Comparative literature graduate uses over 24 years of industry experience to start two small businesses

Amelia Menk Brown ’96, originally from Poland, Ohio, knew she wanted to attend a small, liberal arts college, but the Independent Study program made The College of Wooster a clear choice. “Independent Study allows intellectual curiosity to be fueled through relationships,” Menk Brown said, “so there was no way another school could hold a candle to what I thought I could do at Wooster.” 

Once she arrived on campus, Menk Brown, then known as Amy Menk, became involved in Student Government. She recalls attending Scot Council meetings, where she acted as one of two student representatives who discussed important issues on campus. Menk Brown graduated in 1996 as a comparative literature major and minored in Spanish and women’s studies. 

Mary Addis, professor emerita of Spanish, and Joanne Frye, professor emerita of English and women’s studies, had an especially significant impact on the way Menk Brown thought about higher education. “I felt like learning was all about answering right, but Mary and Joanne taught me that learning is about thinking. That absolutely changed my life,” she said. The late Fred Cropp, who was a professor of geology during his time at Wooster, also made an impact on her. “I took two classes with Professor Cropp, and it has sparked in me a lifelong love of geology,” she said. “At the time that I was in his class, my stepfather died of cancer. Professor Cropp showed me so much care and support. It was like having a grandfather there.”  

After graduating from Wooster, Menk Brown obtained her master’s degree from the University of Chicago, where she was able to continue her interdisciplinary studies with a focus on post-colonialism. She took a course that was co-taught by Toni Morrison, American novelist and author of Beloved, whom Menk Brown had featured in her senior I.S. “Academically there has not been a stronger, more incredible culmination of all the work that I’ve done than that,” she said. 

After graduate school, Menk Brown worked at McGraw Hill Education, an American educational publishing company, for 19 years. McGraw Hill Education is one of three leading global education companies, working to develop tools for educators and students with a variety of learning needs from pre-K to post-graduate studies. “I ended up learning almost every facet of educational publishing and the educational technology market for K-12,” she said. Though Menk Brown started as a copy editor, she later became a director of product management, where she was responsible for understanding customer needs and innovating solutions which would benefit both McGraw Hill and their consumers. After this, she took her experience from McGraw Hill and applied to lead product teams at both Carnegie Learning and LINQ, two similar learning solutions companies.  

Menk Brown has since decided to take up the mantle and start two businesses of her own. Her first business, Valkyrie Strategic, is a consulting business which offers strategic planning and product development for educational technology companies. Her second business is called MyCited, an audio highlighter and notebook for people who consume information via audio. She is confident that the future is bright for these ventures. “I attribute so much of my pathway to having started at Wooster,” said Menk Brown. “What you learn at Wooster is not knowing the right answer. Knowing the right answer is a finite thing. If you only know that one answer, it’s a box. Being able to critically think is the answer to everything. That is what a liberal arts education gives us.” 

Posted in Alumni on November 6, 2023.