I finally started on what should be my final project for my internship, and also found myself a job for the summer, so the last few weeks have certainly been eventful to say the least. With the last few weeks of work in my internship coming up, the first thing I plan on doing other then finishing off what I currently am working on, is talk with Dr. Saladin to see if in the Fall next semester or later this summer it’s still possible for me to work with him on the project. I absolutely despise leaving projects unfinished, and while my primary objective/deliverable- my map of Roman North Africa- is finished, there are plenty more projects as a whole for the website that I want to at least see finished, so I’ll certainly be working further if I’m allowed.
I didn’t believe that I would reach the point where I was doing additional work after my deliverables were finished. However, I’m really happy that I was able to pick up the controls and basics of GIS and mapping to the point where I got another project after I was finished with my first one. What that project is, is a GIS Story Map ‘A Tour of Roman North Africa’, which will go through some of the major sites that Dr. Saladin visited, along with other important cities along North Africa for the Romans. I believe I will be able to have this finished by the end of the semester, and if not it will be only a small ways until it’s finished.
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/960cea187c2b4f6c8298c70825c5099c/edit
The Story Map has seemingly ‘brought me back to my roots’ I like to say, as in I spent a week researching all of the sites I’ve decided to add into the Story Map. That is as a total almost 30 sites, and while I only needed at most 4-5 sentences per site, it was still odd to transition back to researching after weeks of strictly online work, however, that process only took a week and now it’s back online to finish the map. Dr. Saladin asked ‘what do we do next’, after I was finished up with my map draft, and I believe that is an important question to ask for any project like this, so I’m more then happy to finish out my internship hours helping with this.
This is all in addition to the massive resume boost that this entire semester has brought me. I realized the importance this semester of networking and collaborating with others, ‘stepping outside my shell’ you could say. A year ago I never would have imagined attending events like Douglas Day, the Mapathon, let alone getting a job at the Penn Museum. Whether it was Emily helping me better learn about describing material culture to the public, learning more online skills with Dr. Saladin, or attending events and just sharing my progress during class meetings, I believe I wouldn’t have had the skills and resume necessary to get selected out of hundreds for a job like this.
So, this summer after bringing history to the public digitally, I’ll be in the galleries of the Penn Museum leading tours, which is never something I thought I’d be able to do. And a large part of me being able to do that is thanks to the skills I achieved this semester.
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