Speaking to groups is often unavoidable but with experience I’m sure she’ll get the hang of it (I sure didn’t like public speaking in high school, but I learned how to do it in college and it is no longer an obstacle).

 

So I would suggest a career in museum education.  There is quite a bit of interaction with the public, teachers, volunteers, and professional colleagues.  Her research and writing skills will come in handy, and there is less of a need for design or construction aptitude.  Even if she ends up working in a smallish museum, she may be the ONLY education staff member and thus will have plenty of interaction with visitors and volunteers while being responsible for writing and creating educational materials for the institution (often object-based).

 

My undergraduate degree is in archaeology and history, but I went to graduate school for museum studies with artists, teachers, geologists, and other historians and archaeologists.  So there are lots of ways she can start her educational career pointed towards museums but not limited to that field too early on.

 

While she’s in college she can always get her feet wet by docenting at local museums or galleries, or continuing an education-specific internship at these places.

 

Best of luck to her.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 7:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Museum Careers Question

 

We have a wonderful high school student who is finishing her internship with us this week.  Unfortunately, the biggest thing she has learned is apparently that a small museum like ours is not what she is interested in—not enough daily interaction with the public.  She is still interested in going into a museum-related field, and I would like to give her some advice, but I don’t have a background in museums—mine is in research and teaching.  The closest career recommendations I could come up with for her would be to go into either library science or the antiques business.  With the strengths and weaknesses listed below, could some of you museum professionals suggest museum-related careers she might look into?

 

Strengths:  very bright, good at integrating diverse facts with things she already knows; articulate; a good writer; interested in literature and history; dependable; a helpful and reliable assistant during educational programs; likes to talk to people one-on-one; prefers a job where she has a lot of interaction with people; eyes light up when she is working with some artifacts.

 

Areas she has not shown strength or interest in:  quiet, not interested in teaching or speaking to groups; when asked to research an artifact and design a small exhibit explaining it, she conducted the research but found the exhibit design difficult and barely met the extended deadline; hand-eye coordination is only average, so I would not recommend that she specialize in cleaning or restoring artifacts; states that mathematics is not her strong point.

 

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

 

Kim Elmore

Outreach Coordinator

Gwinnett History Museum

455 S. Perry Street

Lawrenceville, GA 30045