Anthropology undergraduate uses studies to propel career
“I started at community college in Elko, (Nevada), and they did away with both of the majors that I wanted to pursue,” said ASU grad Becky Stanton. “I was kind of lost for a bit.” Courtesy photo
In December, Becky Stanton will earn a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from ASU Online and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Although Stanton says that she could not imagine majoring in anything else, there was a time when the Elko, Nevada, born student did not have a clear path.
“I started at community college in Elko, and they did away with both of the majors that I wanted to pursue. I was kind of lost for a bit," she said.
Eventually, Stanton settled on pursuing a degree in English. However, after a year and a half of completed studies, she said something just didn’t feel right.
“I just decided it really wasn’t for me. I’d always wanted to be an archaeologist. So I decided, ‘Hey, why not just take the leap?’” she said.
And what a leap it was. As an undergraduate, Stanton interned with the Bureau of Land Management, attended field school in Fairbanks, Alaska, through the Society for Historical Archaeology and completed three research apprenticeships with the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Stanton was also named to the Dean’s List in 2023 and 2024.
ASU News talked with Stanton about her experiences as an anthropology major.
Question: What made you choose ASU?
Answer: I took a little bit of a gap year — I think it was like a year and a half — and then I found Arizona State's online program and everything looked great. They had a very robust anthropology program with lots of well-known names in the field working as faculty. And so I was pretty excited about that. The rest is history.
Q: What was your “aha” moment, when you realized you wanted to study anthropology?
A: I was working at a museum here in Elko, and we had a guest speaker come out from the Bureau of Land Management. She did a presentation on atlatl usage and Pleistocene megafauna, and how humans interacted with megafauna during the Pleistocene — how they ate them, used them for tools and clothing and whatnot. I was super interested in the talk that she gave, and afterwards, I walked over to her while our audience was leaving, and I just kind of got to talking to her. I asked her what her job title was and she said, ‘I'm an archaeologist.’ It was a light bulb moment for me because I didn’t know that was an option. As soon as she said those words, ‘I'm an archaeologist,’ that's when I knew what I needed to do.
Q: What’s something you learned while at ASU — in the classroom or otherwise — that surprised you or changed your perspective?
A: Honestly, it was taking a bioarchaeology class because I didn't realize there were so many subfields in archaeology. After that, I started taking all of the specialty archaeology classes. I took the geoarchaeology class. I took the forensic archaeology class. Just every single different type of archaeology I could get my hands on. That really broadened my perspective about the way that humans interact with each other and how they interact with their own personal histories, with their cultures and with their societies.
Q: Which professor taught you the most important lesson while at ASU?
A: It was Sara Marsteller because she was so flexible with my work schedule. I do a lot of fieldwork, so I get called out into the field to conduct archaeological surveys and monitoring work with no notice. So it was very difficult for me to get this degree online because everything is on a very tight deadline. But her flexibility with her students and just treating us like adults — I think that was the most impactful for me, because I felt like I was being respected.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to those still in school?
A: Honestly, stick through it. I know that's very cliche, but just stick through it. Once you get your degree, so many doors open for you and so many options open up for you. I think that in a field like anthropology and archaeology, it is very difficult to break in if you don't have a specialized degree.
Q: As an online student, what was your favorite spot for power studying?
A: I love my balcony in California. I love sitting outside just watching the cars go by on the freeway next to my house. There’s just something about being outdoors under the big blue sky that really gave me a lot of clarity.
Q: What are your plans after graduation?
A: I'm going to continue working for my current company as an archaeologist but I'm probably going to move into a project management role so that I'm less focused on fieldwork and more so on supporting the company and its fiscal goals.
Q: If someone gave you $40 million to solve one problem on our planet, what would you tackle?
A: Probably our housing crisis. Living in Los Angeles, I am surrounded by people who are homeless, and being surrounded by people who don't have housing is very difficult ... in that it's very hard to see somebody who is struggling so much and not being able to do a lick about it. There's nothing anybody just walking down the street can do for somebody who doesn't have housing except to give them a house. So I think that reallocating funds towards community housing would be what I would want to use that funding for.
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