Why did you decide to pursue the museum studies minor?
Well I learned about the minor when I decided that I was going to major in art history as well as psychology and I wanted something practical to merge my two majors together and I thought that the museum studies minor was a good way to do that.

How did the museum studies minor impact your other fields of study?
I feel myself using psychology methods more in a museum environment when interacting with people and not just art pieces. You kind of figure out certain ways that people think about certain things. It showed me that there’s more than just art to museums, there are people involved.

How was your internship experience?
I started the UMMA internship as a docent first semester of senior year, but then I got really busy and couldn’t continue it second semester. So, I’m going to finish that up at the end of the summer after my internship at the Hands On Museum is over. For the docent internship, I did two things, I sat at the front desk and directed people into the galleries or leading people on little tours. At the end of the summer, I think I’ll be working on developing new things for kids at UMMA. At the Hands On Museum, I’m working in public programs, and I came up with weekly themes and activities to do around those themes.

How did the virtual exhibit project from Museums 301 help reveal the interdisciplinarity of museums to you?
I think that a lot of people, when they think of museums, they think about being a curator and a lot of people don’t really know what a curator does. The visual project was good for showing people what that role does. You think of a theme and you figure out what pieces are going into it and you figure out where the walls are going to be and how big the displays are going to be and how people move through it. It was interesting. I did my project on jewelry -- I have a lot of jewelry because I pick up a piece from wherever I go when traveling. But that was hard because everything was really small and I had to find a way to make a lot of small pieces fill a big space.

What was one thing that surprised you about museums during your pursuit of the museum studies minor?
I found that I loved the Hands On Museum and I loved working with kids in museum settings, but I was surprised that the Hands On Museum wasn’t where I wanted to be. I wanted to be in a history museum or an art museum. It’s not because I like those things more, it’s because I like the challenge of figuring out how to get kids engaged in a museum that isn’t geared toward them. It’s easy to get kids into a hands-on museum. it’s a challenge to get kids into an art museum. I want to figure out a way to get kids excited about art, not about bubbles. It was a self-discovery.

Why would you recommend a student to pursue a museum studies minor?
I think it’s a growing field, and a lot of people are interested in museums but don’t know how to pursue that, and a lot people don’t know that they’re interested in museums until they take that first class. So I think it’s a good way to stem between two majors or just because you’re interested in it.