Introduction

My name is Lisa Gochnauer, and I grew up in Saratoga, a small town near San Jose, CA. I went to St. Andrew's, a private Christian school for a number of years until I got sick of wearing uniforms and transferred to Redwood Middle School and then finally to Saratoga High School. At the tender age of 18, I moved to sunny San Diego to attend San Diego State and decided to never move back to the Bay Area. I graduated in May 2008 with a bachelor degree in Music Education. After spending four years straight of taking 18+ units a semester in order to graduate "on time" and feeling pretty pessimistic about my career choice (will I even be able to get a job?) I decided to take a break from school, during which time I moved to Escondido to be with the love of my life. Even after being out of school for only 8 months, I'm finding it a difficult adjustment to being a student again now with the additional challenge of juggling a full-time job.

I am a complete computer geek. I've been using computers since I was old enough to type a DOS command line, build my own computers, and spend a ridiculous amount of time staring at the computer screen, mostly gaming (World of Warcraft owns my soul) though I've been occasionally known to use computers for somewhat practical applications as well. I am experienced with Office 2007, but I am still rather fond of 2003, though at the moment I am typing this up on notepad, as my computer is only a month old, and I haven't gotten around to installing Office on it yet. And if you haven't noticed by now I am a loyal PC user, but I do know my way around Macs having used them since elementary school. I'll admit, I even considered buying a Mac once, but after a trip to the Apple Store where I was completely overcome with sticker shock ($400 for 2GB of DDR2 RAM?!) I reaffirmed my allegiance to PCs. As a avid gamer, I like the customization that is available to PCs. Besides, there's something slightly unsettling about paying over $100 for an OS that's Linux with a shiny GUI. And the lack of right click. And no, Command-Click is not the same thing!

Although my decision to attend CSUSM was purely locational, I believe the ideals found in the College of Education's Mission Statement to be very noteworthy goals. In particular as a music teacher I am especially committed to inspire my students to become life-long learners. Although most students will never become music majors or have a career as a musician, music promotes human development, and gives students cognitive tools to interact with the world around them. If you stop learning, you're dead. I am also committed to embracing diversity. Music is an integral part of our lives and found in every culture. By understanding music, we are able to better understand ourselves, and better relate to our world. We have differences, but we have even more in common.