Meet the Interns!
During the winter semester break, Preservation Massachusetts was fortunate to have not one but two interns working with us on some long-anticipated projects; getting our new advocacy database up and running and creating an historic landscape resource guide. We will certainly share more about these projects, but we wanted to use this opportunity to introduce you to these two “next generation” members of the preservation community.
Clelie Fielding: Historic Landscape Intern
1.) Where are you from, where are you at school and what are you studying?
I am from Francestown, NH, I am a junior at Smith College, and I am majoring in Architecture & Urbanism, and minoring in Landscape Studies.
2.) What drew your interest to preservation/history/cultural heritage? Was there an "ah-ha" moment where you knew this is what you wanted to pursue?
I took a course last spring titled "Cultural Landscapes and Historic Preservation," and was inspired to learn more about the field of preservation and delve into the resource guide project for Preservation MA.
3.) What are your plans for after graduation?
Although I haven't thought extensively about life after Smith yet, I could see myself getting a master’s in architecture or Landscape Architecture, traveling, or working in any of the architecture/landscape architecture/preservation fields.
4.) Do you want to share any thoughts you have on how preservation can engage a younger audience?
I think a younger audience can most easily be engaged in preservation when they have the opportunity to visit historic sites and landscapes. That way they can explore the space first hand and imagine the past through the stories the place holds.
5.) Any other thoughts or interesting ideas or something unique about you that you want to share?
This fall I took a semester away from Smith to study at the Yestermorrow Design & Build School in Waitsfield, VT. Our project was to build a backcountry ski hut for the organization Vermont Huts, in coordination with the National Forest Service. Throughout the four months we met with the clients, developed a design through countless iterations, learned about building in cold climates, and garnered a tool belt of basic carpentry skills. The hut was completed in Waitsfield and will be moved to the Chittenden Brook Campground, where it will be open to the public this summer!
Nicholas Moore: Advocacy Intern
1.) Where are you from, where are you at school and what are you studying?
I was born and raised in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Currently, I am a junior undergraduate student at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. I major in history and double minor in historic preservation and environmental studies.
2.) What drew your interest to preservation/history/cultural heritage? Was there an "ah-ha" moment where you knew this is what you wanted to pursue?
From a very early age, I loved going into thrift shops and antique stores with my mom and I had a knack of finding the oldest thing in the place where we went. As I got older, this interest in the old and forgotten grew and eventually converged with my interest in taking things apart, fixing them up, and putting them back together.
When I went into a thrift store in my early years in high school, I saw a 1920 Health o Meter scale that was in terrible condition. For some reason, I felt the urge to take it apart, down to the nuts and bolts, and restore it to its former glory. From then on, I began doing projects for teachers, friends, and relatives restoring antiques and researching their history in the process. When I restored a 1932 Atwater Kent Cathedral Radio in my sophomore year of high school, I proudly brought it in to show it to my favorite history teacher, Lora DeSalvo, and she told me there was an entire career centered on preserving the past. I was so excited that I could make a career out of something I enjoyed so much.
Ever since that day, I have been doing internships trying to see preservation in different ways - from the grass roots efforts working at the Plymouth Antiquarian Society, the town level with the Plymouth Community Preservation Committee, in the archives at Goucher College, and now at the state level with Preservation Massachusetts. Now I am returning to Baltimore, Maryland to start a new and exciting internship with the City of Baltimore’s Historic Preservation Department in conjunction with the Peale Museum of Baltimore History.
3.) What are your plans for after graduation?
I am torn at the moment over what to do after graduation. I have so many interests and making a decision that will change the rest of my life is daunting to say the least, however, I narrowed it down to practicing preservation law or going into museum studies. I want to pursue my master’s degree and eventually get a PhD.
4.) Do you want to share any thoughts you have on how preservation can engage a younger audience?
I think the way to engage a younger audience lies in demonstrating the usefulness that historic preservation can have on their everyday lives.
5.) Any other thoughts or interesting ideas or something unique about you that you want to share?
Minoring in historic preservation and environmental studies, I have been thinking that a more effective way to approach historic preservation is to just focus on preservation in general. We need to work together across disciplines, whether it is using environmental issues or historical reasoning to preserve what is great in our communities - whether it is an old historic building that holds community memories or wetlands that offer ecological services to people every day that they probably do not even realize.
Many thanks to both Nick and Clelie for their work with us this past semester. It is hugely helpful to have some new perspectives and ideas for these projects and the field of preservation in general. We wish both of them the best of luck with their spring semesters.
