I am the Lead Educator at Minnetrista, a museum in Muncie, Indiana. Ball State University, a state school here, is within walking distance of our museum’s campus. While we are entirely separate entities, we have a unique and fulfilling relationship with the university. Specifically, our museum’s education team works on a variety of projects with the Teacher’s College at the university…including providing volunteer opportunities for freshman, speaking with student teachers at the beginning of each semester, and holding teacher professional development workshops. My department is currently analyzing what our relationship with the university is, how to strengthen and improve it, and also trying to determine what relationships we might actually be forming by extension of the existing relationship. (Example: I speak with El Ed seniors doing their student teaching, they then remember that and bring their class to the museum as part of the unit they develop. If they have a good experience they then make a trip to Minnetrista an annual event in their curriculum when they have a class of their own.) So, I guess I have two questions I would like to pose to educators/interpreters/programmers in the field: 1. Does anyone out there have a similar relationship to a local university, and what do you do to further cultivate that relationship? 2. How can we make the relationships we have with other organizations, be it another museum or a university or even other local non-profit organization in the area, a core resource for branching out into the community as a whole? I am greatly looking forward to your thoughts and ideas. Stephanie Dilk Lead Educator Minnetrista Stephanie L. Dilk Education Manager Minnetrista 1200 N. Minnetrista Parkway Muncie, IN 47303 (765) 213-3528 www.minnetrista.net please consider the environment before printing this e-mail ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Minnetrista Cultural Center 1200 MInnetrista Parkway Muncie, Indiana United States ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).