The Berkshire Museum, located in my hometown of Pittsfield, Mass., has played a pivotal role in my life for nearly two decades. When I was a baby, one of my family members worked there, which granted my family and I many discounted visits to the establishment. I remember toddling around the museum’s exhibits like Berkshire Backyard and Window on the World with my mouth agape, in awe of things I had never seen before—taxidermied animals, fine art, huge natural minerals, live exotic fish and more. It was eye-opening. In elementary school, I took many field trips there, going to see everything from their Frogs exhibit in 2009 to their annual Festival of the Trees. I would go on to visit the Museum countless times after that, bringing along both friends and family. The Museum became mine and my brother’s ideal rainy day getaway. In short, I grew up with this museum.
I came to know the Berkshire Museum in an entirely different (and fantastic) way, though, once I started working there. It was serendipity. In senior year, my high school placed me in an internship with the Museum’s Experience Team: the team who works with everything education-related. After 80 hours of helping them with Outreach programs, my coworkers graciously invited me back to teach summer camps. Since then, I have come back for two consecutive summers as an Education Specialist. My job the past two summers has been to help run their classroom-style STEM summer camps. I say with confidence that this was the best thing fate could have done for me.
Working as an educator at the museum has been a truly enriching, once in a lifetime experience. I love the museum for reasons that extend far past what a typical job offers.
First, I love the Museum for its stellar cast of unique, hard-working employees. The Experience Team (as well as everyone on the Museum staff) welcomed me with open arms as soon as I walked through the doors. Even the people in Engagement or Maintenance or Collections who I didn’t directly work with were still beyond friendly. Any time I am unsure of something at work, there is always someone happy to help. I do have to give special thanks to the Experience Team, though, only because I have come to know them so well. I consider myself a member of their family (albeit a long-distance family member, like a cousin who only visits during summer vacation). Although I only work there three months out of the year, I communicate with them every few months to discuss camp curriculum and upcoming events. In addition to getting along swimmingly with them at work, I truly do enjoy them as people. I have made countless memories with Johanna, Kendra, Craig, Harry, Jess, and Gerardo. Every year I learn more and more about them. I hope to continue learning about them for as long as they keep inviting me back.
Second, I admire how the Experience Team works tirelessly to perfect what their name implies: experiences. I am constantly inspired by their devotion to making experiences as smooth and effective as they can be. The Team has run certain camps for multiple years (such as Lego Camp, Robotics Camp or Pond Camp), which allows them to modify curriculum year after year as they see fit. They also introduced two new camps this summer: Pahat’s Curiosity Squad, which had a curriculum centered around social studies and multicultural learning, and DIY Camp, which focused on art and hands-on problem solving. At every interval of teaching these new camps, I would casually reflect with Harry and Gerardo about what activities were working. The team embraces reflection (a virtue I hold near and dear) and is not afraid to correct themselves. At the end of each summer, we sit down and chat about what we can do better next year. They always accept any feedback from myself or other team members. Putting camps together is a team effort, and the team’s willingness to listen to each other shows that.
Third, I have loved being a Museum educator because of the experiences it has offered me. It is rare that a 19 year old college student can find a job in education. And not just “a job,” but a job that will offer real and applicable lifelong lessons. Through working at the Museum, I have learned so much about what it means to teach children. I now know how to effectively teach nine year olds about complex things like coding. I know how to construct a curriculum with an appropriate time frame and difficulty level. I know how to co-teach with two other educators in the same classroom. I know how to work with kids with different learning needs, and how to connect with them in a meaningful, personal way. I can now confidently get up and teach in front of twenty kids. The Experience Team can tell you this was not always the case—but under their guidance, I have found my voice as a teacher. Getting this education experience has also helped me set my future career path in stone: working in elementary education. Each year, summer camps give me more skills to add to my teaching toolbox, which will evidently help me in years to come.
(Photo: Portraits of Gerardo and I. By Nora, age 8.)
I am not the only one who shares these sentiments for the Berkshire Museum. Gerardo Aguilar, my summer camp other half, is the one I work most closely with each year. When asked about his experiences being an educator, he says “Working as a summer camp assistant at the Berkshire Museum is always unpredictable—and there is a beauty in not knowing how things will go, because it gives each day a new meaning. It almost feels like going to a different job everyday, a job where if you’re not scraping White-Out from a table, then you’re probably holding caterpillars on your hand or playing with shaving cream and food coloring. Each hour presents a new challenge, and you only have a limited amount of time to solve it until one of the kids asks you to go to the bathroom. However, at the end of the day, when the kids leave and the room is empty, all you hope is for the next morning to come as quick as possible, and you find yourself more excited than probably most of the kids. The innocence, creativity, honesty, and humility that take place in the classroom form an environment we learn more of as young adults than at any other point in our lives, and you just can’t deny to be grateful for what each of the kids teaches you with a simple set of words or actions. It is an experience you cannot forget.”
I wholeheartedly agree. Helping with the camps, although exhausting, is so worth it. After a full week of being climbed on by seven years olds and splattered with paint, it is easy to lose your cool. As anyone who works with kids knows, it can be frustrating. But the ending is what makes it all worth it. It’s the Fridays when their parents come to a showing of their stop-motion animations, laughing together as their kids proudly display their hard work and new knowledge. It’s when a preschooler comes in one morning and gifts you a banana, or when you get a Picasso-style portrait of yourself, or when the two siblings who have come to camps for three years give you a hug on their last day. It’s when I hop in my mom’s car at the end of each work day with disheveled hair and marker-stained hands and I say “My day was great!” It’s when you and the team exhaustedly high-five after a successful Kindergarten Night and clock out at 8:30 pm. Those are the times when you remember why you’re there.
Like I said, the Museum and I have known each other for years. But once I became an employee there, I quickly saw it as more than a building—I saw it as a living, breathing passion project run by a tight-knit dedicated staff. The Berkshire Museum creates unforgettable experiences, both for its guests and employees. It is a place like no other. I can’t predict what the future holds for me or the Berkshire Museum, but I sincerely hope our paths continue to cross.