Degree: BA History
When did you graduate? May 2011
What were some of the most rewarding/influential classes in your major? Almost all of them! Women’s History, Internship in Southern History at the Clinton Foundation, and Senior Seminar in particular come to mind.
Where did you live? I lived on-campus in New Hall and Farris Hall through undergrad.
What groups did you belong to? Phi Alpha Theta, Anthropology Club
Did you participate in any experiences outside the classroom in your major field? I did an internship my junior year at the Clinton Foundation, which was influential in my career path as a museum professional.
What other experiences did you have that enriched your time as a student at UCA? My freshman and sophomore years I participated in Laughing Stock, the UCA Honors College sketch comedy troupe. I studied abroad in Shanghai, China during the summer of 2009, spent a year and a half as a research assistant cataloguing and researching the anthropology department’s West Mexican shaft tomb pottery collection, wrote an honor’s thesis on the pottery collection and created an online collection database using CONTENTdm, and presented on the collection at the Arkansas Sociology conference in 2010. I also presented my senior seminar paper, “Facing the Stained Glass Ceiling: The Ordinations of the Philadelphia Eleven and the Trajectory of the American Episcopal Church,” at two undergraduate conferences in 2011.
What did you plan to do with your degree? I planned to apply for a job in the museum field, preferably in history, and eventually attend graduate school in history or museum studies.
How are you using your degree? I began working at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, a museum of African American history, a month after graduation. I worked at MTCC in the collections department for nearly three years before getting a dual master’s degree in History & Library Science at the University of Maryland. I’m now the manager of the Digital Preservation Archive and the National Geographic Society.
What disciplinary skills do you use most often in your current job? I use my writing and research skills all the time as we explore our endlessly fascinating collections and reconceive how they can be used by modern researchers. The Nat Geo Archives team writes a blog on the Nat Geo Field Notes platform—check it out to see what we’re up to!
What are your plans? What will your degree allow you to do/accomplish as you move forward? I hope that I can continue working in the digital humanities field well into the future. My history degree has been a firm foundation for my career as an archivist and historian who uses digital tools to connect people all over the world to valuable historical collections.
What is the most surprising/unexpected thing you learned about yourself during your time as a BA History student at UCA? I learned that I actually wanted to be a historian! When I started my undergraduate degree, I thought I wanted to concentrate in anthropology or sociology. After taking a few history classes and doing an internship with the Clinton Foundation, though, I realized that my real passion lay in public history and educating myself and others on the importance of our past in understanding the present.
What advice would you give someone who wants to get a BA in History? I would advise a prospective history student to be ready to develop a good deal of self-discipline, because you’ll need it to get all of your reading and writing done. Be able to think critically and know that most of the time there is no right answer, only a strongly researched, well-written argument. Also be prepared to spend a lot of time hunting down primary sources, learn to love the library, and be nice to archivists and curators (they have all the good stuff!).