College Students Help Out at the Museum

For the past several weeks, history was made when two honors students from South Florida Community College were assigned to the Depot Museum for a “service learning program.” This national college program encourages students to participate in community projects. As their handbook says, “The health of our democracy depends on service and community involvement.”

Museum director Elaine Levey has been working with Dr. Charlotte Pressler, director of the SFCC honors program, on this partnership.

The students were Alyssa Smith, from Avon Park, a graduate of Walker Academy and a pre-med student at SFCC; and Dee-Von Martinez from Lake Wales, current editor of the college newspaper. (As a bonus to us, Dee-Von’s sister, Crystal, although not a SFCC student, also volunteered to help us.)

The girls updated our inventory of museum artifacts, physically matching each item with the file card that identifies that item. The update verifies that donated items are still on display or stored in the museum. “This is an essential task for all museums,” Elaine said. “It lets us know if any items are missing. I’ve been trying to get this done for some time.”

Each student spent five hours working in the museum. “I hope the college assigns more students to us,” Elaine said. “They’re competent, conscientious and eager workers. And working in the museum was an eye-opener for them as they saw a lot of things they’d never seen before. I’m excited because this project is a great first-step in our attracting young people to our museum.”