Congratulations to Joseph Pinter!

Joseph Pinter, a double major in history and journalism and mass communication, just became St. Bonaventure's 11th Murray Scholar after participating in the organization's annual nationwide essay contest. To read more about his award, please click here. Congratulations, Joe!

Registration Time is Here!

Starting this week, students at Bonaventure will be able to enroll in classes for the spring semester of 2015. The history department is offering several courses that might be of interest to students, including courses on the Great Depression (Dr. Payne), the Holocaust (Dr. Marinari), the U.S. and the Caribbean (Dr. Horowitz), African American History (Dr. Robbins), and Imperial China (Mr. Dalton). Feel free to contact us if you have any questions!

A Strategic Choice by Incoming History Freshman Aaron Phillips

Although born in Rochester, I grew up in Cheektowaga, New York, a small suburb just outside Buffalo. For as long as I can remember I have been involved in some type of athletic activity but that never strained my focus in the classroom. I knew that without the grades I would not be able to participate in the extra-curricular activities that I had created a bond with at such a young age. 

 My competitive attitude is one of the traits that many would say best defines me. While that started on a field or a court somewhere, it quickly worked its way to the classroom. History intrigued me from day one in the lowest level of my education and I realized that I was interested in the history of anything around me. I even became interested in the previous years of the Buffalo Bills and for someone who grew up in Buffalo that is a very tough topic.

For the most part everyone involved in the field of history, or students of history have a favorite type or time period. I am no different, however my reasoning is. A majority will say that they are into the conflicts or the politics, and there is nothing wrong with those answers. For me though, it has always been the strategy; why people or countries do what they did whether it was in a war or a scandal.

My choice to attend St. Bonaventure did not entirely have to do with academics. I was recruited to play baseball and after seeing the campus I was convinced. I am still unsure if I want to become a teacher or go to law school in the future but a history degree will help either way. It has been a dream of mine to play college baseball and study a topic so intriguing for a long time and now it is finally a reality.

Report Finds U.S. History Highest Earners in Humanities

From the AHA blog comes this story, "New Report Finds U. S. History Majors Highest Earners in Humanites." There is also a breakdown of U. S. History majors careers, with Management, Sales, and Education topping the list. The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interactive graph with a more refined breakdown of majors and careers. If you want to read the full report, you can find it here.

At Bonas history majors can go into our secondary ed program or explore career options with internships or in our public and digital history classes.

The History Club's Trip to Mumford (by Harrison Leone)

What do Lucifer’s hoof-print, a horse treadmill and a 30-run baseball game have in common? They can all be found at the Genesee Country Village and Museum in Mumford, New York, and the history club was lucky enough to see all three.

The club journeyed to the sprawling living history museum just outside of Rochester for this semester’s trip, having gone to the Teddy Roosevelt National Historic Site last fall and to the World War 2 museum in Eldred in the spring. While both of those trips were fun and informative, the Genesee Country Village gave us the opportunity to step inside the lives of 19th century villagers and settlers.

History came alive as we made our way through the Village’s three different eras: the Pioneer days, Antebellum New York and the Turn of the Century Village. Each had its own distinct charm, whether it was the hard-scrabble self-reliance of boiling and dying your own thread with the Pioneers, perusing a 1830s general store or the gaiety of gloveless baseball games.

The history club was lucky enough to see the Village at harvest time, when tents packed to the brim with homemade jams, jellies and honey spreads were dotted among the historical buildings. Corn was being threshed and ground in the town square (hence the horse treadmill), and mouth-wateringly fresh New York apples were being pressed into buckets full of frothing apple cider. The smell of woodstoves burning mixed enchantingly with the cool October wind to let all at the Village that day know that fall had most certainly arrived.

Jason Damon reports on His Internship

This past summer, I was blessed to serve as an intern for the Knights of Columbus Office of Public Policy. It was an amazing experience, and one that I’m very grateful for.

As a Policy Intern, my job was actually pretty varied. There was a larger project I worked on for about half my time, I was able to meet with legislatures to discuss various issues and bills, and I was given a lot of freedom to attend different lectures and luncheons hosted around the capital.

I was told by my coworkers that things really slow down in the summer; I can’t imagine what it looks like outside of it then! Being in the middle of all the action was incredible, and for me at least it was pretty constant. I both lived and worked in Brookland, which is in the Northeast section of the city, but went to the Capital at least once a week to meet with legislatures or other groups and to formulate responses to issues that had recently arisen. I worked at the Pope St. John Paul II National Shrine, which was cool in and of itself since they were putting the finishing touches on a new exhibit on his life and teachings; I was able to even give a little of my input on the inspiring display, which was completed shortly before I left. I recommend that anyone going to the area check it out, regardless of personal faith because the man had such a huge influence on our world even today. On the weekends I traveled around the city a lot and frequented places like the National Mall and Old Town. The entire experience was amazing and being a political science and history major, I really got a lot out of residing in the center of American politics (I almost quite literally bumped elbows with Senators Marco Rubio, Roy Blount and Tim Scott and personally met and talked with Senator Bob Casey among other politicians and interest group leaders) and a place with so much history.

My internship was truly life-changing; I got to see the inner workings of the political process as well as meet a lot of fascinating people. I still keep in touch with my coworkers and keep an eye on political events that I may, in my own (very) small way, have influenced.

More From One of Our Incoming Freshmen: Carli Lembicz

I am a hardworking individual with substantial dreams for my future. Each step in my life and each moment that passes, makes me who I am. Every adventure I have encountered, good or bad, happy or sad, makes me stronger. Each passing minute is a new experience for me and allows me to grow into the person I want to become. Day by day I take a new step in life towards my future goals. Entering college was an enormous step for me, but I am ready to learn and process new information that will aid me to my dreams.

So, who am I, really? My name is Carli Lembicz and I am currently seventeen years old. I was born on September 24, 1996 and grew up in the small village of Franklinville, New York. I have one older brother and I live with him and my dad. To most people, I come off as the quiet type-which can be true because I am shy-but once you get to know me and I am comfortable, I am very talkative and outgoing, I am presently a freshman here at St. Bonaventure University, majoring in history. As I stated before, I live in a small town which is about a twenty minute drive from Bonaventure; so the plus side for me is that I am able to live at home and commute to class every day. Now, you may wonder why I chose to major in history. To answer that in the best way possible, I would have to start with the fact that I had a wonderful history teacher my senior year of high school. He made the class interesting and we read many books, including my favorites Jews without Money and Manchild in the Promised Land. I took American History through a Syracuse University program that my school offered and I basically fell in love with it. I find history so fascinating due to the fact that we learn about people and what they did, how they thought, and why they did what they did. As a result, I decided to study history to acquire more knowledge in the field. With a degree in history, my next step after college will be to attend law school. My goal is to become a corporate lawyer and I believe with a history degree, I will be able to achieve this dream due to the fact that many history majors work in the corporate field.

Overall, I am an individual who loves history and plans to work my hardest in college to achieve my future goals. History is such a great field to study because of the many changes that have taken place throughout the years. I find it extremely interesting to learn about historical trends of dress, culture, and mannerisms and compare them to the present because it is just amazing how much things change. As a freshman I can honestly say that I am ready to learn and work twice as hard as before in this new chapter of my life. I cannot wait to learn what my future history classes are waiting to teach me.

Spring Offerings

Soon enough it will be time to sign up for Spring Classes.  The History Department is offering a good selection of courses.  In addition to our usual survey courses in United States and European History, we will be offering specialized courses that include The Holocaust, The US and Caribbean, African American History, The Great Depression, World History since 1450, and Imperial China.  As always, history internships are available.