Over this past summer from June to August Anthony spent time working as a Reimagining New England Histories intern at the Mystic Seaport Museum. Through this opportunity, he was able to learn and build his skill set within the realms of museum work. The main objective over his summer was to work in the museum education department and develop after-school programs centered around BIPOC Maritime history. With the help of his colleague Jada Wooten (Brown Class of 2024) they were able to develop 13 after-school programs, with 9 still in development.

His secondary objective during my time there was created from personal and professional goals. While he was at the Seaport, he attended many meetings where museum officials were trying to find new ways to engage different demographics of customers. This prompted him to create an initiative of museum wide community events that would be for the community by the community. This was personally his favorite part of the internship because he was able to combine his love for community work, sociology, and education all into one project. Overall, by the time August 10 came around he had developed 6 museum wide community centered events!

In addition, to the work he did at the Seaport he also was able to engage in some amazing conversations the best of them being the weekend long conference “The Reimagining New England Histories Gathering”. Through this conference he was able to meet some amazing people from places like Brown University’s Simmons Center for the study of Slavery and Justice, the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, and many different Native tribal leaders.

Lastly, the last part of the internship experience was working with community partners to strengthen community bonds and professional relationships. One institution he worked closely with was the Tomaquag Museum in Exeter, Rhode Island. Through his time there he was trained on museum inventory and archival work and ended up cataloging over 2,000 pieces of inventory. Another community partner he was able to engage with were the Mashantucket Pequot Museum in Ledyard, Connecticut.

Overall, this summer provided him with one of the most amazing internship experiences he have had so far. Beyond that it also opened so many new doors for him and showed him a whole new career path for him to pursue.