Not In School Anymore

I was thrilled to get the experience of composing a project proposal yesterday. You may have noticed my intense interest in war history. After spending some time in the McFaddin-Ward House Museum archives, I was able to compile research on the McFaddins’ contributions to war and thought it would make an interesting exhibit. Part of my duties as an intern at the museum include researching and planning an exhibit for public display. I was thrilled I had come up with an idea that fit with my interest!
 

I set up an meeting with Judy Linsley, Curator of Interpretation and Education to propose the idea. She thought it would make an interesting exhibit and asked me to compose a project proposal to see if it would work with the amount of time I had left in my internship, what the costs of the projects would be, and if I had the time to devote with my other duties. (I am also in charge of assisting with collections inventory, education programming, and other research projects.) She also set up a meeting with the museum director to propose my secondary idea: to expand the exhibit to include a display in the carriage house, which would include a simulation of a war trench so visitors to the museum could see what it was like for a soldier in these extreme environments.

 

Composing the proposal was a great exercise and experience for me. I had grand ideas and plans, but after seeing just how much time I had to devote to the project and realizing how much it would cost, I had to rethink my plan and scale back. I will still be able to employ aspects of the original plan, but I look forward to the challenge of curating two exhibits—something that has not been done by any of my intern predecessors.

 

The project has made me value the internship even more by realizing I was not able to gain valuable real-world experience in the classroom. My projects in college did not prepare me for the realities of financial and time restraints, so I was glad to have this experience. Though I wanted to pull out all the stops with this exhibit, I realized that I can still have a good, educational display to share the personal stories of those who contributed to the war effort.

 

 

I have learned to make do with what I have from my internship, as the gentlemen in this humorous take on flight practice did.