I kind of want to throw it back to when
we were all little this is little me so
when you were younger everybody asked
you you know what do you want to be when
you grow up and most people said like
doctor or astronaut or nurse or
accountant or kind of those kind of
things but I told everybody that I
wanted to own a shoe shop because I
loved shoes so I was like let’s do that
so I was super excited about that but
then kind of the pressure started to set
in and I went to high school and I
realized that maybe owning a shoe shop
isn’t the best thing that I could do
with my life and that pressure kind of
came from high school when you had all
your friends asking like were you going
to college and get all your high school
teachers saying you should go do this
and your friends wanted to go to college
with you and your parents wanted you to
get a career that was going to make you
a lot of money I didn’t do that but out
of all this pressure and out of all this
stress and I didn’t know what to do
about it
I turned to my sister she’s 10 years
older than me the older cooler wiser one
and I kind of asked her when I needed to
do in this situation because I was
freaking out and she said well why don’t
you just pick something that you enjoy
like I don’t know I didn’t think of that
so she was like you’re gonna be spending
every single day for four years studying
this thing and it’s gonna be your whole
life and you have a choice in what it is
so why not pick something that is good
and that you’re gonna actually enjoy and
that you’re gonna have a passion for so
that wasn’t my breakthrough moment but I
like to say it’s my epiphany moment
where I was like I don’t know why I
didn’t just think about that you know
everyone gives you all these pressures
and what you should be doing but if you
have a choice then why not enjoy it so
now that I knew I needed to pick
something I like I had to think about
well what do I like so I had already
been studying French for 4 years in high
school so I knew I was gonna do French
but I wanted to add something else onto
that so I knew that I liked talking to
people I liked meeting new people in
different cultures and I liked history
so I googled that all together and the
word anthropology came up and I was like
aunt anthropophaga anthropology and then
I picked Wesleyan because it was close
and it missed my parents so Wesleyan and
anthropology came together and I was
super excited I was like I’m gonna do
this I’m gonna do manthra Paula G and I
remember I went to kind of like a
neighborhood party in my neighborhood
and everybody got to go around and say
where they were going for college and
what they were studying and I was so
excited to say anthropology and then the
lady across the table laughed at me and
said I’ll see you working at McDonald’s
and I was like okay well so I was gonna
prove her wrong and I was going to study
the crap out of anthropology and that’s
what I did
so I came to Iowa in fall of 2013 super
nervous I was like I don’t even know
what anthro is I don’t know what I’m
doing but I’m just gonna do it so I was
starting to get a little nervous kind of
about where this was going because I
just focused on my gen Ed’s first my
French classes first and I just ignored
all those nervous feelings and I studied
abroad so I studied abroad in Rennes
France and it was like the most amazing
experience of my whole life but that can
kind of be a whole talk on its own but I
studied abroad I got on my french out of
the way and ignored whatever
anthropology was and then I got back to
campus and then because I fish my gen
Ed’s and I finish on my French credits
it was kind of my time to go into anthro
and again I was feeling nervous because
sometimes just studying the skulls on
the side of the table but then sometimes
it’s looking at your own cultures and
your own tribes so I was like let’s just
let’s just do this anthro thing so I did
and then think I actually fell in love
with it and I was like I did pick the
right major and I started to realize how
amazing anthropology is and that was
mainly because of a professor called
Chuck Springwood I don’t know if any of
you guys know him but I’m his biggest
fan I don’t know if he knows that but I
am and he had two main classes that I
took with him they were race and racism
in America and then the second was
gender in a cross-cultural perspective
so I learned kind of about how even the
word race developed how racism developed
who started it and how we perpetuate it
and how it’s part of like our everyday
discourse and then in my gender class I
learned that’s Chuck I learned about how
sexism is in different countries how
gender is and then how the patriarchy
started and then kind of like white
girls wear pink why boys wear blue and
why all this comes together and this was
kind of where my big breakthrough came
through because I realized how messed up
our society is and how there is a lot of
oppression and things that have built up
to put down other people so I thought
now that I’ve learned all this I don’t
want to just not do anything about it
you know with great knowledge comes
great responsibility so I thought now
that I know all this I think that’s
where I want to go with my career and I
was finally like you know what I’m gonna
be when I grow up so that was kind of my
junior year of college when I realized
that I wanted to go into social justice
or Social Work and that was my big
breakthrough that I will helped me so
much and Chuck helped me so much an
anthropology taught me that there’s
somewhere you can go with anthropology
and that is into social justice and into
Social Work because you learn a
different perspective and you learn how
different people work and you learn how
to connect with different people from
anthropology so I thought I wanted to
use that to to go through something like
social justice or social work so like
mentioned before I now work as a child
and family advocate I’m on the right and
then we have a therapist and another
advocate and we have a support dog and
his name is Jacque and he’s the sweetest
thing and he’s just as a rock star for
Halloween it’s our biggest fan so like
he mentioned before I work in the
investigative process of child sex abuse
cases and it is a really hard job I
cried on my first day called my best
friend but once I started to realize
that the work I was doing was making a
difference I think that really helped
it’s a lot nicer when you wake up in the
morning that you know you’re working for
somebody else and you’re not working for
yourself if I sleep and I’m not screwing
myself over I’m screwing out the
families we serve so I turned that
passion that I had for anthropology that
came through all these years of taking
classes and turned that passion into
what I wanted to do so I like to say
that I have a really meaningful job and
that kind of makes my own life happy
knowing that I have passion for it and
that was I who taught me to pick my
passion and to go forward with it so I
wanted such as any other students or any
other people who were starting a new
career or starting a new job that it’s
okay to pick something that you enjoy
because you can be selfish with your own
life and I think you can choose to do
what makes you happy so if art makes you
happy then do that and
think there’s a lot of stress on people
who don’t pick like accounting no
offense to accounting people or physics
or things that go directly towards a job
like that because you know it’s your
life and why not pick something that
gives you passion because overall
they’re gonna be happy with it and I
think these people don’t get credit
people that pick things like
anthropology or sociology psychology
philosophy I think any of those ending
in those apologies kind of get looked
down upon but there are the ones that
are making the big difference in our
communities so just so you know I’m not
like biessing everything I’m saying up
here there are some stats to back it up
this shows that only 27% of the people
are working a job that’s related to
their college major so just because you
did studying anthropology I don’t you
don’t have to become an anthropologist
out of that there’s so many different
ways that you can go you can become the
social worker you can come and do
whenever you want so if you’re coming
into Wesleyan undecided and I’m jealous
of you because you have the whole door
open to you and you don’t have to take
all the pressures of this is what I’m
going to do for the rest of my life you
know so you have a choice in that
and then like I kind of said before even
if you go to Wesleyan you’re gonna
succeed and you’re gonna get a job and I
don’t want you to feel kind of bad just
because you didn’t pick a really typical
major that’s gonna make you a bunch of
money this just shows all the different
avenues that you can go when you pick
these majors you have a really open door
like I am that tiny sliver of social
work but there’s a whole bunch of other
ones that people can go through so when
I first told everybody that I was
studying anthropology and they were like
what are you gonna do with that and I
was like well I’m not gonna work at
McDonald’s which I don’t I think that
it’s a good to reply back to somebody
well what can’t you do because that door
is so much more open if you study
nursing you can go into other things but
if you study one of my majors that I
like and that the doors more open and I
think you have a lot more opportunity to
go forth with your life so I basically I
loved anthropology here at Wesleyan and
I think it’s the best major and I know a
lot of people don’t know what it is I
didn’t either until I
googled it but I studied ant throw
because it was my passion and then I
turned that passion into what I do now
in the social work and I love that now
we were all little this is little me so
when you were younger everybody asked
you you know what do you want to be when
you grow up and most people said like
doctor or astronaut or nurse or
accountant or kind of those kind of
things but I told everybody that I
wanted to own a shoe shop because I
loved shoes so I was like let’s do that
so I was super excited about that but
then kind of the pressure started to set
in and I went to high school and I
realized that maybe owning a shoe shop
isn’t the best thing that I could do
with my life and that pressure kind of
came from high school when you had all
your friends asking like were you going
to college and get all your high school
teachers saying you should go do this
and your friends wanted to go to college
with you and your parents wanted you to
get a career that was going to make you
a lot of money I didn’t do that but out
of all this pressure and out of all this
stress and I didn’t know what to do
about it
I turned to my sister she’s 10 years
older than me the older cooler wiser one
and I kind of asked her when I needed to
do in this situation because I was
freaking out and she said well why don’t
you just pick something that you enjoy
like I don’t know I didn’t think of that
so she was like you’re gonna be spending
every single day for four years studying
this thing and it’s gonna be your whole
life and you have a choice in what it is
so why not pick something that is good
and that you’re gonna actually enjoy and
that you’re gonna have a passion for so
that wasn’t my breakthrough moment but I
like to say it’s my epiphany moment
where I was like I don’t know why I
didn’t just think about that you know
everyone gives you all these pressures
and what you should be doing but if you
have a choice then why not enjoy it so
now that I knew I needed to pick
something I like I had to think about
well what do I like so I had already
been studying French for 4 years in high
school so I knew I was gonna do French
but I wanted to add something else onto
that so I knew that I liked talking to
people I liked meeting new people in
different cultures and I liked history
so I googled that all together and the
word anthropology came up and I was like
aunt anthropophaga anthropology and then
I picked Wesleyan because it was close
and it missed my parents so Wesleyan and
anthropology came together and I was
super excited I was like I’m gonna do
this I’m gonna do manthra Paula G and I
remember I went to kind of like a
neighborhood party in my neighborhood
and everybody got to go around and say
where they were going for college and
what they were studying and I was so
excited to say anthropology and then the
lady across the table laughed at me and
said I’ll see you working at McDonald’s
and I was like okay well so I was gonna
prove her wrong and I was going to study
the crap out of anthropology and that’s
what I did
so I came to Iowa in fall of 2013 super
nervous I was like I don’t even know
what anthro is I don’t know what I’m
doing but I’m just gonna do it so I was
starting to get a little nervous kind of
about where this was going because I
just focused on my gen Ed’s first my
French classes first and I just ignored
all those nervous feelings and I studied
abroad so I studied abroad in Rennes
France and it was like the most amazing
experience of my whole life but that can
kind of be a whole talk on its own but I
studied abroad I got on my french out of
the way and ignored whatever
anthropology was and then I got back to
campus and then because I fish my gen
Ed’s and I finish on my French credits
it was kind of my time to go into anthro
and again I was feeling nervous because
sometimes just studying the skulls on
the side of the table but then sometimes
it’s looking at your own cultures and
your own tribes so I was like let’s just
let’s just do this anthro thing so I did
and then think I actually fell in love
with it and I was like I did pick the
right major and I started to realize how
amazing anthropology is and that was
mainly because of a professor called
Chuck Springwood I don’t know if any of
you guys know him but I’m his biggest
fan I don’t know if he knows that but I
am and he had two main classes that I
took with him they were race and racism
in America and then the second was
gender in a cross-cultural perspective
so I learned kind of about how even the
word race developed how racism developed
who started it and how we perpetuate it
and how it’s part of like our everyday
discourse and then in my gender class I
learned that’s Chuck I learned about how
sexism is in different countries how
gender is and then how the patriarchy
started and then kind of like white
girls wear pink why boys wear blue and
why all this comes together and this was
kind of where my big breakthrough came
through because I realized how messed up
our society is and how there is a lot of
oppression and things that have built up
to put down other people so I thought
now that I’ve learned all this I don’t
want to just not do anything about it
you know with great knowledge comes
great responsibility so I thought now
that I know all this I think that’s
where I want to go with my career and I
was finally like you know what I’m gonna
be when I grow up so that was kind of my
junior year of college when I realized
that I wanted to go into social justice
or Social Work and that was my big
breakthrough that I will helped me so
much and Chuck helped me so much an
anthropology taught me that there’s
somewhere you can go with anthropology
and that is into social justice and into
Social Work because you learn a
different perspective and you learn how
different people work and you learn how
to connect with different people from
anthropology so I thought I wanted to
use that to to go through something like
social justice or social work so like
mentioned before I now work as a child
and family advocate I’m on the right and
then we have a therapist and another
advocate and we have a support dog and
his name is Jacque and he’s the sweetest
thing and he’s just as a rock star for
Halloween it’s our biggest fan so like
he mentioned before I work in the
investigative process of child sex abuse
cases and it is a really hard job I
cried on my first day called my best
friend but once I started to realize
that the work I was doing was making a
difference I think that really helped
it’s a lot nicer when you wake up in the
morning that you know you’re working for
somebody else and you’re not working for
yourself if I sleep and I’m not screwing
myself over I’m screwing out the
families we serve so I turned that
passion that I had for anthropology that
came through all these years of taking
classes and turned that passion into
what I wanted to do so I like to say
that I have a really meaningful job and
that kind of makes my own life happy
knowing that I have passion for it and
that was I who taught me to pick my
passion and to go forward with it so I
wanted such as any other students or any
other people who were starting a new
career or starting a new job that it’s
okay to pick something that you enjoy
because you can be selfish with your own
life and I think you can choose to do
what makes you happy so if art makes you
happy then do that and
think there’s a lot of stress on people
who don’t pick like accounting no
offense to accounting people or physics
or things that go directly towards a job
like that because you know it’s your
life and why not pick something that
gives you passion because overall
they’re gonna be happy with it and I
think these people don’t get credit
people that pick things like
anthropology or sociology psychology
philosophy I think any of those ending
in those apologies kind of get looked
down upon but there are the ones that
are making the big difference in our
communities so just so you know I’m not
like biessing everything I’m saying up
here there are some stats to back it up
this shows that only 27% of the people
are working a job that’s related to
their college major so just because you
did studying anthropology I don’t you
don’t have to become an anthropologist
out of that there’s so many different
ways that you can go you can become the
social worker you can come and do
whenever you want so if you’re coming
into Wesleyan undecided and I’m jealous
of you because you have the whole door
open to you and you don’t have to take
all the pressures of this is what I’m
going to do for the rest of my life you
know so you have a choice in that
and then like I kind of said before even
if you go to Wesleyan you’re gonna
succeed and you’re gonna get a job and I
don’t want you to feel kind of bad just
because you didn’t pick a really typical
major that’s gonna make you a bunch of
money this just shows all the different
avenues that you can go when you pick
these majors you have a really open door
like I am that tiny sliver of social
work but there’s a whole bunch of other
ones that people can go through so when
I first told everybody that I was
studying anthropology and they were like
what are you gonna do with that and I
was like well I’m not gonna work at
McDonald’s which I don’t I think that
it’s a good to reply back to somebody
well what can’t you do because that door
is so much more open if you study
nursing you can go into other things but
if you study one of my majors that I
like and that the doors more open and I
think you have a lot more opportunity to
go forth with your life so I basically I
loved anthropology here at Wesleyan and
I think it’s the best major and I know a
lot of people don’t know what it is I
didn’t either until I
googled it but I studied ant throw
because it was my passion and then I
turned that passion into what I do now
in the social work and I love that now
Please follow and like us: