Category: Spring Semester 2026

Faith Somers, BMC ’27 & Alex Delgado, HC ’28

Praxis Course: Data in Action: Non-Profits and Data

Semester: Spring 2026

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Jennifer Spohrer

Community Partner: PHENND/CASE

Praxis Site Supervisor: Hillary Kane and Janine Wright

Praxis Poster:

DSCI Faith Somers_Summer Melt Praxis Project Poster Final

 

Further Context:
This semester, we had the opportunity to work with the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND), a network of over 25 colleges and universities that focuses on “service-learning, civic engagement, and community partnership in Philadelphia” (phennd.org).

The organization has many diverse programs relating to achieving these goals in the Philadelphia region (College Success Network, PHENND Sustainability, Democratic Civic Engagement, etc.). Our project has focused on college completion and success strategies, specifically on reducing summer melt in the transition from high school to college. Another
organization we worked with is the College Access and Success Ecosystem (CASE), a collective impact forum focused on increasing high school and college graduation rates for Philadelphia students. Our two partners at PHENND serve as the co-chairs for CASE’s On Track to College Graduation Action Team.

To begin our project, we spent some time on a literature review, investigating the most relevant and recent literature on National Summer Melt, to plan out how to shrink the scope to the Philadelphia area. They had defined Summer melt as, “the phenomenon of college-intending
students who have applied to, been accepted by, and made a deposit to a college or university, but fail to matriculate to that college (or any other) in the fall following their high school graduation”(MCAN). We were unsure whether this definition fully captured every institution’s protocol when considering the various dates a student could be considered melted or if an
enrollment deposit was the determining factor.

We wanted to broaden our understanding of institution-based Summer Melt, so we applied our learnings in forming qualitative questions for our prospective institutions. We brought the valuable insights from involved faculty within our communities, as well as the insights from weekly meetings with our PHENND partners, to begin our outreach to Philadelphia colleges and universities.

The outreach we performed was incredibly helpful, both for our project and for our individual learning. We were able to create a set of questions that we asked each institution that explored the way they thought about and handled summer melt. At first, we kept each of these survey sets in a document, and then later transferred all the information into a spreadsheet, which allowed us to explore the ways different types of institutions handled summer melt through visualizations. We identified that some of the top risk indicators included that a student had not planned out their bill payments and had not attended orientation, despite signing up.

We defined Summer Melt using the institutions for which the definition was intended. In collecting the responses of each Philadelphia area institution we interviewed, we have come up with this definition:When a high school graduate demonstrates verified intent to enroll in a postsecondary institution but does not matriculate by a defined cutoff date (such as the first day of classes). We also thought to dig deeper into who does not fall into the category of what Summer Melt is, i.e., students who formally defer enrollment or students who do not demonstrate verified intent (enrollment deposit, for example).

On March 24th, we had an amazing opportunity to attend a CASE meeting where each of their action teams presented short summaries of their recent successes and plans. We were also able to hear from Katharine Meyer, an expert in evidence-based principles for reducing summer melt, who gave us incredibly useful information on some specific tactics like behavioral nudges and messaging, counselor-led summer outreach, peer or near-peer support, and summer bridge programs. We encountered many of these topics in our early research, and it was very helpful to learn more about the specifics from Katharine. Lastly, this meeting gave us critical insight into
the importance of highly communicative, cross-departmental work that is necessary to implement anti-melt strategies. The format of CASE and their meetings modeled the communication and commitment needed from colleges and universities looking to reduce their summer melt rates.

Another opportunity we were given was to speak with Jim Ramey at UPenn, who works closely with UPenn’s High School programs. We were able to have a meeting with him about the uses of Slate (online program for postsecondary onboarding/admissions processes) for reducing summer melt. He uses Slate to monitor student progress through post-deposit enrollment checkpoints. Ramey reads them as behavioral signals: students who stop engaging with checklist items after paying their deposit are flagged as high risk for melt and contacted directly. Our takeaways from this meeting were in line with the information we had gathered from all of
our other meetings with institutions. For example, Ramey emphasized UPenn’s previous issues with data disconnections across their different schools that have summer programs. There is often no centralized view of a student’s status. Additionally, he highlighted that effective melt prevention is labor-intensive, something we had also come across as a barrier for other institutions. Lastly, Ramey underscored the importance of human verification of checklist completion tasks. Students often accidentally turn in the wrong documents or miss a step of a task, meaning that automated completion indicators must be audited by staff. It was amazing to see the inside working of Slate, and this meeting helped us solidify the strengths and constraints of our project.

In the future, we would love to see more investigation into the summer melt practices at institutions beyond the Philadelphia area. With broader/more data from different institutions, it would be great to develop some practical data analytics that would solidify what works best to reduce summer melt. We were able to learn about an example of a model that identifies high-risk students based on their summer checklist completion progress. We will base a lot of our recommendations on how an institution might be best able to move towards a similar model. Lastly, we are hopeful that there could be some developments between relationships among high school counselors and college onboarding teams. The trust students have built with their
guidance counselors and their proximity to those individuals is very helpful in reducing summer melt, however, most counselors are not employed on a 12-month schedule, only a 10-month.

This project and Praxis course was incredibly helpful for our personal developments and skillsets. We both learned a lot about communicating with outside institutions and effectively gathering data. We are very grateful for this opportunity to work with PHENND and CASE.

Nina Hamilton, Nicole Huang, Krish Gupta, & Olivia Li

Praxis Course: DSCI 310: Data in Action    

Semester: Spring 2026    

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Jennifer Spohrer    

Community Partner:  The Barnes Foundation  

Praxis Site Supervisor: Marie Edland and Liza Herzog

Praxis Poster:

DSCI 310 Nina_Hamilton_Barnes Poster

 

Further Context: 

Hi! Our names are Nina, Nicole, Krish, and Olivia!  

For our Praxis project, we are working with the Barnes Foundation as part of our DSCI B310: Data into Action course. The Barnes Foundation is an art institution based in Philadelphia, whose purpose is to support education in fine arts and horticulture.  

For this project, we were given a large set of anonymized data from the Barnes Foundation and were told to conduct analysis of any kind. And so, our first step would be to design a study that:  

    1. Is impactful and useful for our partners 
    2. Can be completed within a semester (or less in our case)  

We determined that our goal would be to analyze visitation trends and conduct additional cool analysis that would provide instructions to improve Barnes programming and engagement.  

More specifically, we wanted to identify visitor-to-membership conversion trends, public programming and engagement, and visitation and membership trends with respect to location (zip codes).  

One of our goals was to see which of the Barnes events were the most popular among members and non-members. While there were many events between 2022 and 2024, we focused on about 15 types of events present in the data (like group tours, free admission days, talks, etc.) that made up a majority of the data outside of general admission. We found that events which were free to the public (Free First Sundays and Barnes on the Block) had the biggest non-member visitors, which makes sense because it caters to groups that may not want to pay or afford to pay for regular tickets! This analysis was interesting because oftentimes members bought tickets for guests, and there were a lot of individual events that had to be grouped together in order to make these larger event types, so there was some nuance to what the number of people that attended each event meant. While it was difficult to organize the data into these groups, it was a good learning experience and provided interesting insights for our partners. 

Another goal of this project was to understand where in the Philadelphia area Barnes visitors are coming from. The map visualizes visitation data across two dimensions, total visitor volume and membership share. Circle size reflects the number of total visitors from each zip code, while color indicates the percentage of those visitors who are members, ranging from warm red for low membership rates to deep blue for high. Unsurprisingly, the largest circles cluster around the zip codes in closest proximity to the museum. More revealing, however, is the color pattern. Several suburban zip codes show the darkest blue, indicating disproportionately high membership rates, while many zip codes within Philadelphia proper, particularly those with lower median incomes, tend to appear smaller and redder. This contrast suggests that Barnes has built strong loyalty among a suburban base but has room to grow both visitation and membership conversion closer to home. The aim of this analysis is twofold: to identify new areas the Barnes can target with outreach to drive first-time visits, and to spotlight communities where membership is already strong so the institution can invest in retention and deeper engagement. 

We were interested in identifying patterns that lead to membership applications to the Barnes. And so, reflected by the top chart on the right, we analyzed the visitation count before a visitor decides to become a member, color-coded by the last event they visited before becoming a member. Surprisingly, most individuals who became members enrolled after their first visit.  

To dig more deeply into specifics, we decided to study which programming event the members attended last, which led to their membership (chart on the bottom right). This analysis would help Barnes identify which events were most successful in promoting similar events in the future. The data is calculated by finding the percentage of individuals who became members among all those who attended the same program.  

Like any project, our work has some limits. It is important to know them. 

First, the data only showed if a visitor was a member on the day they visited. It did not show when they bought the membership. So when we say an event led to someone joining, this is just our best guess. A person may have bought a membership online days before. They may also have been moved by a visit many months earlier. We cannot know for sure. Our findings show useful patterns. But they do not prove what caused people to join. 

Second, we did not have qualitative data to analyze. All of our data was numbers — ticket records, visit counts, and zip codes. We did not have interviews, survey answers, or visitor comments. For example, we can see which events came before someone joined. But we cannot hear in their own words what made them want to become a member. Qualitative data would help explain the story behind the numbers. 

We want to be clear about these limits. This helps the Barnes team trust our findings in the right way. It also shows where the best next questions are. 

Sofia Platzman, BMC ’27

Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study

Semester: Spring 2026

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Professor Corredor

Community Partner: U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI)

Praxis Site Supervisor: Mary Lagdameo

Praxis Poster:

PIS Sofia_Platzman_Praxis Poster Final- SP

 

Further Context:

Over my first semester of interning with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), my entire academic focus has become concentrated on the work I am doing with USCRI and immigration policy. I have always held a deep passion for immigrant justice, due to personal relationships in my life, yet it was not until my sophomore year of college at UC San Diego that I learned about opportunities for immigration-related advocacy, through a course called “The Politics of Immigration.” This course created the foundation of knowledge for immigration policy that led me to intern at USCRI as a Bryn Mawr transfer student. 

For the past four months, I have interned for the Development Team at USCRI. When I began this position, I hardly knew the function of grants for nonprofits, much less how to write one. I understood that the Trump administration was targeting organizations supporting migrants and refugees, but I did not comprehend the real-life, painful impacts of these attacks. Now, I understand the immense and immeasurable impact grants can offer, as well as the consequences of the Trump’s administration cruel policy changes. 

My internship began with an onboarding process that involved bringing myself up to speed on the current state of immigration policies in the United States. I watched webinars, read briefings, engaged with news articles, and wrote up summaries of all that I learned. Next, I began to enter into the world of grants. I started out by researching potential grants that we could apply to. This project evolved into becoming involved with the work of ending the grants themselves. Through these steps, I began to learn the ins and outs of what goes into writing grants: from the research to the communication with field offices and other teams to the draining of a budget and creation of the grant itself. I am now working on drawing one $20,000 grant to support USCRI’s legal services and one $100,000 grant to fund a virtual ESL program. These two grants have provided me with an invaluable foundation in the work that goes into grant-writing.

As one example of the intersection between grant-writing work and immigration advocacy, on October 17th, USCRI announced the closure of Rinconcito del Sol, a shelter for unaccompanied migrant girls, due to a reduction in federal funding. From my current position of understanding the role of funding in decisions such as this one, I wish there was a grant large enough to have saved this program from the Trump administration’s budget cuts. Given that the focus of my interests is intersection of migration and gender/sexuality studies, this news touched me deeply. It feels like a permanent reminder that the work I am doing at USCRI—actively addressing funding gaps and identifying communities in need of that funding—has tangible consequences. For all the forces out there trying to harm migrants in this country, we need just as many to fight alongside migrant communities. 

If anything, this understanding, of the role we can all play in supporting migrants’ fundamental rights and of the countless people working to protect these rights day in and day out, has been my greatest takeaway from this internship so far. It is so easy to become disillusioned from reading the news and looking at actions, such as the closure of Rinconcito del Sol, yet there are so many people out there fighting for justice—for what is right. It is the privilege of a lifetime to witness the endless passion and care and curiosity shown by this community of migrants, survivors, activists, leaders, grant-writers, field office managers, and more.

I am excited to see where my academic focus on immigration justice will carry me. Over the summer, I will be heading to study abroad at the London School of Economics and Political Science and  will be taking a course called, “International Migration: Power, Policy and Lived Realities.” This focus of study will extend into next semester at Bryn Mawr with the course, “Cities and Immigration.” I will also be continuing my internship at USCRI next semester but working as a branch between the Development Team and the Policy & Advocacy Team; this opportunity will be an incredible new direction to continue developing my grant writing skills, while also learning more about the policy side of immigration work. If there is any message I can leave to readers, please remember: for all of the despair surrounding attacks on immigrants’ rights, there are even more people who will never give up in the pursuit of justice. There is even greater hope in this world than there is violence.


Ingrid Layman, HC ’27

Praxis Course: Museum Studies Praxis Seminar    

Semester: Spring 2026 

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Professor Monique Scott    

Community Partner: Wexler Gallery 

Praxis Site Supervisor: Maeve Daly 

  Praxis Poster: 

HART_IngridLayman

 

Further Context: 

My work this semester at Wexler Gallery was largely behind-the-scenes as I performed database maintenance, an area the Gallery needed support in since their team is small! Wexler Gallery is one of many art galleries in Philadelphia focused on interior design (furniture, painting, sculpture, mirrors, etc.). The gallery is located in Fishtown, a neighborhood known for its arts, culture, and food scene, although Wexler also maintains a showroom at the New York Design Center in New York City. Wexler Gallery exclusively represents 30 artists from around the world working in almost every medium imaginable. 

My main projects at Wexler were to update client files, add new art pieces into ArtBase, and update already-existing inventory records. These were done on a weekly basis, but I also sat in on meetings with artists to discuss forthcoming work, helped host an exhibit opening of Malcolm Mobutu Smith’s ceramics, uploaded object information in PDF form to the gallery website, and drafted communication highlighting new artists and exhibits to be sent to the gallery’s client list. I also worked with the online platform1stDibs to help list the gallery’s pieces for online purchase. 

I enjoyed the regular routine of database work and never knew what to expect when I arrived at the gallery, since the day-to-day was always changing. Sometimes it would be me and the salesperson; other times the whole office was there, including the Sales and Marketing person, who is located in New York. The projects were also always changing, so my work was varied and allowed me to interact with all sides of the gallery’s work. 

Some of my favorite aspects of my time at Wexler Gallery were getting to know my supervisor and the other gallery staff. They really made me feel like a member of the team and provided me with a much richer understanding of galleries’ roles in the art world than I had previously. I now understand how artist relationships are fostered, how much a gallery can do to advocate for the artist when museums and private collectors inquire, and how everchanging the art landscape really is. I recognize the importance of exposure to currently-working contemporary artists, and the role of the gallery in increasing their recognition by private sales and museum acquisition. 

Olivia Crolle (BMC ’27), Eden Raich (BMC ’27), Shalom Lencha (BMC ’27)

Praxis Course: Data in Action

Semester: Spring 2026

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Jennifer Sporer, Liv Raddatz

Community Partner: The Discovery Center

Praxis Site Supervisor: Bria Wimberly

Praxis Poster:

DSCI 310 Olivia_Crolle_Data in Action PRAXIS

 

Further Context:

The Discovery Center is part of the National Audubon Society through Audubon Mid-Atlantic, a non-profit dedicated to preserving and protecting birds across Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia through habitat maintenance. The Discovery Center is a space for visitors to engage with nature in a productive, educational way. It is all centered around the abandoned drinking water reservoir in the East Park. The East Park Reservoir is a shallow, closed-system body of water. Only 6-8 feet in depth, it is especially vulnerable and unable to cope with toxic algal blooms, which occur more frequently throughout the fall and summer months. These blooms can decrease the level of oxygen in the water and block out the sun, harming the over seven species of fish that reside in the reservoir. This has further harmful effects as birds that consume fish or even just have prolonged exposure to the blooms can be impacted by them. We were put in touch with Bria Wimberly to complete the coding on a water sensor that would monitor the conditions of the reservoir to predict and eventually prevent algal blooms in order to protect the park and the birds that the center is dedicated to.

Olivia’s work on this project involved keeping in communication with our contact at the Discovery Center: writing update emails, scheduling Zoom meetings, and delegating tasks. She acted as the go between for project progress, and ensured that the group met the proper deadlines. She was also in charge of part of the final deliverable: the infographic. She ensured that the product closely resembled the Discovery Center website, in order to maintain aesthetic consistency. She kept in mind what she learned in class about data visualization and presentation. The infographic will be displayed for the sake of visitors to the Discovery Center, who likely have very little or no exposure to the information. So, it had to be clear and informative in
general terms that could be easily understood. It also had to be visually engaging, which she achieved using the already contrasting colors of the Audubon Society website. She is happy with the clean, professional look that she achieved on Canva, and hopes that the infographic will be useful to the Discovery Center and its visitors. She learned a lot during this project, especially regarding the importance of frequent, transparent communication. Olivia enjoyed creating an infographic that was both informative and in line with the Discovery Center’s current graphic
design. She knows that she has come away with a lot of new and strengthened skills that will be valuable elsewhere, such as project management, graphic design, and communication.

For this project Eden was in charge of setting up the sensor coding, calibration and wiring. She worked on code provided from a previous intern, and made sure it successfully set up the sensors. The code was composed of four sections. The basic set up for the mayfly sensor and connection to Monitor my Watershed, and the set up for each of the three sensors. She had to rewrite most of the code, as there were some wiring issues which involved rebuilding the mayfly and changing the modes of connection. The coding involved using outlines provided by each of the sensor’s companies, and changing the variables to the actual sensor set up. She then had to write code to calibrate the PH and DO sensors and perform the calibration. She then compared the calibrated values to BMC Geology equipment to ensure they were providing accurate information. She also had to write a custom class for the DO sensor. There is no library provided by Mayfly to send this type of DO sensor data to Monitor my Watershed, so she had to make a
class which allowed it to do so.

Shalom focused on making the data from the Discovery Center’s sensors easier to access and use. Instead of relying on manually downloading files from Monitor My Watershed, she figured out how the platform retrieves its data behind the scenes and built a script that automatically pulls this information and converts it into a CSV file. This creates a foundation for
a live-updating dataset that can later be used for graphs, analysis, or integration into the website. One of the more interesting challenges was that the data wasn’t directly available through a simple link. Shalom explored the site’s network activity to understand how the data was being
requested and then replicate that process in Python. Since there wasn’t much real sensor data available at first, she tested the approach using sample datasets to make sure everything worked. Shalom also explored ways to display the data on the Discovery Center website. While
embedding graphs directly into Squarespace wasn’t possible, she found a workaround by linking to the live graphs hosted on Monitor My Watershed. This still allows visitors to view up-to-date information in a simple and accessible way. Working with her team also showed she the value of
collaboration and communication

Quin Gerber, BMC ’27

Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study

Semester: Spring 2026

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Kalala Ngalamulume

Community Partner: The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Praxis Site Supervisor: Rene Najera

Praxis Poster:

PIS Quin_Gerber_Praxis Poster (2)

 

Further Context:

The opportunity to intern with The College of Physicians of Philadelphia was  incredible for me as a History and Public Health double major. Throughout the semester, I  worked on helping to update the History of Vaccines project. Before this semester, the project was solely managed by my supervisor, Dr. Najera, who also manages several other projects at the College, so many pages had not received attention for several years. I went
through the website and created a priority list for which pages had the most pressing issues. These issues ranged from dead links to outdated statistics to a few complete overhauls, in the case of Ebola and Malaria, for which vaccines have been approved in the last couple of years. From there, I conducted research to make any necessary updates. The updates I have noted will be rolled out beginning this summer.

I was able to learn a lot from this experience. I have never worked for a nonprofit organization before, so it was valuable for me to learn how to balance maintaining nonprofit status with the highly contentious issue of vaccination. I also learned how to critically read and interpret a wide variety of sources, and to consider the agenda any source may have. Finally, I developed informed hope for the future of public health. Countless breakthroughs have been made since these pages were last updated only a few years ago, and the future of vaccine advancement is bright. I am so grateful to the Praxis program, The College of Physicians, and my advisor, Kalala Ngalamulume, for this opportunity.

Julia Azulay (HC ’27), Patience Bivins (BMC ’27), and Julia Jung (HC ’27)  

Praxis Course: PSYCB215: Thorne School Practicum: Bridging Theory and Practice  

Semester: Spring 2026     

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Jodie Baird      

Community Partner: Phebe Anna Thorne School: Kindergarten   

Praxis Site Supervisor: Rachel Stern   

Praxis Poster:   

PSYCH 215 Julia_Azulay_Thorne Praxis Poster (1)

 

Further Context: 

This semester, we had the opportunity to work at the Phebe Anna Thorne School Kindergarten as part of our “Thorne School Practicum: Bridging Research and Practice” seminar class. The Thorne School Kindergarten serves families from the broader Main Line and is housed near the center of Haverford College campus. The kindergarten offers a full-day program (~8:45 AM-2:30 PM). The classes are capped at 16 children and staffed at a high teacher-to-student ratio, allowing more closeness and teacher-child relationship-building. The small class is led by a lead teacher, assistant teacher, and learning specialist, who works together as a team to coordinate learning plans and daily classroom activities. The Thorne kindergarten’s mission is to provide play-based, developmentally appropriate, and child-centered learning experiences with a specific focus on social-emotional development, play, and academic preparation for first grade.   

As part of our praxis course, we worked at the kindergarten as classroom aides for 3 hours a week, providing support to teachers and engaging with the children during routine academic blocks and recess. In our seminar class, we learned about various topics in developmental psychology and early childhood education. For our poster, we decided to focus on social-emotional learning (SEL) and executive functioning (EF)/self-regulation. We found that these topics were vital at the kindergarten level because they prepare children to effectively manage emotions and impulses, resolve conflicts, build positive relationships, and form the foundations for academic success and mental health. In class, we were able to directly apply the literature we read to our observations, which explored the benefits of incorporating SEL and self-regulation strategies in early childhood education settings. Our experiences at Thorne provided real-time examples of socially and emotionally based curricula and structured support of self-regulation skills. More broadly, working at the kindergarten gave us hands-on learning moments and avenues for personal reflection as individuals seeking child-centered careers in social work/child clinical psychology/education. 

Julia Azulay: 

Working in and contributing to this warm, nurturing educational setting that emphasizes social-emotional and personal growth has been meaningful for me, especially because I’ve never worked in a classroom like this before. I came into the kindergarten classroom worrying that I would not exactly “fit” into the role of a teacher and wouldn’t integrate well into the already-established community. However, as the weeks passed and as I got feedback from the teachers, I realized I have an instinct for working with children and that my presence was known and cherished by the teachers and the kids, even if I only saw them once a week. Seeing how effective coping and emotion regulation strategies are so central to the kindergarten’s pedagogy, I now recognize that therapeutic approaches can be readily integrated into classrooms (psychoeducation) to equip children with social-emotional tools. In my future as a licensed child psychologist, I want to bring the SEL curriculum and psychoeducational consulting to K-5 classrooms in schools serving low-income communities of color, due to systemic challenges producing a “care gap” and inequitable access to psychological resources for children at under-resourced schools. It has truly been a pleasure to work closely with the kindergarten, and I hope to continue supporting their mission soon!  

Julia Jung: 

Aside from babysitting, all of my experiences working with young children were in the context of after-school tutoring and homework help programs for predominantly low-income students of color attending public schools. My praxis at the Thorne kindergarten was my first time working within a predominantly White and affluent classroom at a private school. It was an amazing experience observing the classroom and getting to know the students. The Thorne classroom was peaceful, supported, and structured in contrast to the chaotic classrooms I had grown up in. This realization forced me to struggle with the reality of this large gap in academic opportunity, but it also inspired me to bring this type of education to my community at home.  

Patience Bivins:  

Working at Thorne has given me the chance to understand how imaginative and cooperative play influences EF and SEL. I am deeply inspired by the daily dedication of the teachers and students at Thorne. As I look toward my future career as a school social worker, this experience has taught me that the curriculum must be built on child development. I am committed to helping students develop the necessary tools for self-regulation and healthy relationship-building. Being able to apply what I have learned from Thorne and my seminar to work beyond the classroom as an educator has been exceptionally fulfilling!  

Macey Ellis, BMC ’26

Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study

Semester: Spring 2026   

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Rocco Palermo     

Community Partner: Colonial Pennsylvania Farmstead     

Praxis Site Supervisor: Sarah Lerch  

Praxis Poster: 

PIS Macey _Ellis_Praxis Poster 2026- Macey Ellis_compressed

   

Further Context: 

My praxis this semester was at Colonial Pennsylvania Farmstead, a Revolutionary era living history site in Ridely Creek State Park. I stumbled upon this site last fall when I was visiting a bunch of historic sites in the state for fun. I attended their Harvest Home event which had many different interpretive activities, my favorites being textile dyeing and cider making. I love living history and historical interpretation and reached out to the director to see if there were any openings which I how I became their intern! The site was actively lived in from 1690s until the late 1950s or 60s when it then became a historic site. What is unique about the site, is in the 1970s a series of archeological excavations were undertaken around the house and the farm. The site was rebuilt using colonial techniques and with the architecture being based on the arkeological evidence found during excavations.  

The materials that were excavated in the 1970s were numerous and has never been formally studied or organized and digitized. My goal for this internship was threefold:  

    1. Assessing the expanse collection to aid in acquiring funding and creating a basic catalog. 
    2. Organizing the artifacts based on material, photographing the artifacts, and creating a database.
    3. Help to create summer archeology programming for children, using the archeological material found at the site in addition to supplemental materials suitable for kids.

All goals were accomplished in one way or another. It has been estimated by me and others that the collection could contain upwards of 10,000 artifacts, which is not including all the archival written materials and maps from the excavations. One of my goals was to help the site by examining and cataloguing what is in the collection and I very quickly realized that my expectations of finishing everything in one semester was not possible.  

What I was able to accomplish was to begin digitizing archival materials like excavation diaries and inventory logs from the first trench CPA. I was also able to create a collections database for the archeological materials that were excavated using FileMakerPro, however, I was only able to get through the buttons, of which there are 523 entered into the database currently. While working my way through CPA, I noticed that a good chunk of the collection was missing from our storage. So, a new goal of my internship was to reach out to other institutions around the greater Philadelphia area to see if they had parts of our collection (they did not, but they did supply helpful next steps).  

Another facet of my internship was to help add archeology to education program which I was able to see in action at the site’s Easter event where I ran a table with teaching materials I created and a hands-on activity for the kids.  

 Overall, I have learned so much from this internship! I was the expert coming in, and helping create a database which not only allowed me to advance my data entry skills but also allowed me to lead in a professional setting. I also chose to do this internship for selfish reasons as I absolutely LOVE living history sites and working with the wonderful staff and working on site with guests has solidified my love and filled my cup! I also learned that plans change and goals can change with them, at the end of the day a database filled with 523 buttons is a lot and a good foundation for future projects. (PS. Go visit a historic site!)  

Diana Escobar, BMC ’27

Praxis Course: Museum Studies Fieldwork Seminar

Semester: Spring 2026

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Professor Monique Scott

Community Partner: Public Trust

Praxis Site Supervisor: Aaron Levy

Praxis Poster:

HART_DianaEscobar

 

Further Context:

Having grown up in Philadelphia, a city considered the birthplace of American museums, the role museums play in communities and how they interact with the public has always been part of my interests. Being interested in the field, I sought out experiences to understand how larger institutions work. After in a various number of museums in the city, I had not experienced what it was like to be in a smaller, more intimate cultural nonprofit until my praxis this Spring with Public Trust. Located between the University of Pennsylvania and West Philadelphia on 40th Street and Walnut, Public Trust offers free programs on health, education, and ecology. It collaborates with artists, thinkers, and community members through public conversations and film screenings to foster dialogue around everyday issues. Taking a W.E.B. Du Bois approach of finding hope in times of hopelessness, its mission is to restore trust in collectivity and the
common good. Through this experience, I saw both the daily operations behind the organization and how care and reciprocity shape its community building.

During my time at Public Trust, I worked on a range of projects under Executive and Artistic Director Aaron Levy and Executive Assistant Jabriya Calabrese. One major project was the planning of a multi part installation by artist Daniel Faust, Presidents, featuring photographs of wax figurines of American presidents from museums in the United States and Europe. The exhibition will take up four walls in the front gallery. My role included measuring the gallery walls and sharing dimensions with the artist to ensure the prints fit, along with contributing to conversations about layout and adjustments. As plans developed, we had to balance the artist’s vision with practical concerns like accessibility. For installation, we explored alternatives to drilling into masonry walls, including using magnets. We also connected with installers who had worked with the Institute of Contemporary Art. Although the installation is still upcoming, the process required ongoing coordination and patience to prepare for a smooth install.

Another project I worked on was the book Curating Engagement, based on a 2025 retreat about engagement in cultural institutions. I helped finalize the manuscript for publication by reviewing the full text and editing for grammar, clarity, and formatting. Working closely with Aaron Levy and Jabriya Calabrese, we completed revisions under a tight deadline and sent the book to print. The release included an opening reception in Chicago, along with an excerpt published on Hyperallergic for outreach.

Alongside these larger projects, I supported day to day operations. This included drafting language for grant proposals such as those for the Warhol Foundation, helping build a bookshop section for the website, preparing technology and setup for public programs, and packaging and shipping books. These tasks showed me how essential this work is to keeping the continuation of Public Trust’s core and reach. They form the backbone of the organization, and through them I saw how much care and coordination goes into sustaining Public Trust’s mission.