This week’s Project 100+ memory comes from Krystle Gnatz Ammann.  She grew up in Pittsgrove, New Jersey.  Her father has been a boat builder since he was 16 years old and today works for Jersey Cape Yachts.  Her mother was a bus driver for the Pittsgrove School District until she retired in 2022.  Krystle attended public schools and graduated from Schalick High School in 2001.  She has an older sister and a younger sister.  Krystle was the first person in her immediate and extended family to go to college.  She enrolled at Rowan University as a Radio/Television/Film major in the Fall of 2001.  Four years later, she graduated from Rowan University with a degree in history and secondary education.  After a short stint at Lindenwold High School teaching history in 2006, she took a position (also teaching history) at Millville Memorial High School in 2007.  While working at Millville, she completed her Master’s degree in history from Rowan.  In 2023, after 17 years at Millville, she took a position teaching history at Cumberland County Technical Education Center (CCTEC) where she teaches AP US History. 

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My family expected me to go to college because I had been a very good student in elementary school.  My older sister and other relatives had not been singled out in the same way, so this led my parents to develop this hope that I would be the first one to go to college.  When I got to high school, however, I found that I was not a particularly great student, and I was not certain that I was actually going to follow through and apply to go to college.  Except for one teacher, my high school experience was not particularly inspiring. However, Mrs. McGowan was the kindest person in the world.  She never made you feel you bad, even when one did not do everything that one should have. She always made me feel like I had real potential.  This was important because I was not getting this same type of reinforcement from other teachers.  She taught English and studio production.  It was because of her that I eventually applied to be an RTF major.

When I got to my senior year, I realized that I didn’t actually know what I would do if I did not go to college.  So, I suddenly began to take the process more seriously.  I applied to only two colleges, Rowan University and William Paterson.  I only applied to them about one month before their final deadlines.  My father said that I had to go to a state college because of expense.  Both Rowan and William Paterson had RTF programs, but the cost of living on campus at William Paterson was too much.  So, I attended Rowan, commuting from Pittsgrove.

I realized during my first semester that I was unprepared for college.  I had not taken enough challenging classes and hadn’t applied myself as much as I should have.  In addition, after talking to other RTF majors, I realized that one had to be willing to work long hours in roles that were not creative before maybe getting to do the type of studio work that I had envisioned.  So, I changed to journalism because I liked writing.  That major did not last long either.  I then changed to history just because I liked the subject.  I had no idea what I would do with the degree initially.  During the summer between my first and second years, I took two history courses in order to catch up, as I was behind by that point.  I took one course with Dr. Lee Kress and one course with you, Dr. Carrigan.  After I took these courses, I knew that I had found the right major. I loved the way that these courses were taught, the way that both of you combined lecture and discussion.  However, I still did not know what to do with the degree.  I initially thought that I might work in the museum world.  However, Rowan did not then have the program in public history it has today.  So, I went back to my favorite teacher, the one that had first sparked my love of history.  His name was Mr. Pierangeli, and he taught 7^th grade social studies at Pittsgrove Middle School.  I asked him if he thought that I could become a history teacher.  He smiled and went into his desk and pulled out a paper that I had written to him at the end of 7^th grade.  I had forgotten the contents of the letter, though I did remember writing him the note.  He asked me to read it.  My younger self had written, “Dear Mr. P, you are such an inspiring teacher.  I love history because of you, and I want to become a history teacher just like you.”  Reading that note solidified my future, and I added secondary education to my degree plan.

I took something different from all the history faculty at Rowan.  They each had their own strengths that complemented each other so well.  In the Fall of my sophomore year, I took Historical Methods with Dr. Melissa Klapper.  It was the hardest class that I have ever taken.  She tore my writing to shreds, and it was painful at times.  However, as I said, I was not really prepared for college.  Her meticulous care for my writing and her insistence that I improve led me to become proficient in writing for the first time.  I have thanked her for it many times in the years that followed.  I ended up taking several classes with Dr. Klapper, and she gave me an enduring love for women’s history.

The same semester as Methods, I took my first course with Dr. Scott Morschauser.  I can’t remember the order of the classes I took with him, but I eventually took “Ancient Mediterranean World” and “Ancient Egypt.”  I loved every class I took with him.  His lectures were traditional in format but absolutely spellbinding.  He instilled in me a deep love of ancient history.   Dr. James Heinzen’s courses on Russian history opened me up to a part of the world that I knew nothing about.

I later took another course with you, Dr. Carrigan, United States, 1820-1861.  What I loved about that class was your focus on biographies and social history.  While I had studied this period in the past, your approach was so different that I remember just being stunned by what we were learning.  I can’t remember the exact details now, but I remember that you transported me back to the past. I could really see things through the eyes of the historical figures we were studying. I had always liked this aspect of history, and this course was the one that made this element come alive to me the most in college.

I can’t exactly explain it to others, but the History Department at Rowan was a special place.  The faculty approached things in different ways, but they all cared deeply about us as students.  The professors in the department really teach.  They are accessible, and they are genuinely concerned that their students come away with a real education.  My daughter goes to the University of Delaware, and she has large classes.  She doesn’t really know anything about her faculty members beyond their names.  She works with her teaching assistants. This was not my experience.  I didn’t choose Rowan because I knew that I would get this type of attention.  I was just very fortunate that the place that I went for financial reasons had this amazing collection of talented faculty members who, despite all being very successful researchers, really cared about our education.

I love being a history teacher, and I think one of the reasons that I like my job so much is that I love both learning myself and sharing what I have learned with my students.  I believe that this was also true of the faculty in the Rowan History Department. 

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This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100+,” an ongoing collection of memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff that began as part of the celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  Due to interest in the project, the number of interviewees continues to grow.  Thanks to Laurie Lahey for helping proofread and edit the final versions.  Email carrigan@rowan.edu with questions or corrections.  You can find the Link to all of the Project 100 and Project 100+ entries on the Web:  https://chss.rowan.edu/departments/history/alumni_all/project_100/