NeW at Colorado State University hosted Mary Kate Cary on December 1 for a conversation on her career and accomplishments as a conservative woman. She gave a short summary of different jobs she had throughout her career that got her to where she is today, and also answered lots of questions from chapter members. She was personable from the beginning, which set us up for a wonderful conversation.
Cary began with her college education and experience that got her into writing. She thoroughly enjoyed her news writing 101 class and joined an underground conservative newspaper during her time at the University of Virginia.
After college, she worked long graveyard shifts and became a columnist. Cary very quickly became a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush at the age of 24. She explained her love for the “smaller” speeches she wrote for the president because he loved doing those smaller events.
She never competed for writing speeches like the State of the Union, but her writing voice was still heard and she believed in showing conservative female speechwriters that there is at least one of them out there.
She believes that video is the new medium of storytelling in the media, and also explained what it was like to be an executive producer for 41ON41, a documentary about President George H.W. Bush. Her skills span writing, documentary, podcasts, and political analysis. She gave great encouragement about looking at jobs as a list of skills that you have, not just a fancy title.
Cary gave wonderful advice on how work ethic can change the course of your career as well as finding your way in the professional world after college. Many of our chapter members were inspired to hear her story. Even over Zoom and muted microphones, there were many nodding heads still taking in her wisdom.
The question and answer session covered topics from her favorite speech of all time, to her experience with the underground newspaper on her college campus, to her philosophy on being a conservative in the education system that skews heavily to the left. Cary had a fun yet relaxed energy that made sitting at our computers for another hour enjoyable and deeply educational.
Upon finishing up the call, NeW at Colorado State University members messaged each other in the chat about how lovely she was and how we could have talked to her for several more hours. Even though our members have very different majors, we all understand what it’s like to be a female on a left-leaning college campus and Cary was a huge breath of fresh air after a long semester of distanced and impersonal learning experiences.
This blog was written by Gabby Reichardt, President of NeW at Colorado State University.
