First Year of Graduate School Recap

As the first day of class ended yesterday at California State University, Los Angeles it marks the beginning of my final year in the MA program here. My first year of graduate school was challenging but also rewarding on so many levels. I first decided to enroll in a Master's program to further develop my reading and writing skills en route to a Ph.D. program. In the Fall I only enrolled in two courses, to properly adjust to the expectations of a graduate program. The first course HIST 5000? was an Introduction to Graduate Study in History and introduced me to the various faculty members in the department as the goal was to read each week a piece of their work. The second course was Modern Latin America, which mainly focused on Chile in the twentieth century taught by Angela Vergara . This course opened my eyes to the Pinochet dictatorship, the 09/11 of 1973, Labor rights, Revolution, Neoliberalism, and Transnational repression. During the Fall semester, I also served as a Thesis Reviewer with the California State University, Los Angeles Graduate Resource Center on campus allowing me to prepare and understand the expected formatting at the graduate level for various disciplines.

In the Spring semester, I decided to challenge myself with three courses. I enrolled in HIST 4970, 5750, and 5940. HIST 5750 was U.S. History in Transnational and International Perspective with historian Chris Endy . Dr.Endy has been an important piece to my development as a graduate student. The course was flexible as we were able to choose some of our readings (with some voting among the class). Some of the ideas covered were US Imperialism, Bananas (far more nuanced than just the word), Diplomacy, Networks, and a focus on transnational or international perspectives. Dr.Endy is a resource for those trying to understand history on a larger scale. He’s created a glossary of historiographic terms. As someone who thought historiographic and historiography were fake words, his help with creating a glossary has been fundamental to my development. I would also like to praise one of the handouts that was given during class which explained How to Read Like a Historian. I still use it and plan to use it this semester.

Mini-Side Quest

To those of you who know me personally, you know I love to run. In March, I ventured out on running the LA Marathon for a second time. While I won't share my time (you can find it online if you care that much), I was proud and very sore the following day. I added this section to highlight a work-life balance, especially in graduate school. Sign up for those fun and daunting tasks when you can. Challenge yourself!

HIST 5940 was one of the most challenging courses I’ve ever taken. The goal of the course was to produce a written research project of your choosing. Angela Vergara was a great resource in this course as she helped me choose my primary and secondary sources as her expertise is Latin America. Dr.Vergara helped me identify a topic of interest that focused on a mine strike in Cananea, Mexico before the Mexican Revolution of 1910, but close enough in time to have national implications as a result. I hope to use this research paper as my writing sample in the coming months.?

HIST 4970 was a course that was open to graduate students and undergraduate students with the purpose of editing and publishing the academic journal CSU LA Perspectives sponsored by Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society and is published every spring semester. On the first day of class, I decided to be one of three Editor-In-Chiefs of the journal. The process of reading submissions from the diverse student population was a fun and interesting experience for me. We received about 22 submissions but only published 6 articles in Vol.51 of Perspectives. As Editor-In-Chief of Perspectives, I took on the role of helping organize and moderating the Third Annual Perspectives Conference which was hosted via Zoom on April 25th, 2024. HIST 4970 also enabled me to become a published author as I was able to publish a book review on Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands. Perspectives and Phi Alpha Theta hosted a launch event which can be found here. It was a surreal feeling seeing the printed copy of countless hours of work from the 4970 Class. Serving as Editor-In-Chief of Perspectives was an invaluable experience and was instrumentally important to my development in reading and copy-editing as a graduate student.?Thank you to Pfleger Birte , for her guidance during this course.

During the Spring Semester, I had the privilege of being selected as a Fellow of the Berkeley History PhD Pipeline Program. The Program aims to empower a new generation of historians and scholars who are members of historically excluded and under-represented communities. Participating in the weekly Zoom meetings was the highlight of my week, as they aimed to demystify graduate school and the application process, while also having faculty members discuss the work that a professional historian might do daily. I am currently paired as a part of the fellowship with Historian Rebecca Herman who has been a great resource in helping me select schools for the upcoming application cycle. Thank you to the amazing staff at the Berkeley History PhD Pipeline program who helped me further my desire to obtain a PhD.

This upcoming semester is an exciting one for me as I will be serving as a Graduate Assistant in an undergraduate US History course. I was also recently selected as a Prospective Ph.D. Preview Scholar (P3) at Princeton, where I will have the privilege of networking with scholars like me and attending workshops on their New Jersey campus. I will also be serving as President of Phi Alpha Theta hoping to promote a social and academic community with graduate and undergraduate students.

At Cal State Los Angeles, I was recently selected as a recipient of the Alumni Association Scholarship, I wanted to highlight the struggle to obtain this scholarship. This past summer, I worked at a grocery store I will not name. I had obtained the interview dates available, but they all coincided with my work shifts. I emailed the organizer and asked for a different time. I was granted a special date and time, however it still overlapped with my work shift. I essentially had to beg and plead with the supervisor to be able to take this online Zoom interview that lasted only twenty minutes. It was a relief to hear back and see that the scholarship had been awarded to me. This random story but important to me, highlights my desire and want to succeed in my education, as well as helping others to understand the importance of access to education as a whole. Another short story from this past school year, I was made aware of this amazing scholarship opportunity and started working on it as early as December, but by May I had learned that I was not selected for the scholarship. As heartbroken as I was, I realized that the universe had different plans for me. Take rejection as a way to redirect yourself!?

I hope to recap the end of the next academic school year on a positive note, however, sometimes the universe does not work like that. To those who are applying to graduate schools this upcoming cycle, I wish you the best of luck! I hope to serve as a resource for those who are. If anyone is interested in talking about applications feel free to reach out, or about the 美国加州大学伯克利分校 History Pipeline, or 美国普林斯顿大学 P3 Program. Until next time, Linkedin people.?