Scholar Spotlight
A prolific writer of poetry and song, Nate is a dynamic speaker and isn't shy about performing in front of an audience.
Erica Naone
"I have often felt I had to choose between my creative side and my analytical side. When I discovered science writing, I no longer felt obliged to choose. Science writing, as I would study and practice it, is popular science writing. It is writing about advanced scientific matters for a general audience."
- Alumni of: 2006 Graduate Scholarship Program
- Resides: Allston, MA
- Hometown: Kaneohe, HI
- Age: 30
- Four-year College or University: St. John's College
- Graduate School: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Academic/Career Pursuits: Arts / Music / Performance, Astronomy, Classics, Computing / IT, Film, Liberal Arts, Literature, Mathematics, Philosophy, Social Science / Anthropology, Writing / Journalism
- Other Interests: Church / Religious Organization, Literature, Tutoring / Mentoring, Volunteer Work, Music
Biography
Erica Naone took refuge in books when family life was hard, reading for hours atop the roof of her house in Kaneohe, Hawaii. She excelled academically but remained isolated in life. Writing provided her "the guidance of a creative force that is greater than myself." She went to St. John's College to immerse herself in the school's Great Books program but left after a year, deciding she could read on her own and devote more time to math calculations if she did not have to argue about Socrates' ideas on censorship.
The way back to scholarship involved playing guitar in a punk rock band and a friend who persuaded her "that I did not have to run so hard from myself." She learned to "grow gently from mistakes" and to not "let myself get so alone." Her friends encouraged her to use her talents and she flourished as a reporter for a small-town Florida newspaper. Three years after she left, she returned to St. John's, and was a changed person.
She excelled in the St. John's college community. She won top prizes in math and also proved extraordinarily able to help others get over math anxiety. In class, she inspired rather than intimidated less gifted students. She wants to bring that same talent to science writing. She looks forward to pursuing her own curiosity-about dinosaurs, non-Euclidean geometry, Antarctica, and humpback whales-but is committed to writing for the general public, to help "the non-scientist see the wonder a scientist sees in the world."
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