Anthropology 140, Magic, Witchcraft and Religion, was staring at her from the pages of Modesto Junior College’s course catalog.
“The name just sucks you in,” said Heather Collins, who needed a class to complete her schedule when she returned to college after a 10-year hiatus.
The class did more than that.
“I thought it would be a fun filler class, and instead, I discovered anthropology,” Collins said. “I learned I love talking to people. I love learning about people. I thought for a long time that meant I wanted to be a communications major and I realized this is the direction I need to go. I can get paid to go live with people and learn about them.”
The McNair Scholar and Stan State Honors student already has had opportunities to do that work, taking field courses offered through MJC in which she earned both anthropology and geology credits. She spent time in Hawaii on the Big Island of Hawaii and Kauai, at the Four Corners — Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah — in the Pacific Northwest on a trip that traveled from the Olympic Peninsula east to Montana and Wyoming and Glacier National Park and Jackson Hole, and on Vancouver Island in Canada.
It only took the first trip to Hawaii to set her course.
“I found what I wanted to focus on in Kauai,” Collins said. “It ended up setting the stage of what would be my academic journey and where I am, now. I ended up falling in love with geology. For a moment after the trip, I wondered if it was something I wanted to major in, or how to incorporate it into what I wanted to do. “
“In anthropology, especially cultural anthropology, there’s an ethno-sub-field of everything. I thought ethno-geology must already exist. It would help people understand the geological features they live next to. I was really interested in Hawaii and how the Hawaiians understood the volcanoes in a way they could live next to really catastrophic features, successfully. Their understanding was successful despite it not being western scientific understanding of volcanoes. I started to put these things together, and when I went to look for ethno-geology, it didn’t exist. Nobody was working on this term or focusing on this. I'd ask my professors, and they’d say, “I don’t think anyone’s connecting those dots yet, but you should, someday.”
That planted the seed, and Collins is forging a new path of ethno-geology, a sister study of cultural geography.
“Cultural anthropology looks more at why people choose the environment and landscapes they’re going to spend time in and how that shapes them,” Collins said. “With ethno-geology, I’m more interested in their intuitive understanding of processes and features of our planet that they had to live next to and adapt to. How did they explain that? How did they understand the ebbs and flows of the rivers and when there was going to be a dry season? They were able to predict that on a supernatural understanding.”
After the Hawaii excursion, Collins said she was keenly focused on geology and anthropology on subsequent trips. With her anthropology professor on sabbatical in 2018, Collins was allowed to lecture on the anthropological portion of the trip to the Pacific Northwest.
She also delivered a class lecture on the MJC campus, expanding on the work she’d done for the Hawaii trip, on pigeon language.
“I never thought I could pick something I am passionate about and teach,” Collins said. “I had never considered teaching. It came later in my anthropology journey. I decided I wanted to do what these people are doing. I want to watch the next generation fall in love with it. I want to hear their ideas and be excited for them and do what my professors are doing for me and supporting me. I want to do research and I want to explore my field, but I know I want to land a teaching position.”
Collins' goal is to earn a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology/ethno-geology. Her plan is to interview native Miwuks living in and around Yosemite National Park for her McNair research project.
It’s quite a change from the dancing career she once envisioned for herself. When she graduated from Escalon High in 2004, she moved to Southern California to study dance at Fullerton College, known for its musical theatre program. She injured her knee in a class, though, dashing those dreams.
She moved to Modesto, where her dad lives, got a job, had a baby in 2009 and devoted herself to motherhood until her child began school. That’s when Collins decided to return to school, supported by family and friends, including her child’s father.
She shined once she enrolled, selected for the honors programs at MJC and Stan State. Now, she’s a McNair Scholar.
“A program like this is what I need to make my doctoral goal a reality,” Collins said. “I’ve been developing this research idea for five years, but I haven’t had the academic opportunities to pursue it at its truest value. Once I explained to professors, they were encouraging about it. I went in expecting them to say, ‘that’s a cute idea, but we’ll see.’ They didn’t. They've been supportive.”
