By Olivia Belote ’11
Wheat Ridge, Colorado
History
After Mac: MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies University of Manchester  (England)

As an undergraduate, this was an immense opportunity for me. Initially, I was intimidated by the amount of responsibility, but quickly found my footing.

My internship with TRACES opened up new pathways and aspirations for my life after Mac. It’s an educational organization created to gather, preserve and present stories of people from the Midwest and Germany or Austria who encountered each other during World War II.

I worked with an exhibit coordinator, part of a team with responsibility for booking locations for the traveling exhibit Held on the Homefront: German POWs in the US, 1943–46. The exhibit is a 40-foot school bus converted into a mobile classroom and museum. I found libraries, schools, historical societies, and other hosts for the exhibit. Later I was asked to take over the grant writing portion of TRACES.

As an undergraduate, this was an immense opportunity for me. Initially, I was intimidated by the amount of responsibility, but quickly found my footing. On a daily basis, I identified historical and humanities grants to apply for, wrote the grant proposals, spoke with grant officers, and composed final reports about how TRACES had allocated funds from previous grants.

The perseverance, attention to detail, and organization required by my professors and academic schedule transferred perfectly to my internship. 

I’m a history major and applied math minor, and my time at TRACES illuminated the possibility of combining my two areas of study.
I am now planning to earn an MBA and an MA in museum studies with the aim of becoming part of the directional and
financial sector of a museum.

July 12 2011

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