Faced with ever-mounting pressure to justify research and learning in the humanities and social sciences, I ask that my students embrace the question:  “what are you going to do with anthropology?”  This is a great question for anthropologists like me, who connect disparate people, places, and ideas to make sense of modern life.  In any course, from an introductory class to an advanced seminar, I have two distinct goals for my students.  First, I believe that the power of anthropology lies in helping students realize how their choices affect others in the world and how others’ choices affect them.  How did sugar shape the modern economy?  How do our clothing choices affect the seeds planted by Indian farmers?  By exploring these questions my courses lead students to appreciate their own role in global systems that define the food we eat and the technology we use.  Second, I believe that my students should leave my classes as better communicators – even students who walk into an anthropology class to fulfill a requirement will have to write during their jobs.  By taking on different kinds of writing, leading group discussions, and editing their work my students learn to develop and support clear arguments, applying their anthropological instruction well beyond college.  I have worked with students at all stages of the education system:  elementary students from the San Francisco Bay Area, primary students in rural India, high school students from inner-city St. Louis, continuing students at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, undergraduates at Washington University in St. Louis, and international graduate students at Heidelberg University, and a range of university students at Purdue University.  In each case I have learned to engage students by creating an environment in which they feel comfortable discussing course topics and challenging the ideas presented in class.  In addition to my academic instruction I have also worked as a writing coach and mentor for the YMCA-USA, the Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers, and the Washington University Writing Center.