Individual Cultures Project
Courtney Ann Hummel Lichtenwalner
Cultural Heritage/Ethnicity
My mother is of German and Irish
ancestry.
Her maiden name is Hummel.
My great-grandparents on my
maternal side came through Ellis
Island from Germany.
Originally, their last name was von
Hummel Bach; however, they
changed it to Hummel to make it
sound more Americanized.
According to infoplease.com
(Ancestry of U.S. Population by
Rank, 2007), German is the
number one most self-identified
ancestry group in the United
States.
My father is of Mexican and
Native American ancestry.
Generational Cohort
My generation is toward the
beginning of the millennials. It is
also known as generation Y
(University of Iowa School of
Social Work, 2009).
My generation has always known
the existence of computers,
microwaves, and VCRs
(University of Iowa School of
Social Work, 2009).
The people of my generation are
known to be more optimistic about
the future, to take a strong stance
on morality, and to embrace
diversity (University of Iowa
School of Social Work, 2009).
 Family Structure/Geographic Region Socio-economic Status/Education Level

I was born and raised in the south
suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.
My father wanted nothing to do
with me; therefore, my unmarried
mother chose to raise me as a
single parent (Edwards, 2009).
My godparents let us live with
them until I was 4 years old, when
my mom married my step-dad
(Edwards, 2009).
One year later, my younger brother
was born.
When I was 12, my parents lost
their jobs, so we moved to Las
Vegas, Nevada (Edwards, 2009).
I grew up in the primarily service
class of Chicago (Badger, 2014).
When we moved to Las Vegas, my
parents had a difficult time finding
jobs. My family struggled with
money for a long time.
The state of Nevada awarded me
the Millennium scholarship in
2005, but sadly, I did not end up
using it.
After a 10-year hiatus, and
because of student loans, I have
been able to return to college to
pursue a degree in teaching.
My husband and I are a solidly
middle-class family (Scheffer,
2014).

References

Ancestry of U.S. Population by Rank. (2007). Retrieved from:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762137.html

Badger, E. (2014, September 29). Mapped: How the creative class is dividing U.S.

cities. The Washington Post. Retrieved from:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/29/mapped-how-

the-creative-class-is-dividing-u-s-cities/?tid=sm_fb

Edwards, J. O. (2009). The many kinds of family structures in our communities. Anti-

bias Education for Children and Ourselves. Retrieved from:

https://www.scoe.org/files/ccpc-family-structures.pdf

Scheffer, D. R. (2014, December 31). Can you name the U.S. socio-economic levels?

Washington Times. Retrieved from:

 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/31/can-you-name-us-socio-

economic-levels/?page=all

University of Iowa School of Social Work. (2009). Supervision of intergenerational

dynamics. Retrieved from: http://goo.gl/hpJGW