Alumni Spotlight: Camryn Brewer, Class of ’25

What are you up to right now?

I left LA the day after graduation to move to New York and start my job in brand strategy at an advertising agency called Translation. We work on clients like McDonald’s, LEGO, NBA, and more to help them understand how they can better tell their brand story to their target audiences. My day to day consists of researching culture (what are people doing, saying, believing, struggling with), competitors (what is the rest of the category doing and how can the brand move differently), and the company (what can they uniquely own as a part of their story). And then I strategize a path forward. It’s a lot like researching, outlining, and arguing a thesis.

How did your Narrative Studies major prepare you for the challenges and opportunities in your current field?

I’ll always say that some people say a liberal arts degree teaches you how to think; I believe it teaches you how to have an opinion. And I’m adamant about this. There is nothing more valuable in every single field (business, art, advertising, science), and then learning how to share your opinion with the people you work with based on informed critical thinking. This is what our department celebrates. The attention to detail, thoroughness, hunger to understand, all of these things are what propel me through challenges in my everyday work and set me apart. Don’t be afraid to have opinions, even when you’re early in your career — especially when you’re early in your career. Do your research, know all you can, and always have an opinion.

Based on your experiences, what advice would you give to students feeling uncertain about their post-graduation path?

The best thing you can do during college is explore what strengths you have that make you stand out — that’s how you’ll know what your purpose is. When I was a freshman, I wasn’t quite sure what job I wanted to have after school, but I knew I was a great writer who had a keen sense for the cultural underpinnings of the way our world ticks. I knew I wanted to learn about groups of people and tell their stories. And then knowing my strengths I explored where I wanted to apply them most — I worked in food journalism, magazine production, and eventually brand strategy. In every single role, even though they may look different on paper, I was researching groups of people and telling their stories. Now that’s my career. The world will only benefit from you using your gifts to move people in a positive way.

Are there any specific courses, professors, or resources within the English department or USC that you’d highly recommend to current students?

The first course I would say is a must take is Professor Bea’s ENGL 270: Studying Narrative. It wasn’t a major requirement when I was coming through, so I just happened to take it because it sounded interesting. Little did I know it would give me such a strong foundation in the mechanics of narrative and show me that narratology really is a science just as much as it is an art. But now the class is required so you’re lucky! The second thing I would say is it’s so important, in my opinion, for English majors to explore the Anthropology and American studies departments! Especially for me, because if we could declare concentrations in our major, mine definitely would have been something like “Cultural Geography.” Those departments allowed me to take classes like Professor LaBennett’s African American Popular Culture and Professor Jacobs’ “African American Humor and Culture.” Having an ethnographical lens on narrative really colored my studies in such an interesting way and really allowed me to be a student of people.