About

Back home,

in Nebraska on my father's ranch, was where I learned to endure grit and trial, chopping weeds, herding cattle and bearing the brunt of flying hooves while branding. The men would mostly yell at girls when they helped. We often got hurt, trampled and knocked about. This life sent me on my feet heading elsewhere; decades later, the memories of the cattlemen, their tattered hats, lean frames and pipe tobacco are filtered with sorrow. The cowboys I knew are all buried.

Image Source: Flickr, Before Its Time, 2008.

During that time away, I spent too many years pursuing education. After earning a bachelor's degree in psychology and business administration from Briar Cliff College, I went on to earn a master's degree in marketing at Texas A&M University. I spent a few years working in the field of business administration  before returning to the university to earn a master's degree in English literature at the University of South Dakota.While I studied, I also worked as a counselor at the Nebraskan Indian Community College in Santee, NE. I went on to complete my course work for a PhD in English Literature at the University of Cincinnati. Raising a young family and having the opportunity to live in Europe waylaid my plans to complete the degree.

At Penn State University, I taught English 15, Freshman Rhetoric and Composition; English 202C, Technical Writing; and English 202D, Business Writing.    I've developed two other course websites using the Penn State blogs platform, 202D Business Writing Remix and La101H Rhetoric and Civic Life. I am currently a World Campus lecturer. In addition, I have an online teaching portfolio, Jeanette Novakovich: Portfolio. In terms of my writing life, I've edited two books and published essays and photographs from my travels.

Recently, I wandered north across the border and now reside in Montreal Canada.  At Concordia University, I teach a number of courses and am in the process of developing new course websites.

During my summers, I return back home. Now, it's only women, my mother and daughter. Together, we pass our days sifting through sandy creeks for fossils and polka dancing.

Jeanette Novakovich