Meet history alum Nicholas Tate

Written byAshley McClure-French

小蝌蚪APP淚 chose UL Lafayette because you feel like you are truly part of a community here. There are great professors here that work hard to help you and push you to succeed and grow as a scholar.小蝌蚪APP

小蝌蚪APP history alum Nicholas Tate.
Nicholas Tate
Graduation Year
Class of 2017
Major
History
Hometown
Opelousas, La.

Where I'm From

I am from Opelousas, La., where I found my love of history through my family.

Where I Am

I am a graduate student working on my master小蝌蚪APP檚 thesis.

Where I'm Going

I小蝌蚪APP檓 going to earn my PhD. in history.

Nicholas Tate liked UL Lafayette小蝌蚪APP檚 history program so much that he decided to come back for more. He is currently working toward his .

小蝌蚪APP淚 chose UL Lafayette because you feel like you are truly part of a community here,小蝌蚪APP he said. 小蝌蚪APP淭here are great professors here that work hard to help you and push you to succeed and grow as a scholar.

小蝌蚪APP淢y favorite part of my undergraduate degree was learning how to think critically and apply those critical thinking skills to other aspects of my education, such as German, or to issues that we face today, such as systemic racism and oppression,小蝌蚪APP he said.

Nicholas majored in history as an undergraduate and he minored in German

小蝌蚪APP淢y love for history started when I was 4 years old and was learning about my family history,小蝌蚪APP he said. 小蝌蚪APP淚 chose German as my minor because it is an interesting and beautiful language but also because part of my family is German.

小蝌蚪APP淟earning German has opened up more opportunities for research and scholarship that I otherwise would have not been able to do,小蝌蚪APP he said.

As a graduate student, classes look a little different for Nicholas.

小蝌蚪APP淎s an undergraduate I mostly took lecture classes,小蝌蚪APP he said. 小蝌蚪APP淭he professor teaches from the front of the class and everyone listens and takes notes. 

小蝌蚪APP淎s a graduate student the classes are mostly seminars,小蝌蚪APP he said. 小蝌蚪APP淭he class sizes are smaller, and the professor asks a question and then leaves it up to us to answer it. This makes class more of a conversation and it really engages your critical thinking skills.小蝌蚪APP

Nicholas is currently working on his master小蝌蚪APP檚 thesis and he plans to keep going for his Ph.D. in history.

小蝌蚪APP淚 am looking at efforts to preserve the French language in Louisiana, how those efforts affected cultural pride and homogeneity, and how certain francophone cultures in Louisiana came to compete for and create Louisiana's national and global image,小蝌蚪APP he said.

小蝌蚪APP淭he experience is great as I get to conduct interviews and look through archives and documents 小蝌蚪APP which I find fun,小蝌蚪APP he said.

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