English Faculty at CSUCI
By Vyctorya Thomas-Vanzant, English Intern
It’s not everyday that you meet a college professor who lectures at the very same school they graduated from. This is one of the many interesting facts about our esteemed English professor Rachael Jordan.
Ironically, CSUCI hadn’t crossed Rachael’s mind when applying for colleges— it was her uncle who had been living in Camarillo that encouraged her to apply. “Every time I talked to him, he [was] like ‘are you applying for Channel Islands?’, and so I kind of applied to get him off my back. I didn’t really plan on coming here,” she said.
When Rachael received her acceptance letters she considered choosing her dream school UC Santa Barbara, however she knew she would be paying for college herself. “My parents couldn’t afford it. They didn’t have a college fund for me,” she said. “I’m looking at UC Santa Barbara tuition rates and Cal State Channel Islands tuition rates, and I was like ‘I guess I’m going to Channel Islands!” She enrolled in CSUCI as an English major with an emphasis in education in 2004, only a couple of years after the campus had opened.
Rachael chose to pursue a degree in English as she always had a passion for reading and writing. “Since home life was rough, I used reading as an escape,” she said. “I really loved it, so I knew from a pretty young age that I wanted to do something with reading and writing.” She had initially planned on becoming a high school teacher, so selecting an education emphasis was a natural decision; however, former CI professor Bob Mayberry encouraged her to switch her emphasis to creative writing. She shared that Dr. Mayberry was very supportive of her work and acted as her mentor, even after she had graduated.
Rachael’s role as an orientation leader for CSUCI led her to discover her passion for working with first year students, especially once she recognized the significance of the transitionary period between high school and college. “I got out of my house [and thought] ‘what do I believe outside of my family? What do I think? How do I want to approach the world?’” she said. “When I came to college, I was able to meet other people and recognize myself. I didn't use the term at the time, but I realized I was queer. So much about my life was making more sense to me, and I [thought] ‘...I want to be a part of that for other students.”
While completing her Bachelors in English, Rachael found Literary Theory to be the most beneficial. “I feel like I learned to be a scholar in that class,” she said. “I didn't take it until my senior year, cause I was scared of it. Everybody was like ‘it's so hard’ blah, blah, blah and I was kind of freaked out about it… then I was so mad because I [realized] if I had taken [it] junior year, my papers would have been so much stronger.”
Rachael also recalls her instructor for that course, former CI professor Julie Barmazel, encouraging her to go to grad school. This wasn’t too long after Professor Brad Monsma had suggested the same thing. “Dr. Monsma was walking by, and he sat down next to me. We were chatting, [and] he [asks], ‘Are you gonna apply for grad school next year?’, and I was like ‘What?’” she recalls. “...None of the women in my family [went to] graduate school. Most of them don't have a bachelor's degree; they got married and started having kids really young. So [Dr.Monsma] kind of planted that seed.”
Right after graduating from CSUCI in 2008, Rachael went on to get her Masters in Creative Writing at CSU Northridge. Her intent was to become a college professor and teach first year writing, and eventually, creative writing. Once she earned her Masters and spent time teaching at CSU Northridge, she eventually returned to CSUCI in 2012 as their newest English professor. She recalls the transition being weird for her as many of her former professors were now her colleagues. “I remember going to my first faculty meeting, and I’m like ‘Hi Dr.Monsma!’ and he’s like “‘Rachael, call me Brad’,” she laughed.
Rachael’s favorite thing about being a professor is working with students and watching them become more confident as writers. “Students will take more than one class with me, so it's always cool, as the semesters go on, to see students growing and where their lives are going,” she said.
She also mentioned the many job opportunities that are available for graduates with an English degree, “I know the stereotype is [that] you get your degree in English and you become a teacher or professor, but I'm actually the only one out of my core group [who became a teacher],” she said. Each of her friends have all taken different paths with their English degrees: one became therapist, one became a lawyer, one works in media relations, and one works as a technical writer for books.
Looking back at her experience as a student, Rachael recognizes the impact an English degree had in her life both, professionally and personally. “Being an English major helps you be curious about the world. It helps you empathize with experiences that you haven't had,” she said. She also shared that, no matter what field, people need writing and critical thinking skills. “...Even people [who are] into hard, quantitative, number crunching research still need to think about the ethical implications of their research. Those were all critical thinking skills I got from being an English major.”
Before closing the interview, Rachael shared her experience with what can only be described as imposter syndrome. “Coming in as a big reader from a family who isn’t academic, there [were] a lot of words that I had only read and never heard out loud,” she said. “I used to be so ashamed of that in college, when I would pronounce something wrong, or when someone would bring up a writer I had never heard of or read.”
Rachael gave some reassuring advice that she wishes she had heard when pursuing a higher education: “Own who you are, and recognize what you’re bringing to [your] major, into your classmates, and to your professors as well. No matter where you come from, or who you are, you belong here.”
Email: rachael.jordan@csuci.edu