ABOUT ME

My work and school experiences combined with my passion for history and learning have prepared me for a career as a history teacher. Earning a master’s degree in history has allowed me to develop new skills and strengthen others. All aspects of the program have contributed to my growth as a writer and researcher. My experience as a historical researcher is consistent with the view of historian Richard Evans who writes that

“doing historical research is rather like doing a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces are not all present in one box but are scattered over the house in several boxes and where, once it is put together, a significant number of the pieces are still missing. The nature of the resulting picture will depend partly on having some idea of where to look, but the picture’s contours can also be filled in, even when not all the pieces have been located.”

As a historian, I relish the process of researching and seeking out many kinds of historical sources. In the writing process, I enjoy using historical imagination to craft a narrative and fill in the missing pieces to the puzzle.  In my research and writing projects, I have used the lens of family history. I worked with the Shadelands Ranch Museum in Walnut Creek, CA to research and write the family histories of early twentieth-century Japanese American farmworkers in California. My thesis project focuses on my family history and covers the history of the International Settlement in Shanghai, China, and specifically the experiences of mixed-race individuals in a cosmopolitan yet racially segregated culture. These projects have truly improved my research and writing abilities. I have found that using ancestral history shows how much can be learned from the experiences of everyday people. The family history of Japanese American farmworkers broadened the perspectives presented at the Shadelands Ranch Museum. Tracking a family’s history through multiple generations reveals how history can foster a sense of community and identity. In this process, I have developed my skills as a historian, researcher, and writer. 

​

Taking classes on a variety of historical topics has deepened my understanding of history and its usefulness. Throughout my life and especially in my work in the master’s program I am reminded of the endless possibilities that studying history offers. History is an unfinished process, there is always more to discover and more perspectives to consider. I aim to continue a career as a historian and history teacher to share my passion for learning. Participating in and leading discussions has provided me with further exposure to the best practices in teaching and learning about history. Additionally, I have worked as a teaching assistant for undergraduate history courses. As a teaching assistant, I had first-hand experience with leading discussions and providing feedback on student's work and performance. In all my work at the graduate level, I am struck by how history is ultimately about asking questions about our world and how it came to be. As a history teacher, I hope to help others pose questions and develop research, reading, and writing skills that enable them to seek out and develop their own answers to their questions.  My experience in the master’s program has further enabled me to continue to ask questions, seek out sources, and do the work necessary to fill in the missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. I hope in my life and career to help others do the same, to ask their own questions, and using historical processes and a historical imagination begin to fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle. 

(Richard J Evans, In Defense of History, New York: (W.W. Norton & Company, 1999), 77.)