History 2016

I was an undergraduate student from 2012-2016 in York University’s Department of History and Public History program, and my experience there was the monumental factor that started my career. I work in the museum field, and the experiential approach to education as embodied by the Public History program’s foundation, still many years later, is an invaluable asset to my day-to-day. Being able to work on-site in a museum during the semester and having coursework that relates directly to your internship is incredibly useful – having this experience during the last semester of my degree prepared me to compete in the field directly following convocation and placed me one step ahead of the game.

During and following my time with York’s Department of History, I have gained experience in curatorial and collections work, archives, educational programming, and have held various interpretive positions at a handful of museums throughout the GTA. I have had the opportunity to experience everything from cataloguing and artifact work to costumed interpretation and coal forge blacksmithing – opportunities that I wholeheartedly believe would not have been available to me if I had not been a student in this program. I currently work as the Program Coordinator at the Whitchurch-Stouffville Museum, where I draw on my knowledge and experience from my undergraduate degree regularly. The faculty within the program were supportive and understanding of their students’ needs throughout the duration of the program, and my professor has kept in touch and has been a reliable professional reference throughout the trajectory of my career.