Editor's note: Patrick O'Neill is one of four 2020 Alumni Rising Runners, CSUB graduates of the last 10 years already making a mark with their careers.
Patrick O’Neill was a high school dropout playing guitar in a rock band when he decided, after about 12 years of touring, that he wanted to “get more interesting.”
That meant getting an education, which he did at Bakersfield College and then CSUB. Ever since, he’s worked on all sorts of interesting projects as an anthropology lecturer, researcher and mentor at his alma mater as well as a partner with Native American groups to preserve and share local history.
O’Neill, 46, has taught full-time at CSUB for eight years, specializing in Native American cultures, ethnobotany (cultural uses of plants), changes in language and historical archaeology in California. Through research – his own and with students – O’Neill continues to learn himself.
He and they have studied Tübatulabal archaeological sites near Lake Isabella, the origins and uses of charm stones from the Tulare Lake region and research needed to develop interpretive signage identifying native villages around the mouth of the Kern River Canyon.
The last project on that list is in partnerships with local Tejon and Yokuts tribes. He believes strongly in CSUB-community collaborations to preserve history, such as a nascent one between students and local tribes to bring back ethnic languages.
“We have about 15 projects going and they’re all really cool,” he said. “I never thought we’d be doing that here. It turns out our little Kern County is extremely interesting.”
Also interesting: O’Neill trains Kern County Search and Rescue personnel how to distinguish between human and animal remains.
O’Neill was born in Porterville and grew up in Sacramento and San Diego. He came to Bakersfield after his parents moved here and studied at BC before transferring to CSUB. He majored in history then added anthropology to his studies after going on a trip to examine archaeological sites and artifacts including pottery and projectiles in the Anza-Borrega Desert near the Salton Sea.
He earned bachelor’s degrees in history and anthropology in 2009 and a master’s degree in anthropology in 2013. His graduate school focus was odontometrics, the study of teeth, which he chose because it was difficult, and he wanted to prove he could master the subject.
He gravitated toward teaching because it “affects other people in a positive way,” he said.
Hearkening back to the story of leaving music for an education, O’Neill said he didn’t go to school to get a job, he did it to learn interesting things and enrich the qualify of his life. He hadn’t read a book in probably 10 years before he started college, O’Neill said, and once he began reading again excelled quickly.
That story led into a key piece of advice he has for students.
“Go chase your dreams and have confidence in them,” he said. “Never lose heart. Keep your eye on the goal. If people tell you you can’t do something, that’s all the more reason to do it.”
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)