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Mr. David Halk (BA 2009)

"The mastery of language cannot be outsourced."

     “The Rhetoric and Professional Writing diploma has really become the backbone of my survival in the workforce,” says David Halk (BA 2009), who describes his time at UW as unconventional. Even his entrance into the English program differed from the norm, since it was essentially unplanned. Throughout his adolescence, David never aspired to be an English student; in fact, if asked during his teenage years for a wish list of university degrees, “you would have found English near the bottom.”

     However, UW is not a school known for stubborn traditionalism; on the contrary, it’s home to the unconventional. David came to find the unique Rhetoric stream of the English program surprising and fascinating. He was astonished to receive higher marks in English Rhetoric courses than in any other class in first year, when he was sampling the offerings of several disciplines in the Arts. Advised by friends and professors to enter the RPW stream of English, he quickly gained a passion for the subject, particularly the history of rhetoric from ancient to modern times. He also excelled at 300 and 400-level media courses because they allowed him to integrate advertising for his band into the assignments themselves. He says the value of these courses to present-day students is greater than most other types of English classes because they “speak to the reality of students’ lives and let them incorporate their own passions into them.”

     David’s most memorable moment in a class was when he and a group had to present an application of Marshall McLuhan’s dictum that “the Medium is the Message.” His group’s presentation involved a “multi-modal attack that used an animated Oprah Winfrey, sexualized robotics, absurd audio and video editing, and just an overall vibe of creepiness.” Evidently, the presentation succeeded at supporting McLuhan’s theory: the class was disturbed less by the content of the presentation and more by the media used to present that content. Academic life was not always fun and games for David, however. His antics sometimes got him into trouble, and more than once he was compelled to redo assignments, essentially doubling his workload.

     Upon graduation in April 2009, David benefitted almost immediately from his RPW studies, gaining a $50,000 grant for his parents’ business merely through his ability to persuade. He also secured production contracts equalling over $200,000 for PixelLab Interactive, an online development and consulting agency. Today, David teaches English in a Francophone school in a small town north of Montreal. He has always had a passion for Quebecois culture, and often wished he could speak French; by moving to Quebec, he is able to learn more about both.

     David offers this advice to current and future English students: “don't be afraid to let your passions guide your educational choices.” This was one of his trade secrets as a student; assignments in which he involved some of his personal interests were often the assignments on which he achieved the highest grades. If asked to promote the study of English, David would point out that English grads often have some of the most stable jobs in an increasingly globalized world, simply because “the mastery of language cannot be outsourced.”