Daily Inspiration: Meet Charlene Holkenbrink-Monk

Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlene Holkenbrink-Monk.

Hi Charlene, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am a lecturer at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. I also do community work, such as working with college students who are applying to college, which I have done through a small nonprofit I started called The Dignified Learning Project. I started this nonprofit when I was in my master’s program in sociology at SDSU. Fun fact: Every student who has applied to college through us has gotten accepted to a college they submitted to, and several have received full-ride scholarships. But, we also do experiential and public sociology workshops, seminars, and conferences.

But, how I got to where I am, I have a long story, and a lot of it has to do with struggling in undergrad. When I was getting my bachelor’s from UCLA, I was struggling with depression, migraines, and some family obstacles. I ended up needing one class to take and found myself taking it at San Diego Mesa College, later transferring it back to UCLA and finishing my degree. But when I was there at Mesa, I found myself taking other courses and fell in love with sociology. From there, I found that I really wanted to explore ways we can make education more equitable, supportive, and innovative. I really wanted to know how we can help encourage creativity and critical thinking within education, so I went on to complete my PhD in Education in 2023.

A lot of my journey has been informed by both my personal experiences and witnessing obstacles others have faced. Education can be wonderful, encouraging, and a safe space for others, but it can also make others feel like they’re struggling, out of place, or distrustful. Teachers are working really hard within a larger system that can be daunting, overwhelming, and stressful, so with my sociology background, which looks at systems and structures, I found myself really wanting to apply that knowledge to the field of education, which is how I stumbled into studying education. For me, education helped me find my voice, grow, and develop, and I hope to create spaces that can do the same for all students.

As of January 2025, I’m currently living temporarily in Málaga, Spain, as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar now, conducting research at the university here on how we can use photography to facilitate dialogue around social problems and actionable change, something that I plan to continue across different cultural and geographic regions and locations. I teach at SDSU, as I’ve said, and have launched visual sociology materials, too, where we use photographs and visuals to analyze and capture stories. Because storytelling is a crucial part of who I am.

But, if I were to share what I want people to remember me by, it would be my creativity, my ability to engage in dialogue with people from various walks of life, my capacity to write, share lived experiences, and storytelling.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have faced a lot of struggles, if I’m honest.

In elementary school, my mom went to jail and rehab, and school was my safe place outside of time with my dad.

In high school, I watched my aunt go through two craniotomy surgeries, followed by my mom needing to have her own aneurysm coiled. I had double knee surgery – major surgery – that had me in physical therapy and on crutches off and on for almost 18 months. My grandfather died, my parents broke up, and then I left for college.

I started facing some pretty severe depression and anxiety throughout my undergraduate career, along with increasing migraines. I faced near homelessness before my son was one, only protected by a temporary stay with my mom, who was not allowed to have visitors for prolonged periods. Eventually, I was diagnosed with my own neurological condition and needed a brain stent, only to find out that I have a genetic mutation like the rest of my family – the same mutation that caused my grandmother’s brain aneurysm that led to her death when it ruptured.

There have been many other instances and struggles. However, I also have a strong support system, and my children have motivated me along the way.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I would say that I’m most known for teaching and research, but I also weave in elements of writing and photography. I love writing – academic writing, short stories, poetry, and fiction. Photography helps feed my soul when times are tough, capturing stories and lived experiences and contextualizing the historical aspects of what once was and how we make sense of the now.

I have taught 8th, 9th, and 10th-grade history and English, 12th-grade English and design thinking, and then many sociology and education courses from community colleges through graduate school. I have a diverse teaching background.

But what I think I’m most proud of, other than being a mom to my two kiddos, who are incredible critical thinkers and have compassionate hearts and souls for the world and other people, is my dedication, even if I have long breaks or gaps. For example, I’ve wanted to be a fiction writer since I was in 7th grade. Even though that hasn’t panned out yet, and my life has taken a lot of twists and turns, I’m currently developing my first fiction novel, writing a little every day in hopes of submitting to an agent by the end of the year. But, I also have been contacted by a publisher regarding my research, so I’m developing a book on that, too.

I think at the end of the day, I’m just really proud of pushing through some of the hardest moments of my life, still pursing my passions, and holding onto hope that I can find my joy.

We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Hmmm. This is a hard one. I’m a pretty open book, honestly.

But if we’re talking about things unrelated to my career, a few funny or interesting things come to mind:

1) I didn’t learn how to swim until I was 21, despite growing up in San Diego. I almost drowned when I was about 4 when two kids pulled me into the ocean, and I really had no desire to learn after that. But after leaving for LA for college, a friend pushed me in, not knowing I didn’t know how to swim, and I taught myself. At this point, it’s more about me knowing how not to drown than anything. I’m terrified of the water, but I also have an odd love of it, so there’s that. Oh, and I hate the sand, though. Hate it with a passion.

2) I won a competition in elementary school for photography and went onto the regional competition.

3) I’ve been playing the saxophone for 27 years. I was also pit captain in our high school drumline and can play the marimba with up to 4 mallets in each hand. (I wanted to go to the Berklee College of Music, but life had other plans, so I never applied.)

4) And lastly, I didn’t have a passport until I was almost 31. I had never traveled out of the country aside from to Rosarito once in 2007, and now, in 2025, I am living abroad temporarily. (So, it’s never too late to pursue goals and dreams.)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.perpetual-wanderlust.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_wanderlust_threader?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wanderlustthreader/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ceholkenbrink/

Image Credits
All photographs are taken by me.