April is National Internship Month, so it’s only fitting that we celebrate our Museum Education Intern Kristin Herlihy. Kristin completed her internship with us after making an invaluable contribution to the education team. For the past several months, she’s developed activity carts which will be available to visitors of all ages once the Museum opens this fall.
A Public History Masters student at American University in Washington, DC, Kristin is from Corvallis, Oregon, about one and half hours south of Portland. She completed her undergraduate degree in Walla Walla, Washington, before heading to the East Coast.
“Be ready to do your research and do it well.” That’s the advice she has for future interns, and she should know. Kristin’s activity carts have involved hours of creative brainstorming, compiling each potential activity and outcome, and then transferring those ideas into the real thing. Her activity carts focus on three themes: bullet-resistant material, lie detectors, and identification methods, such as fingerprinting.
Being able to use her creativity, says Kristin, has been the best part of the job. One of the challenges she faced was trying to think her ideas through without being able to test them, but she credits Museum Manager of School Programs, Julie Bell, and Manager of Adult/Family Programs, Alyssa Foley, with helping fine tune her ideas. The end results were worth it. Each of Kristin’s activity carts contain three activities which allow visitors to engage and interact with Museum concepts in a unique way. We thank Kristin for her commitment to the Museum and wish her well in her next endeavors!
The Museum operates regular internship programs that provide students with work opportunities in various aspects of non-profit organization and operations, as well as museum programs. For more information, contact Colleen Ludgate, at [email protected].
