The Majors and Resources We Have: Leveraging Internships to Enrich Students Opportunities and Experiences

As part of an ongoing, comprehensive effort to redesign and revitalize the History major at Cameron University, the faculty of the Department of History and Government embraced the concept of offering structured internships in partnership with area museums (especially Fort Sill) in 2012. The goal was to broaden our course offerings without requiring additional faculty, offer students exposure to the field of public history and the opportunity to work with historians outside a university environment, and appeal to current and future majors attracted to artifacts and “hands on” history. Thus far the initiative has been extremely popular with students, particularly those who are veterans, and with the staff at Fort Sill and other area museums. It has propelled a number of students to pursue graduate degrees in Museum Studies following their graduation from Cameron, and helped in a small way to mitigate the limitations imposed on area museums by chronic staff shortages and budget cuts. The program has been modified several times since it began, and now represents and attractive service-learning and internship option for studying and presenting History outside a traditional academic setting for out majors.