Hi everyone!

My name is Vanesa Chiodo and I'm from Penfield, NY. I am a 4th year Museum Studies major, with minors in history and legal studies, as well as being on a pre-law track. It is my hope to go to law school and study art law or cultural heritage law. I would love to one day work in a museum and deal with legal issues regarding repatriation of art and artifacts. 

I've been able to have some amazing internship experiences over the years, the first of which was at The Strong National Museum of Play. I was a public programs intern and was able to create fun programs from children that revolved around different exhibit themes going on in the museum. For my other internship, I worked with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, where I lead all of their social media accounts. I was able to do research on many different cultural holidays and events so that I could post about them on social media, which was a great learning experience! 

                (This is a photo of me at The Strong Museum next to the Berenstain Bears Exhibit)

Corrina's Introduction

 Hello, My name is Corrina Mullins, and I am a 3rd year Museum Studies major on the Public History track with a theatre arts immersion. 

I am from Northeast Ohio, around the Cleveland area. I have twin sister and a younger brother, Kayla and Wyatt respectively. When the three of us were little, my dad worked days and my mom worked nights. Over the summer, my mom would take us on day trips to museums, zoos, and libraries around the area. I can't remember a time when I didn't have a interest in museums. Specifically, I've always been drawn to living history and live interpreters in historical spaces. 

This summer I got the opportunity to work with the Rochester Museum and Science Center expanding the Changemakers exhibition online. This opportunity helped me to grow my research and writing skills and helped me realize a passion I have for researching an individual. This new found passion works very well with my passion for live history and creating stories for interpreters based off of real people's lives. 

I hope to bring all of these passions together in my thesis project and am very exciting for the upcoming semester!

An image of me portraying the wife of a Revolutionary War Veteran at a live history installation

Angie's Introduction

 Hey all!

My name is Angie Maier and I am a fourth year SOIS student with concentrations in Environmental Science, Museum Studies, Journalism, and Spanish. I like to call this smorgasbord of a degree "Communications in Environmental Science" and I hope to use it to get into some form of environmental education, or any way that I can take possibly complicated or confusing scientific information and make it accessible and engaging to the general public. In a time when so many people are finding themselves inundated with misleading or downright false scientific information, I believe that this is more important than ever.

I have had experiences working at various summer camps, creating and implementing environmental education programs for kids and I have found that I am very passionate about that, although I can see my career taking me in the other direction creating content for adults as well. This summer I worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture doing invasive insect research which I found to be very enjoyable and interesting. 

On a more personal level, my interests include hiking, camping, and just being outdoors in general. I also love biking, so if you ever see someone biking across campus in the dead of winter it's probably me. And when I'm not doing all of that, I love hanging out with my kitten, Winnie, who turns one on the 28th!

A very cheesy photo my mom insisted on taking of me with one of the insect traps I used for my research this summer.

Introduction

       Hi, name is Hannah Riley. I am a Museum Studies student with a minor in History. I am from Buffalo, NY which is home of the Buffalo Bills. Fun fact: I share a birthday with Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. I am also a peer navigator for the College of Liberal Arts. In the future I want to work in a Museum as a curator or a collections manager. My dream job would be at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame because I love rock music. Some of my favorite bands are Fleetwood Mac, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Lumineers. Listening to live music is one of my favorite things to do. I also enjoy thrifting, painting and swimming in my free time. 

I have been fortunate to have many great opportunities in the museum studies field that I would not get anywhere else. I have had the opportunity to work at the Genesee Country Village Museum, The Albright Knox, and the Castellani Art Museum along with working with a private collection. My favorite project was working with the private collection. This project was cataloging William C. Miles poster collection. This was a private collection of over 1,0000 1960s counterculture posters. This included drug posters, political posters, and psychedelic rock posters with artists like Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix.

(This is one of my favorite posters from the William C. Miles poster archive collection. It is a rock concert poster for the Big Brother and the Holding Company (Janis Joplin's band) It embodies the style of psychedelic art in that era.)

Struggling, but Hopeful

 I have been quite off the rocker when it comes to school this semester, and this year in general. I feel like I've let down my professors, peers, and myself. To be honest, my mental health hasn't been in a great state. I really want to get back on track, but I often feel like I am drowning. I feel terrible that I've put others into bad positions. Still, I have to try. I think that I can still get on pace and do okay, and I am putting in the work to do so. I know that I put myself into this position, and it is up to me to dig myself out of it. I am eternally grateful to the help I have received from others, and that is the only reason that I can see myself getting through this. I just need to push myself a little more, and hopefully then I'll be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm hoping that I can end this semester on a strong note, and put myself in a position to succeed after this semester is over. Until then, I will be grinding my work as hard as I can. 

Thats all folks

 Done and done. At this point, I'm happy it's done. I want to explore my game more. As much as I wanted to I didn't finish it technically. There aren't a lot of specifics that were finished but the game is playable in its current state and it's fun. I think this could actually be a cool thing for teachers in the museum studies program across the nation to use in an introduction class. There were a lot of ups and downs during this period and there were many stressful days. I am overall happy with the final product that I have created and I'm glad I chose to take this project down the path I took it. The project transformed so much since December and it ended up fantastic.

Getting off the Rollercoaster!

 Having submitted my final paper and presentation today, it truly feels like I am in the midst of getting off of a rollercoaster-- and I'm a bit sad that it's over! This has been such a wild ride, with forming an idea that has essentially been alive and evolving since I thought of it, and going to Brooklyn, which was an experience I am forever grateful for. As a result of this project, I have learned so much about KAWS and about myself, and what I am capable of. With my undergraduate studies coming to a close, it all feels very bittersweet, and as I move onto new adventures in the future, I will always remember what the Museum Studies program has given me.

Here is a quote from Michelangelo that I saw the other day:

"Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. ”

While I am in no way comparing my thesis to the masterpieces of Michelangelo, I definitely feel as though I accomplished carving my vision from the marble it was hidden within.

What Do I Do Now?

 It feels really weird to be finished with my thesis. This time tomorrow, all of my final edits will be done and submitted. I'm really not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, this marks the end of my undergraduate experience. I'm not going to graduate school in the fall, so I'm done with college for a little bit. I feel empty knowing that I don't really have any large projects going on.

On the other hand, it's really nice to know that I now have a large amount of free time and that I can use it for whatever I want. I didn't realize how much time I was spending working on my thesis until the work finally began to wind down. I'm not really sure what to do with all of this extra time now.