Julia Duggs

Julia’s dream is to teach U.S. history to high school students, and she’s already thinking about what a 21 st century classroom could look like, thanks to a study-abroad semester in Seoul, South Korea. “I had the opportunity to study history from a Korean perspective,” she says, an ideal take-away from her travels.

Julia feels that one of her proudest achievements at UC San Diego has been taking a leadership position in a volunteer organization, Girl Up. “We’re a diverse group of young women who share an interest in empowering girls around the world, and I’ve evolved into a student leader for gender equality.” Julia, a Chancellor's Associate Scholar, has mentored fellow Chancellor's Associate Scholars struggling with the transition to college. She’s discovered a growing confidence in her communication skills and a career goal of working with young people, which was reinforced in a summer internship in the education department of the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco.

“I’m passionate about teaching students how to analyze the ways in which positive and negative elements of the past co-act to affect the present,” she says, preferring a more dynamic view of history over the traditional memorization of facts and dates. “I believe young people are capable of confronting racism, sexism, classism and able-ism in America’s history and present.”

Julia has faced many obstacles, including the absence of her mother, who lost custody of her when Julia was five. Raised by an aunt and uncle, she met her father when she was a teen, but he passed away soon after. “In elementary school, I did a lot of reading because it gave me a sense of escape. The classroom was my haven because I appreciated the positive relationships I had with my teachers.” She struggled with her sense of self “because I didn’t grow up with my mother, who was of European descent, or my father, who was of African and Korean descent. In college, I felt I had to choose one identity and hide the others in order to blend in."

Through her studies, volunteer work and experiences at UC San Diego, “I’ve learned I can’t be easily categorized, but I now have confidence in who I am. I’ve put my effort into the future of my academic career, and past hardships have provided me with the opportunity to take responsibility for my education and to have a strong sense of ownership of my identity.”