Please allow me to introduce myself...

Hi, all!  I think that everyone in the Research Methods class has at the very least met me, but for anyone reading this who hasn’t, my name is Jess Andrews, I am a 4th year in the Museum Studies program, and I anticipate graduating in May 2018 with a BS in Museum Studies with a focus in public history.  This will be my second degree, as I previously earned an AA in Liberal Arts with a focus in creative writing, western mythology, and art history from Cottey College in Nevada, MO in 2015.

Ever since I was very young, I have had a passion for learning and teaching others about history.  I have been fortunate enough to work at a number of different collecting institutions since high school, including the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor, ME, the Bangor Historical Society (formerly the Bangor Museum and Center for History), the Roberson Museum and Science Center in Binghamton, NY, and the RIT Archives.  While all of these institutions have offered me unique and valuable opportunities, I have to admit that I preferred working at the historical institutions over the others.  In addition to this love of history, I am highly creative in all aspects of my life, from baking and cooking, to how I dress and decorate my space, to how I complete assignments and solve problems.  This also means that no matter what institution I am working at, I tend towards the more creative aspects of museum work, such as exhibition design, tour writing, public programming and event planning, and museum promotions.  The majority of my experience has been in tour writing, specifically historical ghost and cemetery tours, which allow me to delve into another passion of mine-- the macabre and illicit.  Ghosts, ghouls, and goodtime girls, I’m fascinated by it all, and I enjoy channeling this fascination into museum projects such as tours, exhibits, and presentations, because there’s more to history than rulers, battles, and innovations.

Now, most of you are probably wondering by what a hamster has to do with all of this. That is Nugget, and there are several very good reasons that the picture above is of her, and not of me.  One, I don’t actually have any recent pictures of me in which I look like a normal human being (i.e. pictures in which I’m not wearing elf ears or faerie wings).  Two, who doesn’t like cute, furry critters?  Monsters, that’s who…  And three, I honestly can’t think of a better animal to use to describe myself than a chubby, anxious, slightly neurotic rodent whose favorite way to spend a Saturday is sleeping and eating, and who very well might squeak and fall over if you talk too loudly or poke it suddenly.  Or maybe it will bite you instead… it all depends on the day.