History Museum First Day!!!

Wednesday was my first day at the history museum and it was great! I worked from 8:30 to 4:30 and I will give a bit of an outline of what I did. From 8:30-9:30 I was walked through the museum and given some background refresh by Kat Bourek. The museum is opening an exhibit on the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis in April and I got to tour it with her today, and once it is open to the public I will spend a good amount of time working there. Then from 9:30-12:30 Kat, Suzi Reed, and I went to the St. Louis Community College career fair. We just sat at a booth and told college students about our internships and volunteer programs. It was pretty slow, but we had some people interested so that was good! We also got to talk a lot, which was super cool, and they told some really funny stories like how Suzi’s husband loves to rollerskate and she is committed to learning as well. Kat also told this really funny story about how her sister and this old lady got into a car accident. Everything was okay and it was just a minor scratch, her sister had to go to class, and she told the old lady she would contact her. Then the old lady sued her sister for a hit and run and accused her of assault saying that the sister pushed her over! None of it was true, but she wanted to take her to court and her son was also a lawyer. So, then one night the police show up at their parents house and they arrested Kat’s sister and she had to spend a night in jail! Luckily, she was cleared. At 12:30, Suzi and I came back to the museum and talked some to Hanna. Hanna works with Suzi and Kat, and she is also blind and originally from Ethopia and grew up there. She is super funny! At 1:00 we attended a sensitivity training for LGBTQ+ awareness since the museum will have a pride exhibit coming in June. The talk was given by Jess Jones, their job is to go to different companies, schools, and non for profits, and talk about LGBTQ+ awareness. They were a really eloquent and dynamic speaker and the presentation was done really well. While there I also got to meet Mike and Marcia, an older married couple who have been volunteering for eight years, Ellie a K-12 coordinator, Emily and Nora who are also K-12 coordinators, Mike who is an older volunteer and super sweet, and Amanda who I’m not sure what her title was, but she also has a degree in history and said she would be happy to talk to me about career paths and help me look for paid jobs. I also met another coordinator, I forget his name, but he has cerebarl palsy and is in a motorized wheel chair, but he is also super intelligent and one of their lead workers. The last thing I did was explore the galleries and fill out this new worker scavenger hunt. It was a really great first day, since this post is longer than I thought I will probably update on Friday also!