Brady Guy graduated from SUNY Brockport in Spring 2025 with a B.S. in Social Studies
Adolescence Education. He has been active in the Brockport community as a peer mentor
coordinator for the Honors College and as a resident assistant in MacVicar Hall for the Teachers of Tomorrow LLC (named “LLC of the Month” in October and November of 2024). Brady also worked as a member of the Home Events Staff for the Athletics Department on campus and has regularly helped to recruit prospective students at admissions open houses. Brady completed his student teaching in the Skaneateles Central School District, where he gained hands-on experience in the teaching profession. In Spring 2024, he presented his completed thesis, “Shadows of American History Interpreting Japanese Internment in Educational Contexts.” Brady chose this topic because he has always had a keen interest in “under taught” histories; this interest was explicitly sparked in his Education and Society class by a lesson focused on the history of Indigenous Boarding Schools. He felt these overlooked histories should be brought to the forefront of our attention.
As he embarked upon this thesis, Brady started with many different ideas and was unsure
how he would narrow them down. This is a common roadblock for students beginning their
thesis; initially, the research process seems exceptionally daunting, but having professors’ and
peers’ support can help alleviate the stress. Even after developing his topic, Brady struggled to
synthesize the project’s educational and historical contexts, which can be challenging for
researchers to intertwine. However, Brady was able to effectively resolve this tension: he first
researched Japanese Internment and then incorporated a lesson plan into his project.
Japanese Internment was the forced relocation of Japanese Americans to detention camps
by the United States government during World War II. Brady starts his thesis with the
immigration restrictions imposed upon Japanese Americans when coming into the country in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Then, he offers some historical context on the bombing of Pearl Harbor and how it served as a turning point, leading to anti-Japanese
movements in the United States. The events that occurred at Pearl Harbor led to anti-Japanese
sentiments, which were quickly exacerbated until Japanese Americans were sent to detention
camps. After giving in-depth historical context, Brady integrated his research into lesson plans, which he compiled into a unit plan containing modules that could be used in a classroom setting. Brady also included descriptions of places where teachers could take their students (both physical and virtual) on field trips through public history.
His biggest challenge was figuring out what was essential to include in this thesis project.
One positive outcome was that he was “able to get his feet wet in a bunch of different parts and elements of his major” and figure out what he liked and did not like about his field of study. He is still unsure whether he will pursue publishing his thesis, but he plans to use it to further his educational and professional career. He is planning to use the historical essay portion of his thesis to apply to graduate schools; the lesson plans for classroom instruction; and the completion of the project as evidence of career preparation.
When asked about his reflections on the process, Brady expressed how the entire thesis
experience was gratifying and allowed him to learn much about himself. He learned how to
better manage his time with different strategies and how he can become a better teacher and
citizen as he goes through the process of teaching complex topics. Brady would offer this advice to future Honors thesis students: “the earlier you start making connections with faculty, the easier it is to reach out and work with them on the project. A little bit of work you do right now will save you time in the future.”
Brady worked closely with several professors from multiple departments at SUNY
Brockport. His thesis director was Dr. Spiller, a professor in the History Department. This was an easy decision for Brady to make as he had taken a class taught by Dr. Spiller every semester and felt that he would be more than willing to help Brady meet the goals and aspirations he had for his thesis. Dr. Spiller was not the only professor that Brady reached out to for assistance; he also met with many professors from the Department of Education and Human Development, including Drs. Shema, Yurko, and Miller, to gain additional perspectives on his research and for help incorporating the education component of his major into his thesis. In search of other perspectives, Brady consulted with his peers, such as fellow peer mentor Ashley Pierce, with whom he shared ideas in the early planning stages.
Brady presented his thesis at Scholars Day, and he recounts it “as a great way to reflect
on all of his learning and stirred feelings of pride over all that he accomplished.” Not only did he get to present his thesis at Brockport’s Scholars Day, but he also presented an abbreviated
version at the first-year honors orientation and almost every first-year Honors Academic
Planning Seminar (GEP 100) course. This helped put into perspective how much the thesis did for him, how it had helped him as a learner and student, and how it served as a transition into the next phase of his professional career.