Michigan State University is fortunate to have passionate educators who are committed to enhancing the experience of their students and who help to provide the best education possible.
The Graduate School is featuring some of these educators – graduate and postdoc educators – every month to share their unique stories and perspectives on what it means to be a dedicated educator, how they’ve overcome educational challenges, and the ways they have grown through their experiences.
For December 2024, we are featuring Ethan Veenhuis Barajas, a doctoral student in History. In this writeup, Ethan details his opinions on the challenges facing educators today, alternative methods of reaching students, and the importance of building a community while in graduate school.
What does it mean to be an educator at a university? 
Education in America has been under attack for quite some time and recently we've witnessed renewed efforts to ban books, and censor American history in favor of a more “patriotic,” sanitized version that fails to deal with the racism, sexism, and homophobia that has plagued the nation since its inception.
Being an educator at a university then, especially as a historian, has been about exposing students to the histories that were either glossed over or even fully erased during their K-12 education. It is crucial that we take the opportunity to have open and honest discourse with our students, and to have difficult conversations that help them grow as thinkers and as people. In addition, being an educator at a university has been about helping students feel seen in the topics we discuss.
I was incredibly lucky to grow up in the Flint Community Schools in Flint, Michigan where Black history was taught year-round and where other cultures were celebrated. But even in Flint it was hard to ignore that Latinx history, LGBTQIA+ history, and the histories of other traditionally marginalized groups was touched on minimally or given the “cameo" treatment, where like in films they make a brief appearance and then are never seen again on screen. It’s been important to me that my students from diverse backgrounds are able to leave my classroom feeling like they are as much a part of America’s story as George Washington.
Being an educator at a university has also been about meeting the students wherever they are in life. Many of the undergraduates we work with are from other departments on campus and may not share our passion for history. But that just means we have to get creative with our approach.
As a TA, it's not always possible to find alternative methods of reaching the students, but MSU offers opportunities to do so that we can take advantage of. Last year, for instance, I was a Teaching and Learning Fellow with the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and was able to develop a project alongside Professor Guillermo Delgado that came up with alternative forms of summative assessment as a means of engaging non-traditional students of history.
It was a resounding success as the students, most of whom were from a background in fine arts, developed final projects in an artistic medium of their choice that demonstrated what they had learned over the Spring semester about the history of mass incarceration in the United States. I’m grateful to have had the chance to put some of my ideas into practice in this way alongside incredible mentors. For any new students in the Graduate School, I would highly recommend seeking out these opportunities to help you develop as an educator.
Challenges you have experienced and how have you grown from these?
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of my time as a graduate educator was starting at MSU during the pandemic. I had ideas of what leading discussions at a university would be like and all of those flew right out of the window when classes were on Zoom. I realized very quickly that I would be talking to grey squares instead of my students, and that I had to be prepared to fill the class time with alternatives to a back-and-forth discussion on the material, because that sort of environment does not encourage student participation.
This aspect of working as a Graduate Assistant did not change once recitations were back in-person. The little grey squares were gone, but that time on Zoom seemed to have drained the students of their desire to talk in class. In both cases I developed lesson plans that involved the students talking to each other instead. Working together in small groups on questions based on that week’s reading gave them the opportunity to not only get to know each other better and foster a sense of community in the classroom, but it also gave students confidence to speak to the larger group when we came back together to discuss their answers.
The pressure was no longer on the individual to come up with the “correct” answer or an insightful observation, they could lean on each other, and it really seemed to help bring them out of their shells.
What value do you see in Teaching Professional Development?
Professional development is incredibly important for us as graduate educators, because many of us are put into the classroom straight from our undergraduate years with no prior teaching experience. The Graduate School and our individual departments offer incredible opportunities to fill in the gaps and develop our pedagogical philosophies, and it's on us to take advantage of those opportunities.
For instance, during Spring Semester 2024, the Graduate School offered an excellent workshop on equity-centered, trauma-informed education led by Ph.D. candidate Gloria Ashaolu and Dr. Hima Rawal. The workshop was designed to introduce educators to the tools needed to intentionally develop a pedagogy that fosters an equitable environment for our students. It was an excellent opportunity for all of us to start thinking about the kind of educators that we want to be, and how to approach teaching in a way that ensures we aren’t unintentionally harming our students.
The Graduate School is incredibly supportive of its students and these sorts of workshops for professional development are invaluable to our development as educators.
What is one piece of advice you would give other graduate educators?
Find your community on campus and support each other. Doing a Ph.D. is a long and stressful process, but it can also be an incredibly rewarding experience. I was lucky enough to come into the history department with some incredible people who have become my closest friends. But not every cohort is as close as mine, so be open to seeking out community elsewhere. For instance, I’ve also made great friends through CLS, English, and Education. And we discuss all aspects of the graduate experience, from how to navigate comprehensive exams and compiling job application materials, to best practices in the classroom and building a positive relationship with your professor of record.
After the shooting on campus in 2023, we got together to discuss the best way to move forward with the courses we were teaching and how to offer the most support to our students. We shared resources that the university and our individual departments sent out, to make sure that no one missed anything important.
And we were regularly checking in with each other, because even though graduate educators are university employees, we’re students as well, and that liminal space that we occupy can leave us feeling left to fend for ourselves at times. The community that I have been able to build over the last four and a half years has been crucial to surviving grad school in one piece!
What do you enjoy in your free time?
Art in all its mediums, but especially film. Going to the movies is easily my favorite pastime but I also love the classics and finding foreign films. I’m a huge fan of the films of Pedro Almodóvar and recently had the opportunity to visit the Almodóvar exhibit at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. I’ve also recently been watching the films of Akira Kurosawa. I also love hanging out with my dogs. I have two boxers and they keep me on my toes!
What non-academic book are you currently reading/ or is a favorite?
Reading for pleasure largely disappeared until after comprehensive exams ended! But since then, I have gotten back into reading every night before bed and it's been so nice to have that back. I’m currently reading two books, "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi, and "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson. My all-time favorite novel though is probably "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or "Giovanni’s Room" by James Baldwin. It’s too hard to pick just one.
