Who I Am

Who I Am:
Professional Information and Bio 

Me with Chancellor Peacock of ASU 

I was born in Durham Regional Hospital in 1987, and haven't left North Carolina since.  My family moved to Raleigh when I was in the tenth grade and I transferred to Leesville Road High School.  It was at this school where I met the two history teachers who would inspire me to become a teacher.  My junior year I was encouraged to look into Appalachian State's education program.  I decided then that Boone was the place for me.  I applied for early admission into the History, Secondary Education program and was accepted.  I've spent four amazing years at Appalachian and I was so lucky to be back at Leesville again with my student teaching assingment.  After three months at LRHS, I travelled to Dublin, Ireland, where I completed my last six weeks of student teaching.  I graduated with Cum Laude honors and an Honor Student Teaching recognition, and I am not afraid to be biased in saying that ASU is the best school out there!

I have always loved studying history.  When I was a little girl, my parents took me and my brother to historic sites all over the country.  My grandmother encouraged me to delve deeper into history and understand why it is important and fascinating.  History and the study of our culture is so important for all of us to learn.  It teaches us who we are as a people, where we came from, and how we can learn from our mistakes.  The past teaches us how to be better citizens of our country and our world.  I have a little story to illustrate:  Within the city limits of Dublin there is a small church called St. Michan's.  St. Michan's is one of the oldest parishes in Dublin with crypts that date back almost 1000 years ago.  Inside of this crypt there are two men buried who took part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798--just two short decades after America's own revolution.  They are called "rebels."  The tour guide there will describe how they failed.  They were captured, hanged, drawn, and quartered (a gruesome process that I am going to spare you the details of if you don’t know them), and placed in the dungeons of a small church.  Had they succeeded and lived, they would have been known not as "rebels" but revolutionaries–as Founding Fathers.  The commited the same treason against Great Britain that our Founding Fathers did.  And had our own Founding Fathers failed, they may have held the same fates as these two men.  But instead, they became writers of the Consititution, Presidents, Secretaries of the Treasury, Senators, and Fathers of a nation.  Many of our Founding Fathers are buried in places of honor, some even above ground. That is poignant.  That is history.