Congratulations are in order!
One of the Crow team’s undergraduate research assistants, Adrienne Henson, will be graduating from North Carolina State University (NCSU) in December 2025. With her Bachelor’s of Arts in English in one hand—and minor in Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication in the other—she intends to enter the workforce to pursue writing-centric career opportunities.
Adrienne joined the Crow team in Fall 2024 alongside her co-researcher and best friend, Chloe Hunt. Together, they were taken under the wing of Dr. Michelle McMullin, whose mentorship has helped grow both of them as writers, professionals, and individuals. Adrienne has deepened her love for professional writing, realizing the expansive potential of writing as a career field, during the year-and-a-half she has spent as a Crowbird.
“Crow showed me there’s so many different things you can do with writing as a career,” she says.
This discovery process blossomed into a professional portfolio of works that she has contributed to Crow. Adrienne’s personal favorite that she worked on as a Crow researcher is the writecrow.org website revamp. Alongside recent graduate Sarah Buwick, she helped build many of the static webpages comprising the site’s frontend. In doing this, she has not only strengthened her content writing skills, but learned a variety of technical skills like content management, media integration, and UX design—all as a result of developing with WordPress. What Adrienne has enjoyed most while working on the Crow website is diving into a large ongoing project, getting hands-on, and working collaboratively with writers to achieve the team’s goals.
Her collaborative efforts also include an online presentation she delivered for a snowed-in Old Dominion University Spring Conference on the Teaching of Writing. Assisting Dr. Larissa Goulart from Montclair State, Dr. Aleksandra Swatek from Old Dominion, and Dr. McMullin has helped Adrienne learn how to edit, design, and present in formal professional writing settings. And her work doesn’t stop there: Adrienne remembers writing her first blog post highlighting developments in Crow corpora during her first few months. From interviewing fellow Crowbirds, to drafting and editing the article, and finally publishing it, every moment taught her what a professional writer can be.
Recently, Adrienne has been grant writing. “The most fun I’ve had this semester,” she says, “was me, Chloe, and Professor McMullin working together on the Wolfpack Women in Philanthropy grant, figuring out in our meetings how we wanted funding, finding the grant, and fitting into the grant as an organization.” Their hope with this grant is to get funding to bring Crow workshops to NCSU!
When Adrienne isn’t working with Crow, you’ll likely find her behind the counter at your local coffee shop. As a longtime barista, she has loved coffee and serving it to her community—no matter if it’s at NCSU or at home. “I’ve gone back to it every opportunity I can,” she says. Sometimes she even calls her manager during breaks to take an extra shift while at home. “I love working with customers and getting to know people.” But an avid coffee lover feels incomplete without a book in hand. Fortunately, Adrienne loves reading just as much as coffee, and is why she became an English major! This Dune aficionado enjoys science fiction, fantasy, classics, and literary fiction. Reading, to Adrienne, is an artform. Thoughtful analysis and nuanced note-taking have built her into an excellent reader that informs her equally-as-excellent writing ability.
With her time at Crow coming to a close, Adrienne wishes to express her deepest gratitude to Chloe and Dr. McMullin. In particular, Chloe has been an invaluable co-researcher and an even better friend. Over the past year-and-a-half together, they’ve learned so much at Crow. Dr. McMullin has been an exemplary mentor, guiding and nurturing Adrienne’s professional writing, communication, and research skills.
Everyone at Crow wishes Adrienne the best in all of her future endeavors!