Hello. I am Jessica Heckart, a senior with a minor in public history and MEMS. I recently completed an internship that involved taking the Oral History of Hope To You Community Church, a small community church in Bowie, PG County. This internship was independent, with me working by myself and creating the questions, setting up the Oral history interviews, taking notes, and creating a document to organize everything. Even though I was working mostly alone, the head pastor of Hope To You Community Church was my overseer, he and I would check in every other week to check the progress of my work and to see if I needed anything from his end.
The Oral History internship with Hope To You Community Church was formally conducted from the beginning of June to the beginning of August, so I had three months to complete the interviews of the members of Hope To You. Each of Hope To You members had a significant role in the construction and life of this small community church. The reason why I chose to make an Oral History focused on a small community church is that it sounded unique but it also I was inspired by a project that was and still is happening in Montgomery country called The Immigrant Experience in Montgomery County, which is a online exhibit sharing the experiences and personal story of the immigrants. This is relevant because Hope To You Community Church was originally founded by an immigrant couple from the Philippines for Filipino immigrants and their families. So, this internship was a multi-layered study of the birth and longevity of a community church and the community of immigrants.
The ultimate goal of this internship was to collect the individual stories and memories that correlate with the history of the church and how it had impacted and still impacts the community.
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