I can remember when I first fell in love with History. I was 6 years old and on an annual family vacation to Prince Edward Island. My father was a high school history teacher, thus these trips inevitably turned in to history lessons on Confederation. It was through family trips to PEI, and later Europe, that I continued to develop a passion for both history and travel that has taken me to museums and historic sites across North America and Europe.
When I first headed off to university in 2012 to begin my undergrad at McMaster, I was bound for the Department of Languages and Linguistics. I had dreams of getting my doctorate and being a Speech Language Pathologist. If you had told me then that I would be getting a Masters in History – let alone Public History – I would have laughed in your face. That was not my goal at all!
After a dreadful experience in first year Linguistics (and Psychology), I set my sights on pursuing the only courses I had actually enjoyed taking – history. History had always been a subject I enjoyed in school, I had just never considered it something I would study because I didn’t want to teach. It wasn’t until my 3rdyear at Mac that I started really seeing what other options were out there for history majors. Taking a seminar course in Public Memory and Commemoration, I read Jack Granatstein’s Who Killed Canadian History and Jonathan Vance’s Death So Noble, and I chose to focus my research on how the subject of Canadian history is taught in public schools. The same year, I took a Historical Practicum course that allowed me my first chance at conducting and presenting research for a non-academic audience as I, along with another classmate, produced an historical overview of All Saints’ Anglican Church in Hamilton, Ontario.
The following summer, I began volunteering at my local museum, the Dufferin County Museum & Archives (now Museum of Dufferin) to help me get a sense of what it was like to work in a museum. Working in the Collections Department was definitely something I enjoyed! Plus, I got to touch the old things (with gloves and only when necessary)! When I returned to school for my fourth and final year, I began volunteering with the Confederations Debates doing documentary editing. When it came to about mid-October and all of my friends were beginning to pour countless hours into grad school applications, I set my sights on switching gears slightly and pursuing Museum Studies at the college level – I had really enjoyed my summer at the DCMA after all! In March 2016, I accepted my offer to the Applied Museum Studies program at Algonquin College and in May took my first official museum job as the Collections Technician at the Dundas Museum & Archives.
In September, it was off to Ottawa! While I was in college, I had the opportunity to learn from professors who were also industry professionals from across the National Capital Region and that had incredibly diverse backgrounds. The AMS program provided me with training in conservation, exhibit design, collections management, human resources, project management, fundraising, grant writing, digital design, and public programming. Throughout my two years in the program, I worked with the Bytown Fire Brigade Museum, the City of Ottawa Archives, the Juno Beach Centre Association, and completed my Field Placement at the Guelph Civic Museum.
When Algonquin went on strike in my second year, I spent a lot of time considering what I would do when the program was finished in a few months’ time. Remembering a program I heard about when I was in undergrad (and that a few of my previous managers had completed themselves), I applied to Western for my MA in Public History.
Having just finished my first week of classes, I'm in a whirlwind of emotions: nervous, excited, overwhelmed, homesick. A lot of hard work and decision making has brought me to this point, and I am excited to see what this year has in store! Stay tuned as I blog my experiences getting [my] third degree!