FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2012

Russell to intern at U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- Senior history major Whitney Russell of Tuscaloosa, Ala., is headed to Washington, D.C., this summer to intern at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The internship is highly competitive and is awarded to at most 20 undergraduate students each year. Students at universities and colleges across the nation compete at the chance to work with the museum’s professional historians, conservationists, archivists and curators.
 
Russell plans to learn as much as she can from the internship, which begins the first week of June and lasts until the first week of August.
 
“This internship means a lot to me,” she said. “It shows that all the hard work and dedication I have put towards my studies is paying off.”
  
Russell is particularly excited because this internship will allow her to “help people understand history and help them along the journey of gaining knowledge themselves.”

She will learn about all facets of museum studies and collection development. Her goal is to begin a master’s program in public history in the fall.
 
“This will be an invaluable opportunity,” Russell said, adding, “The education I gained here at MUW is something I can directly put into a job.”

The museum houses permanent collections related to the Holocaust, including special collections on Nazi war propaganda and children’s experience in the Holocaust. Digitized collections are available online at http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/ for anyone interested in learning more.