New Students at the Museum

The start of the new school year brings new and returning students to the Stillwater History Museum at the Sheerar.  This year we are privileged to have two returning history students from OSU, Rachel Cox a former intern and current work-study student and Jorge Chavez, who will be doing his second internship at the museum.  We also have three new faces including two history students, Ally Krummel who interned at the Cherokee Strip Museum in Enid who will be joining us as a work-study student, Gabby Neal will doing her first museum internship and Lacey Hickey a Strategic Communication major who will be helping with marketing as part of her work-study experience.

For a small institution these students are invaluable as they provide much needed assistance with greeting visitors, processing collections, planning exhibits, and helping with a wide variety of museum tasks.  The time they spend at the History museum also teaches them about Museum operations while they develop useful skills for the resumes.  

Since I started at the museum last June, we have already provided 25 students with a taste of a real world museum experience.  Students come to the museum as volunteers, interns, work-study students or as part of a class project.   Some spend just a short time at the museum, while others choose to return for multiple semesters.  Many of our students come from OSU’s History department but we welcome students and volunteers from many majors and walks of life.   So far we have provided internship experiences for History, Art History, and Professional Writing majors.  We have had students come to the museum from OSU, OU, UCO, and even the College of Brockport in New York and about one-third of our students have arrived with previous museum internship experiences and they are eager to keep learning.

At the Stillwater History Museum, our student experiences are tailored to the individual students majors and interests, while most students choose to do a more of tasting menu of projects other spend their entire time focused on one large project, such as an exhibit.   Our students help plan, research, and install most of our rotating exhibits and new exhibits are opened several times a year.  Currently we are highlighting our World War I and Summertime Fun exhibits and we invite you to come visit us at the Stillwater History Museum at the Sheerar. 

Originally published in the Stillwater Newspress.