communications professional, my English degree has been an incredibly valuable foundation. Whether it is turning a memorable phrase, painting a colorful image, or conveying news in a clear, concise manner, my education plays a role in what I do every day. Reading and enjoying great writers … seeing the world through others’ eyes … learning how to influence, educate and touch people through the written and spoken word. All of these are fundamental and lifelong lessons of studying English.

Robb Santos, ’91
Senior Vice President, Head of Payment Services at BDO Unibank
I often have people ask me how I have gotten this far in my career with a degree that has nothing to do with Finance. At the end of the day, the jobs I’ve held all came down to the comprehension and communication of subject matter, from internal bank processes to the workings of financial markets. Distilling and sharing this information onwards, either verbally or in writing, to my bosses and my teams is a large part of what I do every day. Majoring in English prepared me to do just that. The many poems, short stories, plays and novels that we had to read, re-read, explain and re-explain were vital training for my job today. I’d still choose Poe over private placement memorandums, but the skills applied are largely the same.

Lisette Santiago, ’14
EdTech Adoption Manager
My English major at Saint Peter’s opened doors to diverse career paths, allowing me to explore multiple industries and pursue my passions. After graduating, I acted in a tour of a children’s musical. The experience deepened my appreciation for storytelling, and the ability to engage an audience continues to shape my work today. My passion for education then led me to the classroom, where I spent several years teaching middle school English. I chose to major in English because of my love for reading and analyzing literature, and now I could share that passion with my students—helping them discover the power of storytelling and critical thinking in their lives.

I now work in EdTech as an “Adoption Manager,” delivering training and professional development sessions to teachers. I help schools integrate technology into their classrooms and craft engaging resources and marketing assets. My background in English has been the common thread throughout my career. Majoring in English at Saint Peter’s gave me the analytical skills, adaptability, and communication expertise that continue to serve me in every professional endeavor.

Mary Ann McGuigan, ’72
Author of Young-Adult and Adult Fiction & Freelance Editor: Business/Finance/Wealth Management
Back in the 1960s, when I wanted to major in English, most people I spoke to told me the choice was a bad idea as far as career possibilities were concerned. They were mistaken. Majoring in English taught me to do the one thing that few people — in any profession — can do: write. I’ve worked as an English teacher, a communications consultant, and a magazine and book editor in business and finance. My English degree also gave me the foundation I needed to do the thing I love most — write fiction.