I have a Master’s degree in history and a graduate certificate in Gender, Race and Identity studies. My love of history has been with me since my childhood, cultivated and nurtured by travel within the United States, visiting museums, parks and national cultural treasures. With the assistance and influence of my parents, I learned to absorb history and culture during my travels. I developed a keen interest in investigating my personal heritage, prompting me to declare my major field of study as history at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), and subsequently at San Diego State University (SDSU), where I earned my Bachelor’s degree in History, with a Minor in Anthropology. While at SDSU, I was also inducted into the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor society. I am now focused on the development of European and American history and the transnational role relationships between heritage, memory, and culture play in the struggles of today. It has been my goal to encourage the students I now teach to relate with our joined past and create important connections to the future by building a rich and lasting legacy for the next generation of global and American citizens. It was this love of History and a background in Anthropology has also translated into a love of studying heritage, cultural resource management and preservation, and identity. I have since focused my Master’s work on the integration of history and historical archaeology and heritage management. My thesis, entitled Ireland in Ruins: Roots of Ireland’s Cultural Revival, History and Archaeology in the Nineteenth Century, was an examination of the roles that ideology, nationalism, and professionalization of scholastic fields played a role in the interpretation and preservation of historic sites in Ireland in the nineteenth century. I have submitted several related papers at conferences including: “Inventing Ireland: Archaeology and Nationalism in the Formation of Irish Identity” (American Conference on Irish Studies [ACIS], October 2015); “Monumentalizing Irish History: Archaeology and the Invention of an Irish Identity” (College of Liberal Arts Graduate Symposium, 2014); and “Linguistic Nationalism: Language and the Cultural Construction of National Identities” (College of Liberal Arts Graduate Symposium, 2014). Currently i am researching ideas for papers that I am preparing to submit for Next year’s ACIS conference on transnational identity that investigates the building of monuments and heritage sites for Irish Americans in the United States. I have come to realize that formal education in the field of Public History and Museum Studies would not only be beneficial, but necessary to pursue a career path that would enable me to apply the theory and examination of material culture into a more productive and active field that would better suit my interests. I feel that intelligent and careful presentation and interpretation of culture and heritage is necessary to the understanding and bridging of differences between peoples and societies.