Lessons from Heritage Montgomery and Maryland State Archives

My summer interning for Heritage Montgomery and working with the Maryland State Archives provided valuable insight and experience for me, as I look forward into my career post-graduation. My time at the Maryland State Archives was filled with beneficial networking opportunities and information on navigating careers with a history degree. The MSA’s summer internship program is incredibly helpful because the staff provide departmental presentations every week that address each department’s background and duties. This is helpful when considering which part of a public history institution can most fit a student’s abilities. For example, those inclined with customer service and advanced degrees are apt to become reference librarians or work in the acquisitions department. The staff was also helpful in understanding how specific employees came to their position and what steps in their career led them there. This summer was also incredibly helpful when determining the next steps in my career as well.

Through the endless hours of cataloging and scanning collection material into the MSA database, I came to the conclusion that a career of archiving was not the professional choice for me. The amount of research that can come out of archival work is hugely beneficial and extremely appealing to a history undergraduate, but my experience has shown that I am not an archivist. This was the most enlightening moment that my internship provided because it taught me how to figure out my personal strengths and weaknesses in a professional environment. In addition, the knowledge I gathered from observing other professionals in their career inspired me to take steps toward graduate school.

At the conclusion of my summer with Heritage Montgomery and the Maryland State Archives, I reflected that my internship was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I learned more about myself than I had known previously and I was able to produce a valuable asset to Pleasant View Historic Site’s success as a small community museum. Being a part of this experience has taught me intrinsic life lessons that I will be able to take with me into other careers. Finally, Pleasant View Historic Site holds a special place in the history of Gaithersburg, Montgomery County, Maryland, and my heart.