Where are you from?
I’m from Lihue, Hawaii, on the island of Kauai.
What drew you to history and political science as your fields of study?
I’m quite interested in how humans choose to organize their societies, how people understand themselves and the world they live in, and how that impacts their social relations. I think both history and political science offer insights into those issues. History as a discipline allows me to study past cultures and learn more about how people understood their own world, how that relates to us today, and what insights they can offer with regard to how people broadly are able to live together. Political science offers theoretical and analytical perspectives on political problems I’m interested in. Additionally, I appreciate that both fields are so broad. Even if there’s a particular historical era or political science subfield that I’m not interested in, there are at least ten times as many that I find fascinating, and studying these disciplines allows me to broaden my scope of knowledge considerably.
What has been your experience as a student of both the College of Liberal Arts and the Honors College?
I’ve loved both! I appreciate that the Honors College allows me to take colloquia classes on subjects that I otherwise would never have gotten any experience with, such as theater, visual culture, and biomedical ethics. Similarly, I’ve enjoyed just about every class I’ve taken in CLA. I think CLA has fantastic professors who really enjoy teaching and engaging with their students, and it’s been amazing to be a part of that environment.
Have you started your honors thesis? If yes, what’s the topic and/or focus of your research? If not, are you considering any ideas so far?
I have started my thesis already! I’ll be writing about marriage and coverture in the Early American Republic, using runaway wife advertisements as my source base. It’s a topic that combines a lot of my interests: politics, freedom vs. domination, public vs. private spheres and the conflation of the two, and American history.
What have been some of your favorite classes taken?
I’ve loved every history class I’ve taken. To narrow it down a bit more, I took a series on colonial America, the American Revolution, and Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy that I had great experiences in. The subject matter was interesting, the professor was fantastic, and all of my classmates engaged in the material in really productive and intelligent ways. I’ve also taken a class on the history of modern Germany and another class on Hitler’s Europe that were similarly fascinating and well-taught. I think those classes both taught me a lot about the specific eras they were focusing on while also shaping my perspective on history as a discipline more broadly.
What are you hoping to do after you graduate?
After I graduate, I’m planning on attending law school. I’m interested in union-side labor law, although maybe I’ll be surprised and end up in some other field instead!
How do you feel that your experience in CLA and HC is setting you up for success?
Both CLA and HC allow their students to develop their interests both in and outside of the classroom, which I think helped me to learn more about what I was interested in and get a better understanding of what I’d like to pursue in the future. Additionally, both colleges, especially the HC, offer extracurricular and career opportunities that help students to get experience in the workforce and develop their resume, which has been helpful to me. One of my jobs is through the Special Collections and Archives Research Center at Valley Library, which is a job I got through the HC!