I am a doctoral candidate in the history department at Claremont Graduate University. I am currently entering my fourth and final year of course work under the guidance of Professor Janet Brodie. Additionally, I bring to this position significant experience in teaching. Before beginning the PhD program at CGU I completed a single subject teaching credential in the social sciences at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. As both a student teacher and later a high school teacher I was responsible for organizing and managing a classroom and relaying complex information in a mode appropriate for students at a variety of levels of intellectual development. I believe that I could make an important contribution to your program.
My prior experience speaks to both my diverse research interests and my strong commitment to teaching. After graduating with honors from California State University San Marcos, I began the teaching credential program at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Like all college students I had come in contact with a number of professors that were brilliant thinkers but lacked classroom management and basic teaching skills preventing them from communicating information effectively, a skill which I view as essential to classroom teaching at any level. I therefore decided to devote a year to the fundamentals of classroom instruction before entering into an academic graduate program. Upon completing my credential I moved to my own classroom teaching high school exit exam English. Throughout my time at Claremont I have continued to work in the field of education, tutoring and teaching in a variety of subjects including advanced placement humanities and social sciences, ESL instruction, SAT preparation and teaching at risk students. The diversity of my students and teaching experience has forced me to step outside a narrow historical focus and find creative ways to address a variety of subjects.