News From Our Recent Alumni

Stephan Papp's travels in China

Austin Due

Austin Due (B.A., History, 2015)

After graduating cum laude with a double major in history and philosophy and a minor in the western intellectual tradition, Due will start a master’s degree program in philosophy at San Francisco State University. From there, he plans to pursue his doctorate in philosophy and to become a university professor in the history of philosophy and the history of ideas.

In 2014-15, Due served as the executive editor of the History Department’s student-produced publication, The Forum: A Journal of History, which recently published its seventh volume. During his time at Cal Poly, Due was also an officer in the College of Liberal Arts College Club Council, a WOW leader, an officer for Phi Alpha Theta for two years, on staff of two ASI presidential campaigns, and assistant editor for the 2013-14 volume of The Forum. In June, he received the department’s J. Irving Snetsinger Award for Writing Excellence.

Due’s hometown is Escalon, Calif. He grew up on a farm that has been in his family for more than 140 years and produces almonds, walnuts, wine grapes, cherries and cattle.
 

Amy Hart

Amy Hart (B.A., Political Science, 2011; M.A., History, 2015)

Hart, a spring 2015 graduate of the department’s master’s degree program, will enter the doctorate program in history at UC Santa Cruz. At UC Santa Cruz, she plans to continue her research on modern religious history and religiously diverse communities with a focus on religious communities in the American West. She hopes to pursue a career in academia as a professor of history.

While in Cal Poly’s graduate program, Hart authored a thesis titled, “Gods and Gurus in the City of Angels: Aimee Semple McPherson, Swami Paramananda, and Los Angeles in the 1920s,” and worked as an archivist with the South County Historical Society through the History Department’s internship program.  She also assisted with grading and teaching for multiple instructors and won numerous department and university awards, including Cal Poly’s 2015 Outstanding Graduate Student Award. 

Hart first graduated from Cal Poly with a bachelor’s in political science. She then served two years with the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso. Hart credits her time in West Africa, where she witnessed the ability of education to lift people out of poverty and transform communities, for inspiring her interest in teaching and research on religious tolerance and diversity.
 

Megan Korp

Megan Korp (B.S., Psychology, 2013; Minor, History, 2013)

After graduating from Cal Poly, Korp worked in Southern California as a behavior therapist and early intervention educator, providing in-home behavioral and developmental instruction to children and their families. In her work, she combines her psychology degree with an understanding of social context and the communication and writing skills enhanced by her history minor. Korp plans to pursue a career as a pediatric occupational therapist and will apply to graduate programs this fall. 
 

Stephan Papp (B.S., Biology, 2014; Minor, History, 2014)

Papp completed his biology degree at Cal Poly and then travelled and volunteered in health clinics and English language schools in Latin America and East Asia, including in remote areas of China’s interior. The time spent abroad built upon his interests in the history of race and of socio-economic inequalities both within the U.S. and abroad. During this time Papp also applied to medical schools. This summer he returned to his home state to start the M.D. program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.