Not kidding around about voting
Marquette class inspires student to publish children’s book — A Goat Named Vote
My name is Gwyn Jones, and I am a recent Marquette graduate, former division one volleyball player, and now a published author! After three years of volleyball and school at Auburn University, I graduated with a degree in marketing in 2019. I decided to finish my last year of NCAA eligibility at Marquette and chose to pursue my masters in corporate communication.
As part of my corporate communications program I took Professor Linda Menck’s course in digital creative leadership. It was a project-based course where we also discussed our ideas with our classmates. In one of my previous projects, I had to describe an innovator that I looked up to, and I chose my father. My dad runs a farm of around 300 goats, 15 cattle, and seasonal pigs along with a llama and a donkey who protect the goats from predators. Growing up (and anytime I would come home from college) I would work on the farm with my dad, Paul, and my brother, Garrett.
The lessons instilled in me on the farm were instrumental in making me the person I am today. Professor Menck and my classmates loved my idea of a children’s book that used goats to talk about pertinent issues, and they encouraged me to run with it.
I expand on this in the introduction of the book, but the inspiration for A Goat Named Vote came from a paper I was writing for another one of my graduate courses. I was up late reading through current events and I came across a story of small voices that joined together to affect big change.
Inspiration hit and the words just poured out.
I now had a project, but it was only half done without the illustrations. I wrote to a childhood/ family friend who is a gifted artist and who also reflects the spirit of this book and what it stands for. Rachel Nguyen’s illustrations are thoughtful, fun, and well-done — and they completely brought this story to life.
When I turned in a digital presentation of the book for my final project, Professor Menck sent me one of the nicest emails I have ever received where she encouraged me to move forward with publishing the book. Upon reading this email, I shared it with my parents who were intrigued to see where the book could go.
We showed it to a family friend, Dr. Kevin Sue Bailey, who is a well-respected educator and professional with experience looking over projects like this. She gave us some great feedback and next steps, and was integral in this book coming to fruition. I was interested but still wasn’t sure I wanted to take on a project as big as publishing a book. My dad suggested to my mom that for my 22nd birthday, they should publish the book for me. With my dad’s excitement and my mom’s efficiency and organization, I felt confident that the three of us could do this. We partnered with Butler Books and my publisher, Carol Butler, transformed my 2 am story scribbled in a notebook into what we have now: a beautiful hardcover story of a little goat affecting big change.
I cannot say enough great things about the Diederich College of Communication and the education I received at Marquette. As proven by this book, the professors genuinely care about their students and want to see them succeed. Growing up playing volleyball, I found that I gained confidence through my athletic success. What Marquette did for me is make me confident in my education, my intellectual abilities, and my ability to affect change through writing.
What Marquette did for me is make me confident in my education, my intellectual abilities, and my ability to affect change through writing.
Before I got to Marquette, I was both nervous and excited to take courses where I could work on my writing skills because I knew that writing is a powerful professional tool to have. I wasn’t sure how my writing would measure up compared to my talented classmates because I had not taken a writing course since my sophomore fall of college.
My corporate advocacy professor, Tom Branigan, made us write a lot of papers and he intentionally marked up all of our papers as a feedback tool for us to sharpen our writing skills. His belief in my writing gave me a confidence that carried me through graduate school and all of the papers that came with it, and it is part of what made me confident enough to publish A Goat Named Vote.
Publishing a book is incredibly rewarding, but also very time-consuming. I was lucky to have wonderful helping hands, but there were still a lot of decisions to be made which is why it is so important that you find a publisher you connect with and can trust. Carol wanted the book to be exactly what I envisioned but would also add her own expert input and I trusted her enough to say “this is what I was thinking, but you know best so feel free to change as you see fit.” Make sure that if you’re going to publish a book, you have the time to make those decisions, because when you finally see it all in print, you want it to be exactly what you imagined. If you have the right publisher along with time and energy to pour into your book, you will wind up with even more than you imagined.
Because COVID cut my time at Marquette short, I was only on campus for nine months — but in that short time, I made so many memories on the court, meeting people in my classes, and adventuring around the city of Milwaukee which I now consider another home.
My favorite memory was National Marquette Day. The day before NMD we had our volleyball banquet where we celebrated a great season together. When the banquet was over, a big group of us all piled in a car wearing our dresses and matching Marquette puffer jackets, and we went to the grocery store not realizing how ridiculous we looked. We bought everything to decorate my apartment and have brunch in the morning, then went back and set everything up together. The next morning, we all woke up around 6:00 am and got ready in our tacky outfits and everyone filed into my apartment. I love hosting so it was a big treat for me!
I finished my degree online in August and loved my short time at Marquette. During this time, I also accepted a job with E.J. Gallo Winery in their Sales Leadership Development Program that is set to start later in the fall in Louisville, Kentucky.
