Recent America

My favorite class that I am in right now is a history one called Recent America, 1932-present. It is a 300 level class...and we meet on Thursday nights from 6:30-9:30 p.m. I actually just got out of class. The class consists of one text we read on our own, and our professor, Dr. Lofthus, has created study guides for us to complete each week. We watch videos in class, explore music from the time period, and really generate some intriguing discussions. We also each have to interview someone from the time period, like a WWII Vet (which is what I did). We have a book review and also a huge research project we must all complete.

This year, my research project is a comparison of the welcoming home process and coping process of WWII Vets and Vietnam Vets. I am still working on it, and I hope to have a rough draft done soon. I've read a few books, done a lot of research, and have completed two interviews now. Last year, my paper was about women reporters in Vietnam, and I actually scored interviews with four prominent reporters who reported from Vietnam. So, I actually entered that paper into a history conference at USD.

Tonight, we had a guest speaker in this class (which is another reason why I enjoy the class...we have had a couple of guest speakers now). He brought history alive for me like I haven't experienced a whole lot before. He was a military man who was there when James Meredith was the first black man to attend Ole Miss...he saw it all happen. His stories tonight reassured me I want to be a history teacher...and have my own hand in history someday!