03/31/2021
Thank you for checking out my Etsy store!!!
On April 15th I will be sharing the link to my new Etsy shop: Grad Gal Gifts 🛍 which is almost ready for launch after months of preparation.
I will post the link around midnight if anyone comes to this event before 10am, and then at 10 PST I will go live to talk a bit about my shop, the story behind it, and some of my favorite items I'll be selling.
I am now (as of last week!) a registered business owner and have been setting this shop up the right way so that (hopefully 🤞) I can create my own source of income to help support me finishing my PhD in music education. This is also a huge creative and emotional outlet for me so I am beyond excited to share a passion I have dedicated myself to since I was nine when my mom taught me everything I know.
**About this shop**
This shop was originally created with the name My Marley's Market because in September my cat and soul mate Marley suddenly died of pancreatic cancer. Aside from being devastated because I have truly never met a cat as unique and connected to me as he was, I was also recently unemployed with almost $5000 in vet bills to pay. I threw some jewelry together and used Etsy as a quick fundraiser. I am eternally grateful for the support my community showed through my Etsy shop and Gofundme because within 48 hours I was able to pay all the vet bills and work on climbing out of the grief which would hold me captive for several months. Being isolated from covid was hard enough, but losing my emotional companion and sense of self which was tied to my love of caring for him forced me into a new chapter I wasn't read for. What I didn't know is that it began a journey of healing and self discovery which has brought me here, now.
Because of the support I received, and finally having overcome the fear of selling jewelry I make which has always been laden with my emotional investments, I found a new passion in creating things for others. I've always been other-oriented with a drive toward helping my community as much as I can, but the ability to make pretty things and know that someone else was enjoying it? Incredible.
So I decided to reopen my store under a new name which I believe really represents who I am. Grad Gal Gifts is not only an homage to my now six years in grad school working toward my PhD, but it is hopefully the start of a Grad Gal business where I plan to sell handmade items with love, and in addition to that build a consulting and teaching business where I can offer support to other graduate students who are struggling to make it through grad school, as well as educators who are trying to incorporate more music in their classrooms. So your support is a direct support of my greater mission in life which is to help people do what they love.
**About me**
I taught elementary music for five years before returning to school for my Master's and now PhD in music education. I specialize in research which connects exposure to music from cultures around the world to the development of intercultural competencies like empathy, openmindness, compassion, curiosity, and understanding toward others, among many others. I believe that music education should be a responsible representation of the capacity which music holds around the world to express emotions, connect people, and share cultural and individual identity. My PhD is one step in me being able to understand how these connections work so that I may support educators and education at large with the incorporation of global music in classrooms.
I have also been a proud student leader at my university where I had the honor of being an elected representative to my colleagues. I started as a Senator for our School of Music during my two years in the Master's program. I was then elected by the Senate as the Secretary which helped pay my living expenses and tuition that year, and then I was elected by the Senate the next two years as the President of our Graduate and Professional Student Senate. This meant that my job was to represent my roughly 17,000 colleagues to the university administrators, state legislators, and national legislators. During my last year I was also elected VP of graduate and professional affairs for the Washington Student Association where I represented all graduate an professional students in the state of Washington. So clearly, representation and advocacy matter to me, and I have found incredible humility and pride in being trusted to work toward positive change for my thousands of colleagues who are becoming experts in fields across all disciplines and practices.
Now I am in the final year of my PhD, unemployed, and trying to work full time on my dissertation so I can recover as quickly as possible from the excruciating job market I have been desperately trying to navigate this past year. So many job applications submitted. Not even one interview. Demoralizing to say the least, but this is why I opened this Grad Gal Gifts shop: I can find purpose in financially supporting myself while also continuing to work in the fields of graduate education and music education for which I care the most.
Your support with my store directly supports my dreams.
Thank you for visiting, and I am really looking forward to sharing this new chapter with you!!!!!
