Interning at the Las Vegas Museum of Natural History

During my time as an intern at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, I honed quite a few skills that will continue to benefit me in the future. At the museum collections annex, I used my experience in Anthropology to properly handle and catalog an immense amount of artifacts, ranging from plant samples to any number of projectile points, bifaces, and other stone tools. It was incredibly helpful to go into this internship with photography and Microsoft Excel experience, as these are the skills I used the most during my internship. I also shadowed the animal husbandry department at the museum and learned a great deal about saltwater fish tanks and taking care of animals in general. I would say that pursuing work directly within a museum is more interesting to me than the collections annex, as this work is slow and not nearly as rewarding as working directly with museum guests. As much as I want to continue working in a museum environment, recent events in our country have led me to pursue a career in public policy research in order to better our communities. If there is a way I can do this at a museum, I would be more than happy to stay in the field. However, I am not sure if this is an option. If I choose to pursue a career at a museum, I would have to take a master’s program in museum studies. This does sound very interesting but as I said, I really want to help make a difference for the people in the United States. One thing I would say to interns looking to work at the collections annex, be prepared for monotonous work. If you want to work at the museum itself, there really is no other environment like it. It has been a wonderful experience to be on the museum floor, and I would truly recommend it to anyone interested in a museum career.