This is an essay from 2018 for my high school AP Literature class, where we were assigned to read one novel that defined a particular era or movement in history and to demonstrate how it captures the zeitgeist of the period. The first quarter of the twentieth century was an era of conflicting identity for […]
Author: Gideon French
Cemeteries and I
This was the essay I wrote for the Common Application in 2018. Cemeteries are spooky, dark places where the dead go to rest and the living go to great lengths to avoid. At least, that’s what we see in horror movies. In fact, I consider a cemetery one of the best places to learn about […]
Visiting Mexico City
In the summer of 2018, I traveled to Mexico City with my grandfather Ruben Madrid, my dad Scot French, and my brother Levi. My dad was attending the international Digital Humanities conference. My great-grandparents, Tomasa and Manuel Madrid, grew up and lived in the Durango/Chihuahua area before immigrating to the U.S. during the Mexican Revolution […]
AHA Conference. Washington D.C.
In January 2018, I traveled to Washington D.C. with my father to the annual conference of the American Historical Association, the largest and oldest gathering of historians in the United States. As an aspiring historian, I wanted to meet leading scholars in the field and see professional historians in action. I browsed the book fair, […]
Cornerstone Summer Institute
In 2017, I attended the Cornerstone Summer Institute, a residential program designed by the President’s Commission on Slavery at the University of Virginia for select high school students. The course promotes critical thinking about the the historical interpretations of slavery and enduring struggles for freedom. We visited an exhibit on slavery at James Madison’s Montpelier, […]