Jessica Vandervort has been a member of John Abbott College’s Department of History since 2006. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History with a minor in Women’s Studies from McGill University (1994) and a Master’s degree in History from Concordia University (2003). Her thesis examined the diaries of a female adolescent who lived in Victorian Montreal. She teaches in both the History and the Research Methods departments and is a member of the Teaching and Learning Environment and Pathways committees. She helps her students cultivate a more active role in their own learning through participation in classroom workshops and discussions. This social historian believes that “success in the classroom has been attained when students have developed a critical lens and a deep comfort with unanswered questions.”