2017 ISSUE No. 1
THE CHRONICLES OF THE CLUMSY CURATOR
Young Blood
Hooray for the
in the Museum
by Maria Isabel Garcia, Curator
W
e constantly get fresh blood in the museum all year
long. This is thanks to the interns who come and stay
to help us with making science come alive for our guests.
They come from various colleges and universities, and
they come to our doors, so open to learn for a good
stretch of time, what goes on in this spaceship we call
our “work home.” This issue focuses on the interns we
have now and have had in the museum even before the
construction was completed in 2011.
Interns have helped us with documentation and research
as far back as 2009. And now, at any day in the
museum, you see them carrying basins or some weird
gadget to do a show, engaged in a thoughtful and
funny discussion with a Mind Mover, or doing research
to strengthen the content of the show they are about to
do for guests. They are constantly guided by our Mind
Movers, giving them the training they need so they can
transform the otherwise cold science they know to the
hot passionate presentation it could be for an audience
composed of kids aged 2-102.
Training interns is one of the ways that The Mind Museum
moves minds for a span of time that is long enough for
us to be made aware of our impact. At the end of their
stint, they give us a reflection paper on what they have
experienced as interns in the museum. Some of the top
things that never fail to move me is when an intern tells
us that it is in being an intern where s/he has fallen in
love with science for the first time or when they say that
they have learned more stuff in a few weeks of being an
intern than from an entire class semester.
When we in the staff, get to read their reflections, you will
each hear us say “Aww,” and we all feel so grateful that,
among their other choices, they chose the museum to
receive the generosity of their time and energy. Most of
them love science to begin with but what we do is infect
these young blood with the passion to communicate and
to share their science. Igniting passions within these
young people will not just make science come alive, it
will make it move!
1