Her Campus American had the wonderful opportunity of catching up with this year’s School of Education Womxn of the Year winner, Julia Cronin. She is an education and history double major at American University (AU) while also holding the position of Global Awareness Programmer in the She’s the First chapter at AU. Not to mention, Julia works as a team leader at D.C. Reads and is an amazing baker in her free time. This is what Julia had to say about her life, career goals, and more.
Her Campus American University (HCAU): First off, tell me a little bit about yourself.
Julia Cronin: I’m originally from Plymouth, Massachusetts. That being said, I grew up around a lot of history. Between Plymouth’s history being “America’s hometown”, which is incorrect, and Boston’s history as well with the American Revolution, it’s definitely something I fell in love with at a young age. Being passionate about history has stayed the same and grown, but my understanding of history has definitely changed which has fueled me to be a high school history teacher. It’s such a complex field right now because we have so many school curriculums across the country that are just teaching a history that’s false. Outside of that occupation passion, I really enjoy baking and reading– I’m a big historical fiction person.
HCAU: What’s your favorite baked good to make?
Julia: Cupcakes are always my favorite thing. I always like to bake cupcakes for friends’ birthdays because it’s something you can personalize; like doing the little details on the frosting in their favorite color, or adding a flavor that you know they love, or using symbols from their favorite band. Being able to show how much you know someone through those small details is so much fun. I’m a very detailed-oriented person. That’s what I like about baking and history– it’s all in the details.
HCAU: Not a lot of people want to be educators, especially now with COVID-19 and online learning, so what makes you so passionate about teaching and what would you do differently?
Julia: I think that this year has been especially challenging for myself and other students that I know in the School of Education who are doing their student teaching in the online setting right now. It’s just totally taken going into a profession that is already not highly valued in this country, that is not well-funded, and turned it upside down even further. I think there’s a huge fear in considering having to teach online because you could so easily lose kids. You might be doing everything that you can, but it’s just such a different battle when you’re only seeing them online. I think that’s pretty scary, but I just listened to two educators speak about avoiding burnout as a teacher by connecting back to your “why.” I’ve always wanted to be a teacher my whole life because I love school, I love being in the classroom, and I love that it’s such a universal thing that we all do– although, it’s a very privileged concept as well– but what can happen within a classroom context is so different than a typical workplace. There’s so much that can happen teaching, and I’ve also had so many teachers impact and shape me. I’m very lucky to feel this way, so I want to help students celebrate themselves as they are and not try to make them think that they need to change. In terms of what I want to change, I think that history needs to be taught through the lens of race because everything that is done in U.S. history is done through race.
HCAU: As a Global Awareness Programmer (GAP) in She’s the First, what does that position entail?
Julia: She’s the First is based on these three pillars of advocacy, education, and also fundraising for the scholars. So Global Awareness Programmer is this facet within She’s the First that is meant to be the education pillar. Once a month, we have a GAP presentation, which I lead and it’s meant to provide that global perspective of issues that are facing womxn. That being said, it could be literally anything because every issue affects womxn, right? I really love this position and hearing from other people in the discussions because there’s all these different majors and they’ve taken different classes, so even though I’m the one leading the discussion, I learn so much from every general body member. It’s this really great hub and community of knowledge being shared.
HCAU: The person that nominated you wrote you’re a D.C. Reads team leader, so what’s that been like?
Julia: I am a team leader with the Higher Achievement organization and it’s great because it does great work with these kids. It also provides AU students an opportunity to go outside the AU bubble and to actually get to be a part of the community they’re living in. What I love about Higher Achievement is that it’s the same students, so you’ve gotten to know them, and it’s a special connection you get to have. It’s great to talk with them online because they want to be there and want that connection. I love working with the tutors from AU because we have this same notion that this is our favorite part of the week. We get to drop stress and hang out with these students while doing math homework or playing Among Us.
Her Campus American cannot wait to celebrate Julia and our other Womxn of the Year winners this Sunday at our annual event. She deserves to be recognized for all of her hard work both in and outside the American University community.
Photo Credit: Her Campus Media Library