Looking back at Marie Highby’s career, the transition from graduate student to teacher and writer seemed an almost inevitable shift. Highby, one of the luminaries of the Professional Development Center’s (PDC) faculty, is testimony to the quality and integrity of staff teaching at PDC. For more than 15 years, she has offered her expertise in the form of teaching and mentoring to undergraduates, adult learners and working professionals seeking to enhance their career goals.
After graduating from Duke University with a master’s degree in English literature, she entered the competitive market of the early seventies apprehensive and hopeful. A young woman who had been through a changing decade was embarking on a new stage in life. The civil rights movement, the feminist movement and President Kennedy’s Peace Corps initiative had been hallmarks of the 1960s. Indeed, the 1970s represented changing times in which some of these principles would be tested and put to use. Determined to succeed, Highby found herself working as a marketing writer for a financial investment firm. At not quite 26, she was diving into the intricacies of endowments and pension funds while taking economics and accounting classes at Harvard University.
“That was amazing growth opportunity for me. For the first time, I was exposed to the business world and how we negotiate with language on a daily basis as working professionals.” While she enjoyed learning about asset allocation and pension plans, Highby observed a disturbing trend which haunted her as she progressed and changed careers. “I was astounded by the quality of language used by senior level executives. I could sense a real lack of comprehension of the structure and usage of language at a very basic level. I had always thought of pronoun matching as basic grammar, but some of the memos I read suggested otherwise.”
After several years in the work force, Marie decided go back for an MBA, which she considered a both practical and innovative degree. At the University of Virginia, she honed her writing skills and thrived within the business school’s case method curriculum. Case method pedagogy emphasizes three core areas: classroom participation, supervised business courses and a writing-intensive subcurriculum to emphasize absorption. Influenced by this method of teaching, today she credits this philosophy in her own teaching and prefers a business school format in teaching courses at PDC. She encourages students to participate in classroom discussions and engage in the subject matter.
Once again facing the ever changing market in 1981, Highby found herself as a financial manager in the Golden State. She stayed at Bank of America until her layoff five years later. Ready to reinvent herself once again, Highby decided to go back to her original career path of choice: teaching.
“I like advising students and knowing I can make a difference in their lives. Teaching is a profession that truly allows you to do that.” Hired as a professor the day before classes began, Highby joined the English department at San José State University teaching freshman composition to undergraduates. In a matter of a few years, she was managing the technical writing classes at the university as well as the Technical Writing and Communication (soon to change to Management Communications and Technical Writing) program at the Professional Development Center. In the late 1990s, she decided to make this PDC program the focus of her growing commitment to the importance of lifelong learning.
“I’ve always believed that writing well can be a precursor to speaking well and conveying your point of view assertively. Good writing aids clear thinking. In a competitive job market, having strong writing skills allows you to position yourself as a lucrative asset to a company.” She continues, “For professional writers and editors, in particular, this is the certificate to pursue.”
Highby would have done the classical theorists proud. The art of rhetoric and the written word lives...especially for those of us who want to make a living at it.