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U of A Interns

Working with the grant's lead teachers are the following interns from the University of Arizona's History Department. These three PHD and graduate students meet weekly with the lead teachers to plan lessons and work on content knowledge.
 

Katrina Jagodinsky
klj@email.arizona.edu

In her short career in history education, Katrina Jagodinsky has learned much about the importance of pedagogy and curriculum development in advancing multicultural perspectives of American History in the classroom.  Ms. Jagodinsky grew up in northern Wisconsin during the midst of a treaty rights controversy over natural resources that drew her attention to the legacy of American Indian cultural and political struggles at a young age.  

She has pursued these issues throughout her personal and academic life, asking questions about gender and class disparities, competing racial and national identities, and the constructions of personal and shared histories that compose our notions of American history.

Ms. Jagodinsky earned her BA in English and History at Lawrence University in 2002.In her last undergraduate year, she interned at the D’Arcy McNickle Center in the Newberry Library of Chicago. Katrina continued her studies at the University of Arizona, earning a MA in American Indian Studies in 2004.A number of internships and teaching assistantships prepared Ms. Jagodinsky to teach History and American Indian Studies at Tohono O’odham Community College in Sells, AZ from 2004-05.This rewarding experience teaching O’odham students convinced Ms. Jagodinsky to pursue her doctorate in History so that she can return to the community college classroom once again, fully equipped to meet the needs of diverse students preparing to shape histories of their own.

Katrina Jagodinsky’s educational philosophy centers on the promotion of diversity and critical thinking and her pedagogical method encourages students to approach historical narratives creatively.  Ms. Jagodinsky strives to make history curriculum relevant to her students so that their understandings of American history can enhance their lives and empower their sense of self.  Katrina has worked on American and Arizona history curriculum with the Arizona Historical Society, Pima Community College, and Tohono O’odham Community College in the past four years.  Through these collaborations, she has found that incorporating multicultural perspectives in history education results in a curriculum that best reflects students’ own experiences and intuitions and fosters a learning environment that is both inclusive and invigorating.
 

Neil is a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona, where he studies United States environmental and cultural history.  His dissertation tells the story of how nineteenth-century Americans began celebrating family holidays, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, and how nature became important to those celebrations.  Previously, Neil earned a B.A. in economics and an M.A. in history from Miami University.  His work has appeared in the Western Historical Quarterly.

Sigma Colon
sigmac@email.arizona.edu 

A native to Arizona, I grew up in the small town of Bisbee Arizona. Having spent all of my post-kindergarten years in the Arizona public school system, I have a vested interest in contributing to the success of public schools, their teachers and students.

My undergraduate studies at the University of Arizona focused on English Literature with a minor in Spanish. After receiving my BA, I completed the Post-Baccalaureate Teacher Preparation Program and initially taught for a variety of specialized programs specifically designed to assist students who had experienced difficulties in traditional educational settings. Soon thereafter Flowing Wells High School hired me as a sophomore and junior level English teacher. I spent the next several years honing my pedagogy—refining my knowledge and skills in curriculum development and instruction. As a teacher I committed myself to achieving the highest educational standards and to cultivating competence and confidence in students by making information and learning accessible to them and by asking students questions that challenged them to think critically.

After taking a leave of absence to do a semester long tour abroad, I had a strong desire to place the various people and cultures I had gained exposure to within a deeper historical context. I resumed my teaching career in American Literature and also took advantage of an opportunity to teach a survey course in world history. All of these experiences increased my interest in history and affirmed my desire to pursue a graduate degree in the field.

 As a graduate student in United States history, my current research examines the stakes involved in food production and distribution—how food has been shaped by political and economic decisions as much as by biology. I connect the food landscape to American ideas about education—how an educated populace came to be seen as a national resource, how government policies determined who would be educated and for what purpose, and what this meant for daughters and sons of the soil.