First Day as an Intern

Today marked my first day as an intern for the Space History division of the National Air and Space Museum. I'm obligated to say that all opinions expressed in this blog are my own and not those of the Smithsonian. When I first arrived at the NASM all of us interns, 20ish of us, from all over the museum were debriefed on the safety protocols and then given a brief tour. There are eight of us interns working for the Space History program, three girls and five boys. I got to meet my supervisors who seem really nice and will be a pleasure to work for. All of us Space History interns got to sit in on the Space History curators weekly meeting which was a treat! It was interesting to see how the curators interacted and to see who was working on what. After that we all had lunch and us interns were drilled on what we wanted to do with our lives, how our supervisors could help and what we were passionate about. One curator was saying that you really needed to be passionate about something to be able to make the museum experience for visitors more meaningful. It's all about your passion for what area of history you focus on. It affects how you present things and see events and objects. It made me start thinking about what I'm passionate about. I know I love museums and really want to work in them, but what area of history do I love to study? I know I like medieval Scottish history and I really enjoyed researching the Exhibitions in England and the evolution they went through. I also really like the history of astronomy. That's one of the reasons why I'm at the NASM.

My history of astronomy interest is more new and not as well developed. It started when I took the History of Cosmology and Astronomy from Stonehenge to Space Age. The professor, Professor Smith, was so enthusiastic that it made me feel excited about learning about this subject and made me want to learn even more.

This whole thing about passion has gotten me thinking not only about what my passion is, but also do I really want to do a Master's in Museum Studies or do I want to do an Master of Arts with some sort of history topic? The Museum Studies program gives me exactly what I want, the information to be a curator in a small or medium sized institution. However, what if I want more? With a Master of Arts I would probably eventually need to get a PhD, but I would be able to work in bigger institutes, have more power and make more money. Another thing to consider is that if I got an MS I would probably do a coursed based master's, but if I do a MA it would be best to do thesis based. Now my academic writing style has greatly improved, but it still isn't the best and I wonder if a hundred page thesis would be to much for me.

I've only had one day and I already have all these question to contemplate. When it comes to deciding my master's I have until November or January to decide. That's not that far away, but hopefully the rest of this summer will help me solve some of these questions and not just create more.