Internships Give Transformative Experience to Students

Fort Ticonderoga is delighted to announce a new collaboration with the McCormick Center for the Study of the American Revolution at Siena College. Three undergraduates will spend an intensive three-week residential internship at Fort Ticonderoga beginning in late May.

“Fort Ticonderoga is committed to providing engaging and meaningful experience to students of all ages,”said Beth Hill, Fort Ticonderoga President and CEO. “We are especially pleased to have the opportunity to provide valuable career experience to the next generation of public historians and museum professionals. Our museums staff welcomes the opportunity to work with Siena College and with our three Siena interns this year where they will gain valuable experience in education, interpretation, and collections and other museum related work. This new venture builds on the success of our Edward W. Pell Graduate Fellowships program launched in the summer of 2015.”

“I am extremely enthusiastic about this new partnership with Fort Ticonderoga,” noted Dr. Jennifer Dorsey, an Associate Professor of Early American History at Siena and the Director of the McCormick Center. “This internship program provides a wonderful opportunity for undergraduate students interested in pursuing a career in public history to gain real-world experience with the professional staff at Fort Ticonderoga.”

Siena College’s McCormick Center for the Study of the American Revolution is a community-engaged teaching and learning program rooted in the traditions of liberal learning, service, and advocacy. “Our students love learning history and believe that history education is essential for individuals, communities, and the future,” Dorsey said. “The McCormick Center provides students with personally meaningful leadership and learning opportunities to advance history education in New York State. Through internships, academic service learning, and undergraduate research fellowships, our students regularly partner with museums, libraries, historical societies, schools, and the public sector to develop and share educational programming about the history of New York State and colonial and Revolutionary America.”

The Siena interns are:

• Kristen Doyle is completing a major in American Studies and a Certificate in Revolutionary Era Studies. She is a member of Siena College’s History Club, the Siena Chorus and Stage III, the College’s theater club.
• Liam MacDonald is a native of the Greater Boston area and an unabashed history buff. He is a History Education major with a special interest in the American Revolution, the English Atlantic World, and contemporary U.S. politics.
• Greg Tirenin grew up in Rome, New York, where he volunteers at Fort Stanwix National Monument. He is completing a major in History and a Certificate in Revolutionary Era Studies. After he completes his summer fellowship at Fort Ticonderoga, he will study abroad in London.

In addition to the three-week internships for the Siena students, Fort Ticonderoga will once again host four graduate students for a two-month immersive experience this summer through the Edward W. Pell Graduate Fellowship program. Fort Ticonderoga’s educational programs are made possible thanks to generous donor support.