Thea Goodrich

Always a bookworm, Thea Goodrich is editor at W. W. Norton & Company, managing the Norton Critical Editions and Norton Library and a graduate of Kenyon College.

She shared that Great Books Summer Program helped not only preparing for college but that the skills she fostered at Great Books still help her today.

Thea said, “My time as a Great Books camper was not only an introduction to dorm life that made college seem less scary, but also the proof I needed that there were bookworms like me in the world—shy teenagers who just needed smaller spaces than high school in which to bloom. As a camper I swallowed my fear to read aloud poems I had written during elective, and a few years later as a PA I encouraged other creative young people to do the same, coming ever further out of my own shell along the way.

Today in my work on undergraduate textbooks in the humanities, I often engage with texts I first encountered at camp. The close reading (and public speaking!) skills I learned there have served me well in college and my career, but I’m most grateful for the ways that GBSP helped this introvert push the boundaries of her comfort zone beyond books.”