What I Did On My Summer vacation
For eight St. Labre High School students and
their supervisor, the answer to this age-old
question was pretty exciting. They were invited
as guests of the Smithsonian Institution to experience
a virtual museum workshop for a week last June.
If you’re thinking the students simply walked up
and down the Mall in Washington D.C. checking out
the various museums that comprise the Smithsonian,
you’d be off the mark. These students spent their
time in the Smithsonian archives in Suitland,
Maryland, where they were exposed to thousands of
Native American artifacts specific to the Northern
Cheyenne and Crow tribes. Each day was spent
handling objects, photographing them, and writing
technical reports about them. Along the way, the
students were given lessons in photography, research,
and writing.
If that sounds boring, nothing, at least in the
minds of the students, could be further from the
truth. Brittany writes in her daily log, “The experience
has been wonderful! I learned how to make 3D
imaging with a camera. I like how my eyes were
opened to museum work
because it opened up my
horizons.”
Jeffrey writes, “I chose
Crow artifacts so I could
learn more about my heritage
and my background.
I have really learned a lot
about my culture and where
I come from. This whole
week I learned a lot about
researching artifacts... studying
them, and taking
pictures of them.”
Their project coordinator,
Cecelia Thex, a staff
member for over thirty years
at St. Labre, said she was gratified to see how interested
students were in their own culture and other
Native cultures. “It made the whole trip very worthwhile,”
she observed.
Apparently, this group impressed the museum
officials, too, for as Cecelia related, “The museum
administrators came to me and told me they were
thinking they’d like for us to come back next year.”
Apparently, the Smithsonian administrators felt
the $18,291 they provided to the St. Labre group was
money well spent.
And that goes double for the students. As Annie
wrote, “I had so much fun and learned and saw so
much. I’m not ready to be done. This week has
made me ponder what I want to be. This would be an
amazing job.”
Really, that’s what experiences such as this are
all about. If any of these students can connect their
daily routines at school with becoming qualified for
a career they would love, then the goal of the program
has been achieved. That’s what quality education is
supposed to do.
  
Tour The VIRTUAL WORKSHOP
Read this article and more in our Fall edition of 'The Morning Star'
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