9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ

I would like to begin by expressing my sincere thanks to the donors supporting the Dean of Arts Development Fund. I am about to go start my second year in the Faculty of Arts and Science, where I am pursuing Major Concentrations in Classics and Biology. I am incredibly interested in interdisciplinary studies and combining different spheres of thinking. My internship was completed with The Roman Baths, in Bath, United Kingdom.

The Romans Baths is both an ancient historical site from when the Romans were in Britain, and a museum displaying other found artefacts from the ancient Roman settlement of Aquae Sulis. Their mission is to preserve and share ancient Roman history and the history of Bath as a spa town. It also hosts specialized experiences for school groups, children, and families to bring together the community through historical learning.

I chose this internship because I wanted to learn more about Roman Britain specifically. I was also very curious as to how an ancient monument runs and how all the pieces come together to bring both conservation and a unique touristic experience.

I performed a variety of duties over the course of my work experience. These included basic customer service skills such as handing out audio guides to answering visitor questions from stations around the museum. My personal favourite duty was the guided tour, where you lead a group of at most 16 people on an hour-long tour around the Great Bath. As part of my work experience, I was able to shadow many of the different departments to find out how they worked, including the Collections department and the Learning department.

Throughout the internship, my academic background in Classics helped establish my historical context for the monument. However, it had very little relevance in teaching me how to present the information in a digestible fashion or aid with any of the general customer service skills. For those aspects of the internships, I was heavily relying on my past jobs in customer service to make sure I was providing a good experience for visitors.

I have many highlights to draw from throughout my internship, but my favourite was definitely giving my first guided tour. Even though I was extremely nervous about answering questions and keeping the tour group engaged, my first group was lovely and showed they were engaged through the excellent questions they asked. Seeing people’s eyes light up or hearing them laugh when you tell them a unique and slightly weird historical fact about the site makes you feel like you are making a truly positive impact on their experience.

I would say my biggest challenge also came from the tours—probably part of the reason they were also so rewarding to accomplish. Most people working at the Baths take around six months to start giving guided tours, and I was attempting to do it within three. It took focused study to memorize the pages of information I needed to cover; however, it did not feel like a burden because I was heavily invested in the work I was doing.

Looking to the future, my internship has given me significant insight into how I love connecting with people over sharing knowledge. I loved the public speaking aspect of the guided tours and feeling like I was really connecting with people. I will look for that same connection in my future endeavours.

It cannot be overstated, but this internship would not have been possible without the Dean of Arts Development Fund Internship Award. In helping cover my rent and my flights, I was able to really focus on my learning and gaining new experiences living solo abroad.

I want to sincerely thank the Faculty of Arts donors  for supporting this award and in turn truly making my summer and giving me a chance to explore what it would be like to work in the Classical field. I cannot wait to start the new school year and begin applying what I have learned into my studies.