As a kid, Alanda Jackson always had her nose in a book. English was her favorite subject in high school, where she filled her schedule with AP English and creative writing courses. When it came time to decide on a major at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee — her top-choice university — English was the obvious pick.
“I’ve always liked writing and reading,” she said. “Anything to do with literature, I’ve always had a deep love for.”
But during her junior year at UWM, Jackson fell in love with a new subject: technology. In 2026, she graduated with dual bachelor’s degrees in English and information science and technology (IST). Pursuing both paths has helped her become a leader who can bridge the gap between two fields that seem drastically different on the surface.
In Jackson’s world, English and technology are natural complements.
“A lot of the stuff that I’ve learned in my English degree really correlates to what I do in tech,” Jackson says.
From English to IST
It was during a required English 310 class on science communication that Jackson first discovered her passion for technology. She recalls learning about the Internet of Things, a concept that explains how physical devices connect to each other through the internet.
Then, together with students in other majors ranging from engineering to architecture, she was tasked with researching solutions to protect coral reefs from pollution. She saw firsthand how her writing and reading skills helped her synthesize vital scientific information and present it to a new audience.
“From that class, I kind of got deeper into the technological sphere,” Jackson said. She added a second major in IST after a conversation with her academic advisor – and from there, new opportunities started to crop up.
Leading FeminIST
In 2024, Jackson was invited by classmate Autumn Dismukes to help lead FeminIST, a student organization for women in technology to network and learn from industry leaders. Jackson was drawn to the mission of helping people who were new to IST gain experience and build connections in a competitive field where it’s hard to get noticed.
“(I wanted to have) an input in the type of activities or the type of opportunities we were going to create for people,” she said.
Together with Dismukes and classmate Dalina Jonuzi, Jackson plans activities and brings speakers to campus so students can learn about the speakers’ careers in tech. Team members from Sentry, a software company, and Clarios, a battery manufacturer based in Glendale, Wisconsin, visited in 2025.
During their visit, Clarios brought several employees to discuss their work. Jackson said that a few students shared that hearing about such experiences firsthand made it easier for them to picture what actually working in an IT setting looks like day-to-day. “It was really cool to see what people took away from it at the end of it,” she added.
Building connections
Jackson found another natural intersection between her English and tech skills during a 2025 internship with nonprof-IT. The UWM program provides nonprofit organizations in the Milwaukee area with student-led tech support.
Jackson worked with a local audiology clinic, HEAR Wisconsin, to improve their digital marketing strategy. She spent the bulk of her time setting up a new social media marketing system for the clinic and writing posts about them for different social media platforms.
For Jackson, getting to work one-on-one with a client to address their unique problems was the highlight of the internship. “Connecting with people is one of the things that I really like about IST,” she said.
The experience also helped her discover what kind of career she wants to pursue. With her bachelor’s degrees in hand, Jackson envisions herself working in user experience (UX) design, making software programs more accessible and enjoyable for users.
Specifically, she sees herself working as a liaison between clients and software development teams, which would be the perfect way to pair her English and IST skills together. “I have a lot of passion for both,” Jackson said.
