Thank you, Eleanor, for those lovely remarks.
For those of you who don't know, I
am a senior named Courtney Kaufman,
and I am a computer science and art history double major.
This summer through my funding, I
had the opportunity to do several internships,
and the two I'm going to highlight today
are in the work search I did with the Skinner
Museum of Museum History as well as working with the New York
City Urban Debate League as a debate coach.
So for those of you who don't know,
this is the Skinner Museum.
Who here has been to the Skinner Museum?
Let's see a show of hands.
Anyone who is not raising their hands
should be very ashamed of themselves.
[LAUGHTER]
The Skinner Museum is an excellent resource located just
off Mount Holyoke's campus.
And I first encountered it in my first year seminar,
where I met Aaron Miller, who I now intern with.
And when I first went into the museum, I was shocked.
It looked something like this.
This does not look like a traditional museum.
It's not very organized, to say the least.
It resembles more of my dorm room than something
of [INAUDIBLE].
And through my years of working with Aaron
and interning at the museum, I sort
of wondered what was it about walking
into a collection like this versus walking
into a different museum that makes you feel sort of wonder
and curiosity?
And how does that relate to museum history in general?
My research focused on 16th and 17th century
cabinets of wonder.
For those of you who don't know what these are,
which is probably everyone in the room--
I sure didn't know what they were either--
people at research institutions, aristocrats
at this period in history, would open up rooms of their homes
or their university to gather treasures from around the world
to bring to people who would not get access to them otherwise.
And this formed a sort of unique knowledge base.
The idea was that you could have a room that was
a microcosm of the universe.
You would have natural history.
You would have art pieces.
You would have curiosities like unicorn horns--
because everyone knows unicorns exist.
And what my research was looking at
is how does a museum like Skinner in the 21st century
fit into this paradigm of a collection
where you come with no knowledge and you come out
feeling a sense of wonder and curiosity
and where that continues.
So I spent a lot of time at the New York Public
Library looking at primary and secondary source documents.
I also spent a few weeks at Skinner
examining particular artifacts that sparked my interest
and I found very odd.
My favorite artifact to talk about
is there is a gold bust of Mark Twain.
I don't know why it's there.
It's like a paperweight.
But it's the weirdest thing I've ever seen.
Definitely did not expect that in a museum.
But what I found in my research is
that in the 16th and 17th century,
you have a lot of aristocrats doing the collection.
You would have it at large research institutions.
Then by the 18th century, I started
looking at France in particular and the sort of connections
that people would make in their networks as collectors.
And what was more emphasized is the interpersonal connections
you got from these artifacts and the sharing
of the collections themselves.
In the 19th century, interestingly enough,
you had the iterations of how museums appear now.
A particular example I looked at was the British Museum,
where the British Museum originated from one gentleman's
collection and turned into the museum it is today.
And then you have the museums you have now.
So that was one part of my summer.
At night, I would teach SAT prep to rising high school seniors.
That's the math tutoring aspect.
I also taught verbal and writing.
And my students got to take the SAT
for the second time in September,
and they all told me that their scores improved.
So that made me feel really warm and fuzzy inside.
But another really important part
of my summer that I'd love to share with you
is the work I got to do with the New York City Urban Debate
League.
I am a former high school debater and a current college
debater, and giving back as a debate coach and judge is
the most wonderful thing I've probably
ever done through my volunteer experience.
The New York City Urban Debate League
is a not-for-profit organization that
was founded in 2011, whose mission is to bring debate
to deserving but underprivileged elementary, middle school,
and high school students in New York City.
What skills does debate teach you?
It teaches you speaking, arguing, and writing, things
that students can learn in classrooms,
but don't always get the opportunity to,
especially when you look at New York
City where you have a lot of problems with overcrowding.
And this gives students the individual opportunity
to shine and to become better speakers, arguers, and writers.
Definitely skills I learned at Mount Holyoke.
One of the most rewarding programs
I worked with this summer was with the Bella Abzug Leadership
Institute at Hunter College in New York City.
The Bella Abzug Leadership Institute
was inspired by Bella Abzug, who was a New York state
congressman from the 1970s and who was
a champion of women's rights.
Her organization brings leadership to young women
in high school, some in college.
And as their debate trainer, I got
to empower them to become great leaders
and inspirational young women.
Might have even inspired a few to apply to Mount Holyoke, so,
you know, keeping it going.
So you're probably wondering, how do I
find such awesome internships?
How did you do it?
I used the resources around me.
I went to my professors.
I said, can I do research with you?
I looked to experiences in my life.
I love debate.
I found an organization that was doing cool stuff.
So find opportunities around you.
Reach out.
Talk to people who took College 211 with the lovely Eleanor
Townsley.
We can tell you all about the great things we've found.
Start with what you love even if it
doesn't relate to your major.
Yes, I am an art history major, but I am also
a computer science major.
And debate doesn't directly relate to either of those,
but it is something that I love.
So don't feel that you need to be limited to exactly what is
in your major.
Try something new.
I never taught SAT prep before.
It was a lot of fun.
LyonNet is an excellent resource.
(WHISPERING) But I didn't use it.
[LAUGHTER]
Shh.
Know one more thing.
You can do more than one thing with your summer.
A lot of people will tell you, oh, I did this one thing,
and I spent all this time on it.
And it was great, and I was obsessed with it.
But let me tell you, if you have a lot of interests,
like everyone on this panel, you'll
see that we all did multiple things
and that is perfectly all right.
And finally, if you're around on Sunday afternoon
and you found this talk informative
and would like to learn more about the Skinner Museum,
I will be speaking with Phoebe Cos
at 1 PM at the Skinner Museum.
It's pretty easy to get to.
It's kind of like you go past the soccer fields
and you walk for a mile.
And then if you walk too far, you end up in Amherst.
[LAUGHTER]
One more thing I just want to say is try something new
and see where it takes you.
One of the best parts of my summer
is I got to try so many new and cool things
and have so many great experiences.
So don't be afraid to try something new.
Go out and find an internship.
Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE]