A Little Bit About Me...

I am the first born out of 3 girls. I was born in Camden, New Jersey on May 14, 1988. I lived there for about a year of my life. My dad was in the Navy so we moved around a lot as a family. After I was born, we moved out to San Diego and lived there for a few years, only to find ourselves moving up North to Monterey soon after. After my two younger sisters were born, we moved  back down to San Diego for the remaining period of my life.
I went to an all girls Catholic high school called the Academy of Our Lady of Peace (OLP) in San Diego. These four years I spent at this school were the most academically challenging experience I had ever gone through... They were known for their academics... It was also the most amazing experience because I met the closest and best friends any girl could ask for. I graduated in 2006 and I am still extremely close to my high school friends today. High school was a challenging, yet memorable experience that I will never forget.

I recently graduated from Cal State San Marcos with my BA in History. Within those 5 years of working towards my bachelor's degree, I was able to find a semester to study abroad  in Sicily. This was an experience that I will NEVER forget... It was fun, yet extremely challenging...We lived in a tiny ancient village off the coast of Southern Sicily. The way of life was very old fashioned and it took a little while to get adjusted. It was nice to take myself out of the fast paced life in America and revert back to a simple way of living. While in Sicily I was able to volunteer at an elementary school and teach English lessons to a class of 8 year olds. This was when I officially decided that I wanted to teach. Even though these kids did not speak an ounce of English, I was able to relate and communicate with them in different ways. I fell in love with them!

I remember my family's first computer was an old Mac. We got it when I was about 10-12 years old.  I was was always playing different games such as Oregon Trail or Mavis Beacon teaches typing. In high school I remember that I always loved creating Power-points for classes. I loved being creative and thinking of new ways to awe my class. I feel that for the most part I am pretty technologically savvy. If something is wrong with my computer or cell phone, I can usually figure it out for the most part. I find it interesting how technology gets better and better over the years. With each piece of technology  that I have, such as my computer or cell phone, it gets old rather quickly because there is something bigger and better out there. I have an Android right now and I am already bored with it and ready for that Iphone 5 ... :-) I can not wait to see what the world of technology has to offer 15-20 years from now!

While the entire mission statement for the College of Education is important, I found that the line that spoke volumes to me was, "We are committed to diversity, educational equity, and social justice..." It is important to establish lines of trust and equality within classroom environments. This allows students to strive for their best and believe in themselves as individuals rather than parts of a whole.