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BioThis is the unofficial, non-academic version. I'll post something more formal about degrees, jobs, conferences, research, once I update that blurb.
I grew up in a beach town in southern California, and defying weather and common sense, dedicated myself to indoor activities--reading and classical guitar. I had some of the best guitar teachers, Celin and Pepe Romero, but threw it all away to play in a blues band years later. It's such a feeling of power to crank the amp when the crowd gets noisy.
I left high school at sixteen with an equivalency exam instead of graduation and went to a community college. I floundered for a year dropping classes and not accomplishing much. But I had the grades and college prep courses from high school to transfer as a freshman the next year, which I did. I finally developed the discipline to work somewhere near my potential once I had classmates who realized that only an idiot would skip classes and blow off the work after choosing to come to college, pay all that money and endure the poverty of student life. It's a common story: only strong peer models made me into a sucessful student.
How did I end up teaching English at De Anza? It was a long and winding path through a Master's in English at UCSD, a PhD at UCSC. Once I got good at college, I stayed forever. And graduate school was wonderful--no grades, just following my passions in a tight group of smart friends. But employment along the way was tough. I did a year sentence in Tallahassee selling roofing supplies and got fired because I wouldn't flirt with the customers and call them "honey." (These are the exact words of my boss.) I was one of the world's worst waitresses for a couple summers. I scraped by teaching part time for a while until I got job at Mt. SAC and then Santiago Canyon College. I came here because I love the area and my husband got a job in the music department. Fortunately, it turned out to be a great place to teach.
I love teaching because I get to see bigger worlds open up for students. It's not just about learning some facts or rules; after a few weeks or years of college, people's thinking and self-expression change. I am a humble facilitator of that growth.
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