This blog is written by Caitlin Wyler as a reflection on the internship she had in the education office at the Arizona State Museum last semester. Caitlin is a senior majoring in Anthropology with a minor in Spanish and History. Next year she plans to go to graduate school to specialize in museum education.

There is no better way to learn than from other people. My internship at the Arizona State Museum this past semester was a great learning experience, thanks in great part to my work with the public. I have interned in other museums but this was the first time I was able to work this closely with public audiences. During other internships, mostly at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, I helped create public programs and assess programs, but I never implemented them. My previous experiences were valuable to my work at ASM —giving me a great desire to make my interactions with the public fulfilling and engaging for the recipients.

At the beginning of the semester, another intern and I took on the task of learning about the Pottery Project exhibit as well as information for the new Muse2You outreach programs we were in the midst of creating. We had to learn how to give the Pottery tour and figure out how to give the same tour, and others, in an outreach capacity in K-12 school classrooms, without the benefit of museum exhibit displays. The outreach programs were fun and challenging to put together. They needed to be flexible to accommodate being taught in constantly new environments with different age groups.

I was extremely curious to see how the types of activities and methods we used would go over with our audiences. Giving a tour or going into a classroom full of students and teaching is a lot easier said than done. You never know what to expect when working with children. Every school group was unique and posed new challenges. We presented programs to children from preschool all the way up to high school. The biggest issue we faced was making the activities and information relevant and accessible to everyone.

By being involved with presentation as well as development of programs, I gained valuable knowledge about what works and what does not. You can do all the reading and research you want, but until you have actually given a tour and worked with the audience you are trying to reach, you will never truly understand their needs.

I am excited to have the opportunity to continue working at the Arizona State Museum this semester, my last at the University of Arizona. I will continue presenting school programs and help with development of upcoming public programs. I just finished submitting applications to graduate schools for programs in museum education. I want to focus on the area of special education and making museums more accessible to even wider audiences.