When Lacy Miller first applied for an internship at the Center for Southwest Studies in the fall of 2021, Museum Collections Manager and 麻豆免费高清无砖码区NAGPRA Specialist Amy Cao immediately noticed her professionalism and keen attention to detail, even as a first-year student.
“Lacy was the only student [applicant] who’d submitted a resume and cover letter. That small attention to detail made me think ‘we’re hiring this person no matter what,’” said Cao. She emphasizes that the Center seeks students who can intern throughout their time at Fort Lewis College, explaining, “It is so intensive, and the projects we work on really build on each other.”
Miller, who will graduate this spring, has taken full advantage of her internship, mastering best practices in handling, displaying, storing, and documenting objects while also developing leadership and project management skills.
“Every semester she’s really progressed in what we’ve been able to work on. She’s gained more and more independence, not just a student doing tasks, but she’s directing some of those projects now,” explains Cao.
This semester, Miller’s internship is funded by the Robert and Kelly Hill Fund through the 麻豆免费高清无砖码区Foundation and 麻豆免费高清无砖码区Career Services which has allowed her to work on a broader range of projects than some previous semesters.
“A lot of the different funding we’ve applied for and received have been catered to only specific types of projects which has made it kind of quirky,” said Cao. Funding internships through the 麻豆免费高清无砖码区Foundation, such as the Center for Southwest Studies Internship Fund, which Miller has previously received, removes these barriers and allows Cao to mentor students in skill-building areas where they most want to grow.
The internship at the Center has also opened doors for Miller, paving the way for summer opportunities working at other museums including the Colorado Northwestern Field Museum.
“At conferences, people ask me where I’ve worked, and when I say six museums, they’re shocked. ‘You’re still an undergrad? That’s awesome!’ they say,” said Miller. “So the Center has helped to build the resume and it’s a really, really good way to learn. A lot of practices that I use within paleontology I’ve brought here, and then things that I’ve learned here I’ve also brought back there. It’s been really fun to tie all of the best practices in together,” said Miller.
Miller’s experiences at other institutions have also benefited Cao and the Center.
“It’s really helpful for me, too. If anybody tries to say there’s one way to do things in museums—it’s so not true. It’s a field that really, really needs collaboration and is always evolving in terms of what we’re learning from other disciplines. We’re very much a place that’s responding to different cultural needs and taking into consideration the living communities whose objects we care for, working with artists, things like that. But I think what’s been fun working with Lacy is that she’s more on the STEM side of things and that’s really helped our work, too,” said Cao.
Miller, a geology major with a minor in anthropology, is also pursuing certificates in Geographic Information Systems and Museum Management. These studies lead her to a research project focusing on how to bring the public into paleontology while advancing preservation.
“I had always found that if I’d show my friends or family photos of a dig site they’d be like, ‘cool, they’re rocks.’ I’m like no you don’t understand. So, I wanted to make it more accessible for the public because the public can’t go out to field sites all the time,” she explains.
Using lidar 3-D scans, she and her team cataloged and inventoried the site.
“We know exactly what things look like and let’s say something accidentally drops, we can put it right back together because we have this 3-D model, not just pictures,” she said. “It’s also great because people can’t always make it in person and you could have an entire exhibit online which is really exciting.”
As she continues to grow in her understanding of best practices at the Center, Miller has been able to share her knowledge with other interns and students of all ages who visit the museum.
“Lacy is one of our best people to describe the hands-on parts of what we do to other interns, and there’s a lot of things that having worked in this field for so long that I just don’t think of saying out loud,” said Cao. “Translating for different people, both audiences of different age groups, other students. It’s been very impressive to see how she can navigate the museum world of things, and student world, and what would a general audience need to know. It’s very impressive.”
Miller and Cao have built a strong working relationship, collaborating on object care and engaging in in-depth discussions on museum best practices and evolving theories.
“I definitely feel like I speak Amy now pretty well, and I can interpret it, and I know exactly what she means. It’s been fun to have that close connection,” said Miller.
Cao says the internship opportunities that are available to 麻豆免费高清无砖码区students through the Center is a major point of pride.
“I’ve been glad to work at Fort Lewis because of the internships that we offer through the Center of Southwest Studies … everything that we’re teaching to our undergraduate students is graduate-level and beyond. Having access to that in such a rural place and being the main museum institution that students can get training from is huge and something that I wish I’d had more of an option for in undergrad, especially as a work-study job or an internship that like can lead to course credit and also looks good on a resume,” she said.