Among the people who work at Grays Harbor College, Brittany is a devoted and passionate teacher who every day gives a smile, her support, and a little wisdom to each student she works with. She is employed as a writing consultant in the Learning Center and teaches for the Student Orientation Program at this same school. It was a pleasure and a great time to interview Brittany. She is a young lady that always gives a smile and is there to help you, a lady that with her wisdom inspires students every day. Brittany is a charming, giving person, and has been involved with the Grays Harbor community since she was a teenager. In high school, she and her sister volunteered at the Friendship House organizing clothes, cleaning and with various fundraisers through the school. In 2006, Brittany worked with at-risk students in a program called Learning Intensive Fast Track, located at Harbor High. She has been at Grays Harbor College for the past three and half years.
Brittany, a leader and feminist who is planting seeds of hope and faith toward the betterment of our community, is a teacher doing her best for her local community, the students of Grays Harbor College. She is an example of great leadership and inspiration, something that our youth and children are hungry for. Here is the story of my great friend and teacher, Brittany Ferry.
My father’s side of the family lives in Seattle and California. My mother’s side of the family lives in New England. I’m about 50 percent Irish, 25 percent English, and 25 percent German. My maternal grandparents met and got married in London in 1954. My grandfather was 100 percent Irish and my grandmother is 100 percent English. They moved to New York State in 1956 shortly after my mom was born. On my father’s side, both my grandparents were born in Montana, but they met at the University of Washington. My grandpa is mostly Irish, and my grandma mostly German, but her side of the family has been stateside so long that there’s a lot mixed in there with the German. My sister and I were raised by my paternal grandma.
My twin sister Jackie and I were born in Seattle. When we were six, we moved to Westport and stayed there for one school year. After that, we moved to Cosmopolis and started second grade there. It was a little strange – there was only one classroom per grade (and sometimes teachers had two grade levels in one classroom), so all the students had been together since kindergarten. It was a little difficult to fit in, so Jackie and I didn’t really get a circle of friends until we started junior high and changed schools. We both enjoyed and were involved in junior high and high school – band, science club, swim team, knowledge bowl – and graduated from Aberdeen High School in the class of 2000.
Jackie and I both went to college at Western Washington University in Bellingham. It was a fun experience. It was the first time we were living away from home, by ourselves, but since my sister and I were together, it made it a lot easier. We had a built-in best friend and roommate, so some of what makes college nerve wracking for most students wasn’t there. Those times were challenging but exciting. We learned a lot and gained a sense of independence.
Starting grad school was a little different, however. My first grad program was at WWU, so it wasn’t a change at all. Jackie took a gap year and worked in the area, so we still were together. At the start of my second grad program, which was at Portland State University, my sister attended grad school in Sheffield, England, and I had to move to Portland, Oregon, alone. I had to live by myself for the first time, and in a big city, too. It was a scary experience at first, though I quickly bonded with my classmates and teachers and formed a small but supportive community at school. Living in a ground floor apartment in the light industrial district took longer to adjust to. I left a hammer next to the head of my bed, for security, mostly, and sometimes, when I had to take evening classes, I walked the two miles home to avoid the bus stop areas. I graduated from PSU in 2006 with a master’s in history and moved back to Cosmopolis.
At Grays Harbor College, I work part-time as a writing consultant in the Learning Center and part-time as an instructor. I’ve taught reading, writing, and social studies for the Adult Basic Education, and I also occasionally teach FYE, or First Year Experience, which is an orientation class for new students. I usually get to GHC at 7:30 a.m. or so, to check emails, prepare lessons, and grade papers, before my shift in the Learning Center starts.
Outside of my work for GHC, I copyedit nonfiction manuscripts and I also volunteer as newsletter editor for two women’s history organizations: the Western Association of Women Historians and the Coordinating Council for Women in History. I’ve always appreciated activists and feminists. In history, they’re the ones that make things happen, usually good things. As a woman, having studied the Declaration of Sentiments from 1848 and knowing what I do about civil rights movements, I understand how important is to bring equality to minorities in all spheres, and I don’t think many people today realize it’s an ongoing issue. I think one of the most regrettable things about my generation is the apathy toward politics. Being involved in politics means being involved with your community. If people today understood how much earlier generations went through to get us where we are today, they’d look with more appreciation at that voter registration card, or Title IX entitlement, or any of that legislation.
Professionally, my best reward in working with students is when students comprehend and overcome all those obstacles they have in writing. It’s one of the nicest things about my job. W e are a learning community and students can learn from each other. It is great to have the opportunity to help them to get more self confidence. Typically, when students first come in, they’re daunted and say, “I’m horrible at English,” or writing, or reading. Hopefully, by the end of that first visit, even if they maybe don’t know all the rules yet, I’ve cleared up some of them and, more importantly, I’ve given them encouragement. As long as they’ve stopped seeing their homework as insurmountable, I’m happy. They’ll come back, and we’ll get it figured out together. And English and writing are skills students need in all their classes, and in their jobs beyond Grays Harbor College, too, so I love the positive influence I have on them in that way.
I love my professional field, but I have a lot of interests outside of school, too. Reading, of course, but I also like crafts like cross-stitching, sewing, quilting, and scrapbooking. I love to spend time with my family. I have tons of aunts and uncles and a handful of cousins, and they’re all wonderful, fun people. I like to be outdoors, too, at the beach or the rainforest, and I absolutely love traveling. I’ve been to Costa Rica, the British Isles, Western Europe, Victoria and Toronto in Canada, and 25 states in the U.S. Jackie and I are planning to visit Alaska this summer, and we always have new trip ideas in the works: Grand Canyon, the Everglades, the Trans-Canadian railway (or the Trans-Siberian one!), Africa, Machu Picchu, everywhere.
As for my future, I don’t see it as too different from my present. I’ll still do things that interest me, even if the types of things change over time, and I see myself as staying in a writing-related career for my whole working life. When I was eight I wanted to be a writer, mostly because I loved to read. That was my big dream. It evolved as I grew up, and I focused professionally on editing and teaching, but it still involves writing, which I still love.
I love to learn, too, and like the idea of getting a Ph.D. in history. I’d focus on women’s social and cultural history, like I did for my master’s. But I realize that a Ph.D. would be more of an indulgence than career advancement, so I probably won’t. I’d like to adopt at some point, though. That would be the biggest change between my present and future. Marriage doesn’t interest me and, maybe because I was raised by a single mother, I don’t see marriage as a nec-essary prerequisite for a family. I like the idea of adopting siblings, too, so that I can have a large family and they can stay with their siblings. I’ll need more stabil-ity in my work first – a full-time salary and benefits, namely – but kids would be a lot of fun. Even if kids never happen, though, I still have a lot about my life that I enjoy and I have a lot to look forward to over the next few decades
~Interviewed & transcribed
by Francisco Caballero
