If you have ever browsed a selection of cards produced by American Greetings, you may have read the words of Jessica Dolce, Class of 1999. For more than three years, she has supplied poetic sentiments and brief witticisms for greeting cards displayed in retail stores across the country.

Dolce loves her job because it affords many opportunities for creativity and fun. But writing successful cards isn't easy. A good greeting card needs to capture a sentiment, but it also has to appeal to hundreds of thousands of potential buyers. "You have to find a universal expression," Dolce says.

Dolce sharpened her gift for clever wordplay as an English major at Kenyon. She was a student associate at the Kenyon Review, where she coordinated the Writers' Harvest program, and she served as poetry editor of Hika, the student literary magazine. "Kenyon was a great experience for my literary development, for getting involved in all sorts of different aspects of literature," she says.

When Dolce first started working at American Greetings, she devoted all of her time to actually writing. Two years ago, she became the lead editor overseeing the descriptions printed on the boxes of several hundred products in the company's multimillion-dollar Christmas ornament line.

Dolce also works with a number of other special product lines. She was one of three people who created Bachelorette Boutique, a collection of bachelorette-party supplies that is being rolled out nationally. And she has begun working on Winking Moon and Tremont Studios, two trendy card lines rolled out in early 2005.

For Dolce, sending a greeting card is quite literally a personal gesture. She often sends friends or family members cards that she herself wrote. "I always autograph the backs now," she laughs. "They get such a kick out of that."