Outstanding Alumni
Anita Anthony-VanOrsdal, History '06
I graduated in December 2006 and stayed with GVSU for an internship
on the Committee to Commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition
of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and to finish my term as President
of the GVSU chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the national honor society for
history. In the fall of 2007, I started in the graduate program in
U.S. History at Michigan State University where I earned my doctoral
degree in 2016. While writing my dissertation, I was an adjunct
professor at Grand Rapids Community College and an adjunct and
visiting professor at GVSU.
I spent nearly three years working outside of the academic
profession before returning to teach Advanced Placement World History
for a college prep high school in Brooklyn, New York. After spending a
year in Brooklyn during the pandemic, I accepted an offer to teach
enlisted military students as an Overseas Collegiate Faculty Associate
Professor for the University of Maryland Global Campus in South Korea
where I currently reside.
I continue to conduct research projects inspired during my
undergraduate years at GVSU in addition to working on publications
concerning American Women's History during the Progressive Era and
World War I.
As a first-generation university graduate who benefitted
immensely from the great teaching and advising of the entire History
Department faculty, I consider my successes as a direct result of
their influential abilities to connect with students in profound ways.
I now get to continue their good examples by teaching and mentoring
other first-generation college students who are serving their country
while they complete their undergraduate degrees.
Updated January 2022
Interest Area(s)
History, Education
Share this spotlight
Return to the listing of outstanding alumni.