adwalker

At the beginning of my internship I was very unsure on many aspects. I was unsure of how this would work with my schedule, how I would be able to learn new skills through a historical memorial, and how I would be able to engage in a new era of history I had not previously focused on. I found that all of these doubts were disproved by my first week interning at the the memorial. With the help of my supervisor Maggie and many other individuals I was able to learn and improve various skills. I was able to learn how to make a lesson plan and how to doctor it to the various levels of school groups I presented to. I was able to work on my own to create this lesson plan to meet educational requirements, and while that was hard in the beginning I learned from it and learned to also enjoy it.

My internship also gave me the chance to improve my communication skills as well. Prior to my internship I was used to giving presentations to small groups or within my job as a Maroon Ambassador but with the help of the internship I learned how to project my voice and lectures to larger crowds. Through my internship I was able to engage with a variety of individuals from veterans to business owners and through this I learned how to improve my social and communication skills. Although I learned new skills I also found a new love for this era of history. Prior to my internship I was not interested or informed much on the effects of World War II on individuals or communities. Thanks to this opportunity I have found an interest and want to know more  on the topic as well as have been honored with hearing personal stories from World War II veterans. Reflecting on my internship I would say that I was able to grow as an individual and further my skills to help me with my future career endeavors. If I had the opportunity I would do this internship again and recommend it to my peers. I am beyond excited to come back in June to  be apart of the 75th D-Day commemoration.

The past two weeks have been slower as we are doing a lot more behind the scenes planning for the 75th of the D-Day invasion. I have been helping out my supervisor Maggie with education tours that are coming up this month. I was able to see behind the scenes of programming in different school groups as well as the various education programs done during tours. I also was able to sit in and observe my very first tent program in which was based on a soldier during the war. I helped with the setup and take down as well as had the opportunity to learn new information on artifacts as well as the memorial itself.

This week I spent much of my time planning prizes for the annual 5k run the memorial holds. I was able to look at new ideas in order to help Maggie plan door prizes as well as the grand prize. I have had a lot of fun being behind the scenes and planning various events such as this. I was also able to sit in on a meeting with some live historians for the 75th and learn a lot about the command center as well as land plan for the day. I am very excited to see how these plans play out on June 6th.

This weekend I attended Scout Days at the memorial which is one of the events I have been working on for about two months. I have been planning activities for the boy scouts and girl scouts as well as planning my very own presentation. I did not know what to expect but I had a great time and enjoyed every minute of it. This program definitely taught me a few things and the first would be public speaking. Ironically the badge program I did was public speaking but putting myself in front of girl scouts and their parents was a new experience. I was nervous but I was able to present and I found that it went well.

I also found that I was able to learn a lot about planning programs and events. I was there for setups and takedowns and was also able to plan a lesson. Planning a lesson was the biggest part of my job with this event and it was a lot of work. I had to learn how to center my program about a topic such as World War 2 around children so that it was not too intense. I drafted many presentations before the event itself but I found that I learned a lot when it came to making a lesson plan about WW2 that fit with the requirements of earning the girl scout badge. I find that this experience is helping me with working on my public speaking as well as the education part of lesson plans.

 

Hi everyone, this week I have been focusing a lot on the artifacts of World War 2. I have spent about a week and a half now working with the past perfect program and the artifact man on site in order to go through and catalog all of the items the memorial has received. These days have been very exciting as I get to see things such as old flare pistols, journal entries, old uniforms and patches, and sometimes the odd miscellaneous postcards from Japan. Being able to actually see and examine artifacts from D-Day has been quite a delight for me. During these past few weeks, I have learned much about being behind the scenes of cataloging objects, handwritten notes, and even the random stacks of photographs from World War 2. I find that by being able to work on artifacts, I have gained a spiked interest in that field of history.

As I am working with the artifacts, I am also preparing and getting more involved with behind the scenes of the annual D-Day parade. I have joined in on meetings and plannings on the people involved from veterans to even boy scouts. Being involved has also given me a voice in helping plan out volunteers and being on site as a coordinator the day of the parade. Although we are just getting started with all the major details of the parade, I am very excited to be apart of the parade and all D-Day events to come.

Arian Walker-Roberts

I am currently interning at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford and as an intern, I am learning many different skills in various fields. My main focus right now is working on scout badges that will incorporate information from D-Day. My goal is to look at girl scout badges and their requirements and then based on the requirements make hands-on D-Day activities for girls to gain their badges. I have been working on this for two weeks now and can not wait to see the final product.

Another main goal within the past two weeks that I am focusing on is preparing for future field trip tours. As March and April come around, the memorial will be lively with the number of school trips coming in. I have been going on site to shadow and practice my own tours in order to prepare for the busy season. This year is also the 75th of D-Day, so there is a lot of exciting things coming up and I can not wait.

Catch you again in two weeks,

Arian 🙂