Internship Highlight

SUMMER SEARCH ALUMNA INTERNS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

Carrie Gonzalez is from the first class of Summer Search NYC students which graduated in 2005. In her first year as a Summer Search student, she went on a wilderness expedition and did community service on the Hopi Reservation with Deer Hill Expeditions. During her second year, she went to France with the Experiment in International Living. Carrie is currently a senior at Hunter College pursuing a B.A. in Anthropology and Psychology and a minor in Spanish. She is also a member of the New York City Alumni Board.

This past summer, Carrie is working at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American Indian in Washington, D.C. NMAI opened in 2004 and is the first national museum that is dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of the life of Native Americans in the Americas.

Carrie worked on the teaching collection for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. This is the first teaching collection focus on the history and lifestyle of this tribe of Native Americans. All 20 objects in the teaching collection were donated to the museum by the Chumash Indians. Carrie conducted research on the objects and catalogued the information in the museum’s database. In addition, she examined each object to determine what it is made of and its current physical condition.

Carrie is hoping to work on the Chumash Indians teaching collection at the NMAI in New York City in the spring.