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We’re dealing with fresh research material, and it is challenging to see a new slant on history. Going through the documents is almost like watching history, seeing it take place before your eyes,” says Jessica, a sophomore from San Jose, Calif., and a graduate of Notre Dame High School. “To get hands-on experience as a sophomore — to help a professor research his book — is such a great experience. It’s something I don’t think I’d ever get at a larger school.”
“Jessika is a good, smart student,” says her research mentor, D.C. Jackson. “I love working with her because already she has shown the ability to deal with complex issues and to digest and analyze them. She is the epitome of what the EXCEL Scholars program is about — giving students the chance to develop as the scholars of tomorrow.”
As she dives into her research on the controversial damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in California, Jessika Luth is discovering the “real” history to be found in the blurry, dusty, hard-to-read documents of archives.
As an EXCEL Scholar, working with D.C. Jackson, associate professor of history, Luth is wading through the 1,200-page transcript of a key 1912 hearing to decide whether or not to dam and flood the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park in order to provide water for San Francisco’s urban water system.
“The damming has been the subject of many books,” Jackson explains. “It is a well-known ‘loss’ in environmental history. What Jessika is helping me do is look at how the decision to dam the valley was made from the perspective of both the opponents and the proponents.”
He is the author of Building the Ultimate Dam: John S. Eastwood and the Control of Water in The West, published by the University Press of Kansas, which was selected as an Outstanding Academic Book for 1996 by the editors of CHOICE, the official publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries.
Luth, a Marquis Scholar who plans to double major in history and geology, has been poring over the transcript of the hearing in which John R. Freeman, a consulting engineer hired by San Francisco, helped persuade federal officials to dam the river.
“Freeman was an advocate for the project more than an unbiased engineer,” Luth says. “He slanted his report. We’re looking at how he used his engineering background in an essentially political way to counter those who fought the damming, such as the Sierra Club.”
As Jackson notes, being a native of the California area touched by the damming has been a major plus for Luth, along with her background in geology, which, he says, gives her a sense of the terrain and the topography.
“And with her dual major, she brings a different perspective to the project, which entails literally sifting through boxes upon boxes of original documents,” he adds.
“This is my first major research,” Luth says. “I have seven boxes of material to work through and then identify for Professor Jackson key parts of the testimony. It can be a bit overwhelming at times. We’re dealing with fresh research material, and it is challenging to see a new slant on history. Going through the documents is almost like watching history, seeing it take place before your eyes.”
The discipline of research, says Jackson, is an important benefit for his EXCEL research assistants.
“Jessika’s not reading pre-digested textbook material,” he says. “She is reading the raw history of politicians, wheel-dealers, and big business. She is learning what it takes to shape rough materials into a history book.”
The research will be incorporated in the book Jackson is writing on Hetch Hetchy as “a key episode in American technological and environmental history.”
Being a part of a major project excites Luth.
“I like researching and I like organizing. To get hands-on experience as a sophomore — to help a professor research his book — is such a great experience. It’s something I don’t think I’d ever get at a larger school.”
With an interest in environmental law upon graduation, Luth sees her EXCEL experience laying the groundwork for a departmental honors thesis in her senior year. Having taken Jackson’s course in the Transformation of the American Environment, Luth relishes the opportunity to work with him on special research projects.
“We can really discuss things,” she says. “He listens, he cares about what I am saying. He likes bouncing ideas off me, too, and what is most important, I sense he respects what I am saying, he respects my intellect.”
It is, says Jackson, a respect well-earned.
“Jessika is a good, smart student. I love working with her because already she has shown the ability to deal with complex issues and to digest and analyze them. She is the epitome of what the EXCEL Scholars program is about — giving students the chance to develop as the scholars of tomorrow.”
Another Side of Jessika
She is a member of Lafayette’s varsity swimming and diving team.