My name is David Evans and I am proud to be a Southern Utah University Thunderbird! I was born and raised in Midvale, UT and fell in love with history while listening to my family members recount tales of adventure and intrigue from their own lives and history. I love storytelling and using my imagination. As such, I am an avid Marvel, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings fan. Stan Lee, George Lucas, and JRR Tolkien created amazing universes that have made my imagination run rampant and given me years of active fun! I will be graduating in December 2019 with two majors: French Education and History. My love for French was born as I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Paris, France from 2012-2014. I love the French language, culture, and the people. Rennes is my favorite French city, but the Montmartre in Paris holds part of my heart. I married Mon Ange (My Angel), Autumn, May 2018 and we recently welcomed our son, Christopher, into our family February 2019. We named him Chris on purpose since we are purely Team Cap when it comes to Captain America: Civil War. I love the outdoors, shooting sports, and reading, though Netflix does have a major appeal to me on lazy evenings. Adventuring in the real world and in fantasy worlds helps me use my storytelling to have fun and make others happy.
Left: Me at the heart of historic Rennes in 2018
Right: In the Montmartre with the guitarist/singer from the band Presteej in 2018
This website is a portfolio that contains an interview project I completed in recent months. This project is meant to add to the annals of history about Cedar City, UT. After chatting for nearly an hour with a lifelong resident of the city, I gained incite into how the city has changed and how some of the locals view potential growth and expansion in the near future. I showcase my interviewing and listening skills, as well as my professionalism when handling human subject research. I hope that the recording and transcript available on this portfolio are entertaining and insightful.
Cedar City: A Story of Growth-
Recording and Transcript
Here there are two files you can access and download: The first is an audio recording of my interview with Todd Thorley of Cedar City, UT. The other is a transcript of the interview. I need to thank my wife for driving around town with me to get the interview and for her loving support and encouragement as the transcript was completed. She deserves recognition for this project as well.
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Recording: Click here to access the full recording
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Transcript:
"Education was extremely important to everybody here at the time. And I think it is extremely important now."- Todd Thorley
"So, it’s not going away, so as long as we stay behind it, look at what it will do. The kids it’ll educate. The kids that we can help educate will change the world."- Todd Thorley, about SUU and the future of Cedar City
Sunset over Cedar City taken from Mormon's Tomb
Project Completion Report
As I conducted and recorded the interview, the story of Cedar City became available to the public through my portfolio. Also, as I practiced the art of interviewing and recording history, I am better prepared for my career as a historian. It also helped me develop my listening skills as I prepare to be a teacher.
I received authorization from the IRB at Southern Utah University to conduct the interview. This was the most important step in the process because I could not proceed without their authorization. Once I completed the CITI training (human subjects ethics training), I was able to complete the exemption process and start the interview process. I drafted questions, an informed consent form, and set the interview date. Mr Thorley and I were able to talk about Cedar City and it was fascinating talking with him. The recording was clear and will be included in my portfolio, as well as in this document.
Following the interview, I set out to complete the full transcript of the interview so there is another form of documentation. This project fortunately lent itself to natural documentation and deliverables. But there were several unanticipated outcomes. The biggest one is that it took me nearly two years to complete this whole project. I had not anticipated the difficult summer in 2017 when I was faced with severe depression stemming from a failed engagement the year prior. But at this point now, I am grateful for what that summer taught me. I am now happily married and we just had a baby boy nearly a month and a half ago. I had wanted to conduct multiple interviews but I decided that one would be sufficient for purposes of this project. The 10 page long transcript was also unanticipated. I never realized how much writing would be involved. Another fortunate, unanticipated outcome is that I am currently certified by CITI to conduct human subject research, which is a good addition to my resume.