May 2002

Scholar-Teacher: Second Generation

In his class on Vietnam, David Schmitz brought the war to life so well, says Natalie Fousekis, ’90, that it made her angry.

“It fueled my desire to learn more, to do an honors thesis, and eventually go on to study history in grad school.”

Now two years out of graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Fousekis is back on the Whitman campus as Schmitz’s sabbatical replacement, although her own research has taken
a path other than foreign policy — she now studies women in Cold War America and their pioneering efforts to advocate for state-sponsored
child care.

It was Schmitz, she says, who suggested she do an honors thesis on Vietnam War dissenter Senator Frank Church, whose personal papers had just opened up at Boise State University, only four hours away from Whitman.
Not only did she love the archival work but the resulting honors thesis was the groundwork for a scholarly article cowritten by Schmitz and Fousekis that was published in the Pacific Historical Review. The article has been very well received, says Fousekis.

Even so, Fousekis admits, filling Schmitz’s shoes this year at Whitman was a little daunting. “But he’s been as much an adviser to me now in terms of helping me navigate as a first-year full-time professor as he was when I was here as an undergraduate.”

Her style and focus in lectures tends to be different from Schmitz’s, but she believes that “he set the bar for what an ideal history lecture is. You cannot be bored. He makes you challenge your assumptions and gives you the tools to look at an event from all sides.” One way he does this, adds Fousekis, is with discussion groups.

“Because his classes are so popular, they’re often large by Whitman standards — 40 students when I was in school. So, he would break each class into three discussion groups; and then you’re down to 12 or so students, and everyone would have to talk. My friends and I would study and prep for those discussion groups for hours because we wanted to sound intelligent in front of this man, who basically teaches by example.” The high standards that Schmitz sets for himself, she says, make his students want to aspire to the same standards.

“He’s the one who says, you should write an honors thesis; you should get a Ph.D. He takes the extra step. It makes you want to be a better scholar, a better student, and now, it makes me want to be a better teacher.”