My name is Dr. Lori Beth De Hertogh, and I’m the Graduate Program Director.

With an academic and industry background in scientific and technical communication, I bring to our program a focus on career advancement and academic knowledge through graduate education. I’m excited about your interest in our program and would love to tell you more about us!

When you join The WRTC Graduate Program, you become part of a supportive, high-energy community of faculty and students who are dedicated writers and content creators. 

Through coursework, community engagement projects, teaching, and internships, our students develop skills that prepare them for careers in every kind of profession. Our graduates, for example, have secured positions at The White House, Shakespeare Theatre Company, iDE Global, The Smithsonian Institution, No Starch Press, Young African Leaders Initiative, The Shenandoah National Park Trust, NBCUniversal, and Stryker Medical, just to name a few. Graduates who wish to continue their education often enter doctoral programs with full tuition funding. 

Here are just a few things that make the WRTC MA program unique: 

• Graduate Assistantships. We offer graduate assistantships to cover tuition and provide a stipend to qualified applicants. Assistantships take a variety of forms from creating digital content, to teaching first-year writing, to working with faculty on research projects. 
  
  
• Design & Technological Skills. Our students do more than just write—they also build skills in digital storytelling, publication management, content strategy, user experience, and more. 
  
  
• Optional Public & Professional Writing and Health & Science Writing Tracks. Students can either customize their own coursework experience or pursue more focused work in one of our tracks.
  
  
• Career Support. We help students use what they learn in our program to secure jobs that match their skills and interests. We achieve this through close mentorship, career advising, job application guidance, and conference travel support.
  
  
• Students From All Majors. Students come to us from diverse fields of study including science, English, sociology, business, education, writing studies, psychology, journalism, and more.
  
  
• Small Cohorts. We accept no more than 10-12 applicants to ensure small class sizes and one-on-one mentorship.
  
  
• Internship or Thesis. Students can choose between an internship at an organization of their choice or write a research-based thesis.

When you become a part of our program, you are more than just a student. You are also part of the WRTC family. That means we are here to support you, mentor you, and cheer you on as you build the writing career you’ve always dreamed of.

I’m happy to answer your questions. Feel free to reach out at dehertlb@jmu.edu for more information.