Student Accomplishments
Student Professional Development
The History Department is particularly cognizant of the need to prepare students for life after the undergraduate degree, whether this means graduate school or employment. Thus, the History major provides students with the opportunity to become better educated citizens generally while improving their critical thinking, research, and writing skills.
There are some particular opportunities for students that prepare them for challenging responsibilities outside of the University setting. This includes serving as an officer of the History Department’s chapter of the national Honor Society, Phi Alpha Theta (PAT). PAT is an active student group whose membership consists of high achieving students. Important, PAT recently announced plans to establish a History Club as a feeder for PAT. The History Club will have more relaxed eligibility standards to encourage more students to become involved in the organization.
PAT also designs, edits, and publishes the journal Clio. This is a student run publication that offers excellent opportunities for students interested in gaining experience in editing and publishing.
For graduate students in particular, the Public History program coordinates up to 15 highly specialized, paid internships per semester with a wide variety of public and private agencies that deal with cultural and historic resources. These agencies include the California State Archives, Office of Historic Preservation, CalTrans, the California Railroad Museum, and a large number of private consulting firms.
Graduate students have the opportunity to serve as Teaching Assistants and grade papers for faculty who teach large sections of lower-division surveys as well as some specialized upper-division survey courses.
The History Department also provides graduate students in particular who are interested in a teaching career with valuable advice and guidance. This advice and guidance is provided through our Precredential advising program as well as in Hist 400: The Teaching of History in College.
