E-mail this pageTrish Melton, Class of '03
From Kuwait City to New Orleans
I didn't learn just what to think, but instead how to think - and that's made all the difference
"As a history major at SUNY Plattsburgh, I was often asked the same question over and over again 'What are you going to do with a history degree?' And I would always smile and then try to actually figure out what I wanted out of life just like every other college student. Being a history major doesn't necessarily mean one has to teach it - I knew that I myself didn't want to teach. But at Plattsburgh State, I was able to acquire and develop so many important skills - researching, problem solving, analyzing and synthesizing information - that most don't even realize comes with a history degree.
"Sure, I learned a lot of history lessons over the years - from East Asian history U.S. migration, but I didn't learn just what to think, but instead how to think - and that's made all the difference. I graduated with a major in history and double-minors in archaeology and political science. And now, I'm getting the opportunity to use what I learned at Plattsburgh State and actually live and work where history is in the making.
"In the three years since I graduated as a history major at SUNY Plattsburgh, my life has been turned completely upside down and gone in the most opposite direction I ever thought possible. When I graduated, I was like every other college graduate- bright eyed and ready to take on the future. Little did I know what that was going to entail.
"I was quite proud of myself when I was hired by KBR-Halliburton to work overseas in Iraq. Sure, it didn't have much to do with a history degree, but all of those skills I had learned when I was reading those books and articles, preparing project presentations and writing paper after paper helped shape me into an educated prepared adult. I spent a year in Kuwait City, Kuwait doing payroll, working 84 hours a week most of the time.
"Amazingly, there was still time to see the country and the culture. It was the kind of experience you just can't get out of a book or from a class. What I learned there helped me to understand the history that is being made over there in the Middle East as we speak.
"Since working over there, I became a wife and a mother and just as I was happily settling down into those roles, disaster struck.
"Hurricane Katrina has been called the worst national disaster this country has ever seen. I don't think any words of mine can express just how much of a disaster it truly was and still is as the aftermath still continues a year later." Read More