The Richards Center is deeply committed to undergraduate education,
especially introducing students to the history
major and supporting professional development
opportunities for students interested in working
in the field.
Gettysburg Park Ranger and Penn Staters Laura Lawfer, Tim Orr, Jim Flook, Raffi Andonian, Lindsay Keister, and Bill Hewitt.
Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry Internships
Thanks to the generosity of Larry and Lynne Brown, the Richards Center sends an intern to Gettysburg National Military Park and Harpers Ferry National Park each summer. The interns get hands-on experience in public history during their stay. They assist National Park Service staff at the information desk and field questions from visitors around the park during "Rove Time." Interns also design and conduct their own interpretive tour based on a theme of their own choosing. Because many of the interns are aspiring historians, the program also requires them to engage in an assigned research project to further the educational mission of the park. Some Penn State students have enjoyed their tenure as interns so much that they later returned to Gettysburg or other national military parks as seasonal rangers. Students who serve as Gettysburg or Harpers Ferry Interns receive housing near the park and a small stipend. In addition to their duties at the park, they are required to keep a journal about their experiences.
Selection of each summer's Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry Intern is made in the fall for the following summer. Students who are interested in applying for the internship must have a 3.0 grade point average, submit a one-page statement of interest stating why they would like to work at Gettysburg or Harpers Ferry and how they think that experience will further their history education, and provide a letter of recommendation from a faculty member in the Department of History. For more information about the Gettysburg or Harpers Ferry Internship, please contact the Richards Center.
Penn Stater Vincent Slaugh,
a former intern at the Lancaster Historical Society.
The Richards Center also sponsors an internship that enables a Penn State history major to work at a historic site or museum in their own hometown. Historic Sites Interns agree to provide their own housing, with the Center providing a stipend. Interested students must consult with the Director of the Richards Center in setting up this opportunity, and a suitable person must agree to be the intern supervisor at the site.
To date, students have served at the Heinz History Center, Lancaster Historical Society, Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg; Camp William Penn, and Fort Delaware. For more information about this opportunity, please contact the Richards Center.
Penn State undergraduates and Professor Blair (center) on the steps of Storer College's original building in Harpers Ferry. Storer is one of the oldest historically black colleges in the country.
Every year, the Richards Center co-sponsors a trip with the Penn State History Club to generate excitement about the major. Previous destinations have included the Gettysburg and Antietam battlefields. In 2006, Richards Center Scholar-in-Residence Carol Reardon led a tour at Gettysburg, which visited sites connected with all three days of the battle. In April 2005, twenty-eight students ventured to Harpers Ferry, where Richards Center Director William Blair led a tour that featured African American history "From Slavery to Civil Rights."