This week’s Project 100+ memory comes from Rachel Corma.  She was born and raised in Pitman, New Jersey, just like her mother and her grandfather.  Her mother worked in purchasing and payroll for a small company that produced stainless steel products for places such as hospitals and restaurants.  Her father was a pipefitter who worked for the United States Navy, traveling all over the world as a result and eventually rising to his current position as a mechanical engineering technician.  Rachel attended public schools and graduated from Pitman High School in 2011.  She enrolled at Rowan University in the Fall of 2011, graduating in the Spring of 2016 with her social studies teaching certification as well as a BA and an MA in history.  In her senior year, she received both the Gary Hunter Excellence in History Award and the Best Paper Prize.  She had completed her student teaching at Gloucester County Institute of Technology and was offered a long-term substitute position teaching Advanced Placement United States History that began the day after graduation.  Despite this early success in getting a teaching job, her many applications to teach in the following academic year netted no offers.  Dr. Stephen Hague, after hearing her recount her struggles to land a job, suggested that she consider applying for a position with History Hunters, a field-trip program that brings 4^th and 5^th grade Philadelphia school children to five museums in Historic Germantown, Pennsylvania.  She applied and was offered a part-time position as a museum educator through the program.  One of the five museums associated with the program was Stenton Museum, and she soon added a part-time position as Museum Assistant to her History Hunters role.  In 2017, she left both of these positions to become the Programs and Communications Coordinator for Stenton.  On May 1, 2020, she became the Director of Education and soon found herself tasked with finding a way to deliver a virtual experience to the Philadelphia school children during the pandemic, eventually succeeding and providing 4,000 students with an interactive, virtual field trip to the five museums.  “Virtual History Hunters” won awards at both the state and national levels.  The program won a “Special Achievement” award from PA Museums, the statewide organization overseeing museums in Pennsylvania.  The American Association for State and Local History bestowed the program with their “Award of Excellence.”  When History Hunters began offering their in-person field trips again in 2022, “Virtual History Hunters” continued to be offered and today allows students unable to attend the field trips to participate.

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My first college choice was Washington College in Maryland where I hoped to study archaeology.  I was admitted there, but the scholarship award was not sufficient to allow me to attend.  It made much more sense for me to enroll at Rowan, where not only tuition was less expensive but was even more affordable given my ability to remain at home instead of having to board.  I began as a history and education major.  In middle school and high school, I had great history teachers who inspired me, including Mr. Pauling in 6^th grade, Mr. Blass in 9^th grade, and Mr. Holloway in 10^th and 11^th grades.  Mr. Holloway’s teaching style got all of his students interested in history, even those who had never liked history before.  He was able to make every debate and discussion fascinating, even though you never knew what side he might take.  So, I wanted to follow his example and become a history teacher.

I loved the History Department right from the beginning.  The CLIO program was great for me, especially as a commuter.  I don’t think I would have had the same community experience if not for CLIO.  I made so many friends through the program, including Joseph Mohnacs (we started dating in 2012 and have been together ever since!) and it was wonderful to be able to move through classes together.  I immediately got involved with the Student History Association (SHA), and eventually became Treasurer.  I loved being involved with that group.  We did many interesting things. I still have fond memories of going to the theater to see “Lincoln” and then discussing it afterwards with other history majors and faculty members.  I can remember being very impressed with all the faculty book signing events that we helped organize.  I also have great memories of volunteering for Student Government Association events, such as “Back to the Boro” and the Haunted Student Center. In my junior and senior year, I was President of Phi Alpha Theta (PAT), the history honors society.  I loved putting on the end of the year banquet, and the skills that I developed hosting that event, including the silent auction, helped me out later with duties related to my current job.  

I had a goal of having a class with every single member of the History Department, as I thought the faculty as a whole were so talented.   Each one had so much to share with me.  Several classes, however, stand out.  I had never studied Russian history before, but Dr. Heinzen’s “Russia to 1914” expanded the historical world for me, showing how things were connected in ways that I never imagined!  His lectures were fantastic but also interactive, and I loved the discussions in that course.  Dr. Klapper’s “Historical Methods” class was one of the hardest courses I ever took, but my appreciation for it has only grown over time.  That class was essential for my success in later upper-level courses.  In addition to your CLIO class, Dr. Carrigan, I really enjoyed a graduate course that I took with you on “The Civil War through Biography.” I thought the research assignment for that class was so interesting and helpful to me.

When the Department hired a new position in European history, the SHA/PAT advisors, Dr. Heinzen and Dr. Carrigan, invited students to sit in on the guest lectures by the three candidates visiting campus. I still remember the presentation by the person who was eventually hired, Dr. Stephen Hague.  I thought at the time, and feel even more convinced now that I have graduated and have interacted with many folks who attended other institutions, that it was a great privilege to be involved in the hiring process.  I ended up taking many classes with Dr. Hague, including a Study Abroad course to Britain in the Summer of 2015.  Dr. Hague made everything interesting.  He was passionate and energetic, and I loved his subject matter.  While it took Dr. Heinzen to open my eyes to the importance of Russian history, I needed no special convincing that Britain was important to the history of the modern world.  I had always been interested in World War II because my great uncle had served in Europe, participating in both the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp. 

I learned so much about teaching from watching the faculty in the History Department.  You all had such diverse ways of reaching us and the many different types of students in the major.  This was something that I paid attention to, especially when I still thought that I was going to become a social studies teacher.  Of course, the various skills related to research, thinking, and writing that I learned ended up being the ones most important in the field I eventually joined, public history.  The small close-knit atmosphere of the Department also helped me in other ways.  Early on, it helped me get involved in activities outside of classes, and, at the end, my relationship beyond the classroom with faculty ended up leading to my current job.  I literally do not know where I would be without the history faculty. 

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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_highlights/project_100/