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The pre-grad school story

My love for museums started in undergrad, but my love for nature goes back a lot farther than that. As a kid, I grew up playing outside in lakes and creeks in suburban Atlanta. My mother would drag us to West Virginia every summer to see her parents, and although I would complain the whole way there, I loved going on ‘nature walks’ (and being the leader, of course), catching bugs and keeping them in my bug barn, and watching hummingbirds flit around the feeders on the porch. From an early age, I wanted to be a marine biologist. I wanted to get my PhD. I wanted to go find giant squid and see them live underwater. Unfortunately for my younger self, I don’t think all of those things will be happening, but I might actually achieve getting a PhD, which actually has been a childhood dream of mine. I’m afraid I’m no marine biologist. I don’t think I could stand to go on a deep sea submersible. The world had other plans for me.

Fast forward. I was an undergraduate at Clemson University studying biological sciences. Even that wasn’t exactly a straight path, but I feel as though that story is a digression from the point I’m trying to make here. So, anyway. When I started my biology major, I had a bit of an inferiority complex. I loved science as a kid, but during high school, I had become insecure and steered clear of AP sciences because they were “too hard” for me. Despite the fact that I made A’s in my honors science courses, I still told my high school chemistry teacher I didn’t think I could handle AP Chemistry. But what I discovered at Clemson was that science isn’t any harder than any other subject. As long as you study and make an effort, these classes aren’t so scary. Granted, I do believe there is a lot to be said for teachers and professors, and that their pedagogical styles have a great influence on the success of their students. But I am digressing again.

In my second to last semester at Clemson, I decided I wanted to volunteer at the tiny natural history museum on campus. Frankly, I had no idea what went on behind the scenes in museums, and I was interested to find out. So, I began working with the curator once a week with two other students to learn about vertebrate specimen preparation. We skinned and skeletonized animals, for those who are not familiar.

I fell in love with this work, without really realizing it at first. The following semester, I was applying to graduate schools, and I had this idea in my head that I wanted to be a paleontologist. I attended the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting to meet with some prospective graduate advisers, and had a bit of an epiphany. I did not want to be a paleontologist, and I wasn’t even sure if I wanted my PhD anymore. I wanted to work in a museum like the curator at Clemson. I wanted to do something exciting where every day was different than the last. I wanted to do something that would make a difference to society. So, I changed my mind, applied to graduate schools for my M.S. instead of a PhD, in order to give myself time to figure out how to prepare myself for my chosen path.

I graduated in December 2012, which means that I still had eight months to kill before I would start graduate school. Heck, I had about three months to kill before I’d even hear back from graduate schools. Luckily, my boyfriend at the time was from Washington, D.C., and I decided that I would volunteer at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in the meantime. From February through early July, I volunteered at the FossiLab at the museum. It was a truly wonderful experience. I met some amazing people, both staff and volunteers at the museum. I learned so much. I met a curator there who is doing amazing things at the intersection of paleontology and technology, and I think that is when the wheels in my head really started to turn. Digital technology has the potential to change everything about museums. It has the ability to make vast scientific collections that are usually locked away for protection and preservation available to the public. This was also when I was introduced to the idea of open access science, which is something I still very much support today. Being at the NMNH was a wonderful intellectual environment for me. I was introduced to ideas that I would not have been otherwise. I really do believe my time spent there set the stage for my M.S. project and what I’m going on to become, and because of this, the Smithsonian will always hold a special place in my heart.

This post has been a bit longer than expected, so I will just say... TO BE CONTINUED! I will post again about my graduate experiences soon, and that will finally conclude my story so far. Then, I think I will use this blog to post relevant news articles, to update my story as it happens, and to post my own professional thoughts on certain topics.

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