The Cogan Fellow of 2018, Melissa B Lareau ’03, claimed at the Annual Cogan Fellowship lecture that an English degree can help people do “anything you want.”

Lareau discussed her life experiences and how they lead to the creation of her business, Dirt Revolution. She started off by discussing her education at Dickinson, and how powerful a degree in English can be. She attacked numerous misconceptions that can come with English degrees, one of them being that it is difficult to find a job after graduation. She claimed that good communication skills and effective writing skills are integral abilities in the workforce.

Lareau then discussed her experiences during and after college and how that affected who she is today.

“It is the unexpected that truly drives us forward,” she explained, citing her mother’s drug overdose in the process. She also told of how, while continuing her education in Britain, she received a message saying that her mom was found homeless and weighing 75 pounds. Lareau chose to come back to work at a Whole Foods in New Orleans.

After Hurricane Katrina, she was displaced and began her work helping others. Lareau emphasized that despite these unforeseeable events, she was still able to complete her masters in 2005 and start her business: Dirt Revolution.

According to the company’s website, “Dirt Revolution provides services, tools and resources to people who want to participate in environmental healing, make the world’s soil better and have real food to feed themselves and their loved ones.”

Lareau said she chose this business model because soil is the intersection between the environment and food supply. Through her business, she advises people on how to help themselves produce agricultural products, and has the capacity to reverse and prevent further deterioration of the environment. Besides providing personalized food growing plans, vermiculture, providing soil testing and site-specific consultations, Lareau has also started to educate high school and elementary school kids on the importance of soil.

There were over sixty people in attendance. Paige Baisley ’20 said “I was expecting more focus on her current business and the environmental aspects of that. I was really surprised…The way she spoke was just very open and passionate…[and I learned that] if you don’t end up doing what you study, it’s perfectly fine, because [Dickinson] is teaching you life skills.”

According to the English department’s website, “Each spring, the English department invites a graduate back to campus to share his or her life and work experiences with current students, and to reacquaint him or herself with programs in the department and at the college” to give the Cogan Alumni Fellowship lecture. Lareau spoke on Monday, Feb. 26, 2018.