Why Museum Studies?

When I was in elementary school, the teachers every year would ask us what we wanted to be when we grow up? My response was not the typical career choices like a doctor or a fireman. Instead, I told my fourth-grade teacher that I wanted to be a historian and scientist working for a well-established museum. Funny how life turns out. From a young age, I was fascinated by how museums transformed history into an interactive and educational exhibition for people of all ages to enjoy. Museums are a place where history comes alive through illuminating stories from artifacts. These stories associated with ancient artifacts is where I fell in love with museums. 

Recently, I had the unique opportunity to work abroad for the National Museum of Ireland for the summer. I was assigned to work with the Natural History and Archeology Collections. My boss and I organized, updated, and in some cases reassigning accession numbers to objects hidden in the crypt. Towards the end of my time in Ireland, my boss had me perform a Collections Audit, where a museum personnel goes through the collection and randomly picks out artifacts to see whether it has been updated into the database system. I loved learning about Ireland’s ancient history through the museum’s tremendous collections through performing the audit.