May 13, 2014

To Whom It May Concern,

It is with great pleasure that I write to support Chandler Rybergs application for
an internship. I had the opportunity to observe Chandlers work extensively since she
was a student in both of my classes during the recent spring 2014 semester,
Contemporary America (AMS 231) and Popular Culture in America (AMS 422).
Based on these observations, I can attest without reservation that Chandler is both whip
smart and a phenomenally diligent worker. Indeed, she did not receive a grad below an
A for a single assignment in either of my two classes. In terms of intellectual ability
and maturity, I would thus easily rank Chandler in the top 5% of undergraduate students
that I have encountered during my fifteen years of full-time university teaching.
Both of these courses demand substantial engagement from students in terms of
both reading and writing assignments. In Contemporary America, students must
synthesize connections between wide-ranging material on topics as varied as politics,
economics, social movements, art, film, television, and music as we span the period from
the late 1960s to the present. Chandler mastered this diverse course material
impressively, as evidenced by her nearly flawless performance on all three of the
examsearning the best grade in a class of 35 students on two of these three tests.
Further, students in this course must experiment with three types of research methods for
their written work: primary document analysis, historiography, and ethnography. The
latter two assignments often prove challenging to students who have not previously
worked with these methodologies, but Chandler was more than up to the task. As a clear
indication of her commitment to excellence, she submitted a rough draft of every one of
these papers several days in advance of the due date and then substantially revised her
already-strong drafts based on my feedback to arrive at truly first-rate work in every case.
Likewise, in my upper level, writing intensive course Popular Culture, Chandler
tackled even more substantive reading assignments (roughly 80-100 pages per week on
average) and longer, more ambitious research papers with the same level of
thoroughness. The second of her two papers for this course, in particular, was a model of
blending material from internet, magazine, journal, and interview sources to forge an
original line of argument.
That Chandler is able to balance the commitment to academics that I have
described with the lengthy hours demanded by her membership on the University of
Alabamas swim team leaves me even more impressed with her achievements. She is a
personable and talented individual who will tackle any work task you put in front of her
with care and precision. If you would like any additional information, please feel free to
contact me by email at smorgan@tenhoor.as.ua.edu or by phone at (205) 348-0069.
Sincerely,
Stacy Morgan
Associate Professor
Department of American Studies
University of Alabama