The summer before their senior year, twin sisters Emily and Lauren Lavelle, from the Class of 2007, got a chance to take their verbal skills to the big time as interns in the New York City publishing business. Emily landed an assignment with Random House, doing editorial and production work. Lauren was one of 19 young writers to earn a spot at BusinessWeek Online.

The Saint Mary’s English majors found that their Saint Mary’s writing and communication classes prepared them well for the assignments. “The other interns were from all over—schools like Columbia and Harvard,” said Lauren. “But we were right up there with the best of them.” So where will they be after graduation? “We both want to move back to New York and do something in the publishing, writing, or editing field,” says Lauren. “We made a lot of contacts when we were there.”