An Intern’s Bread and Butter: Networking 101

You never know what you can learn just from talking to people, even in the most unlikely places. Today looked like another day of working on the trunks in the museum classroom but it started off with a welcome surprise. At first, Stacy and I were expecting to take a group of children from the Boys and Girls club around the gallery. While they did not end up showing up, Patty, one of the infrequent museum volunteers did. A crucial aspect of any internship is networking. As an intern you are not only trying to get experience, get a feel for the inner workings of a museum, but to also explore the profession and talk to as many people as you can. This is key.

 So while the group did not show up, I got the unexpected chance to get to know Patty. He is actively involved in the museum community in Las Vegas and she gave me some great ideas about how to get myself out there and how to seek out opportunities in the field. She told me about other museums in the city that I could explore such as the Natural History Museum as well as the Old Mormon Fort which I was not familiar with. As a Civil War aficionado it was music to my ears to hear about a group called the Roundtable. They are involved in Civil War reenactments (here in Las Vegas, who knew??) annually. Something that I found really impressive and exciting was their volunteer work that they do in school classrooms. Throughout the year these Roundtable members will don their Civil War finest and go to classrooms and talk about the Civil War to the children. Not only do they get to fashion historical garb – as must do on my bucket list – but they get to educate kids about history in a non-traditional way.

Although I am fairly new to Las Vegas, it is great to hear about ways that us fellow historians can volunteer and work in the museum and historical field right here at home. So if you feel inspired just like me, go on, get out there and look for the possibilities that are available in your community. Maybe one day you’ll even find yourself sporting your soldier’s finest, faux-gouging a reb’ (not UNLV, of course) with your bayonet in the blistering desert heat a la “Gods and Generals” –  all for good fun of course.

Allison