This summer has been amazing! I have wondered what it would be like to work in a museum for years. After eight weeks, I finally have an answer. It's everything I'd always thought it would be. The Lake Mead Virtual Museum selected me to work as an intern. Their collections are posted online, as the museum has no physical building yet. Their collections range from pre-contact artifacts to flora and fauna to artifacts from the building of the Hoover Dam. As an Anthropology Major, it was a dream to work there. Jessica Bitter is the Curator of the museum. She has been wonderful about ensuring I get hands-on experience in as many things as possible. I've had the opportunity to work on cataloging archaeological artifacts, digitizing historical photos for use on the museum website, archiving historical documents, and my personal favorite - noting catalog and assession identifiers on their herbarum collection. I even had the opportunity to work with their resident Archaeologist in identifying whether some bone fragments were human or animal. This experience has confirmed for me that working in a museum is exactly what I want to do. It's also helped me identify my interest in archival techniques and cateloging collections. Some people might find these things repetative and boring but for me they are relaxing and peaceful. In fact, I call my time interning at the museum as being in my happy place. If I could give future students one piece of advice about doing an internship it would be - What are you waiting for! You will not regret it.
https://www.nps.gov/features/lake/museum/categories.html
I'm so glad you had a great experience overall. I love that you encourage folks to just go for it and you won't regret it! I couldn't agree more!
I ran to your blog post to see how it was coming along as I was interested in your earlier posts in the semester. I am so happy that you are so fullfilled with your position and I am also happy to hear that it brings you peace and calm. This is something so many search for, and you were able to find it! I am glad also for you that you are able to gain such intersting experience that you can be proud of. Congratulations to you!
I am so glad that you found your happy place! As an anthropology major, museums are also my happy place and this internship opportunity sounds wonderful and meaningful. I am also impressed that they gave you so many hands-on experiences which no doubt will help you in your future career particularly the aspects of cataloguing and archive techniques.