Can you tell us about your background?
I’m originally from Connecticut, but spent much of my childhood abroad. My family and I lived in England from 2004 to 2009 and moved to Madrid, where we lived from 2009 to 2012. We moved back to Ridgefield in 2012, where I attended East Ridge Middle School and Ridgefield High School. After graduating RHS in 2019, I decided to continue my academic journey at Endicott College, up in Beverly, Mass. During my freshman year, COVID hit and I decided to come home and work, before returning to school in the fall of 2021. I am almost done with my semester-long internship and once my Senior Thesis is complete, I will have received my degree. I am not totally sure about what I want to do post-grad, but I want to do something within television production.
Things I like to do for fun include soccer. I used to play through high school and have played pick up games periodically. I used to have a group of au pairs I played with before many of them moved away. I am also an avid soccer fan; my favorite team is New York City FC, a team I have followed since they joined MLS in 2015. I also avidly follow the Premier League, and a few other soccer leagues here in North America.
I am also interested in comedy. I’m a massive comedy nerd. I listen to a lot of podcasts and music in my spare time.
What sparked your interest in history and led you to select the Ridgefield Historical Society as your internship?
My family very much values history. My brother, who also had an internship here, graduated from Boston University. My mother who is very involved in the community has always emphasized the importance of historic preservation. She has also been involved in the Historical Society for many years. When I had heard about the internship opportunities that were offered here and that there was a project that would document the Battle of Ridgefield, it was something I wanted to be a part of. Now experiencing the Historical Society first hand in a variety of capacities, I am amazed by how great an organization this is and how tirelessly the staff and volunteers work make this place what it is.
What specific projects or experiences have you been involved in during your internship with the Ridgefield Historical Society in 2024? How have your projects shaped your understanding of our town’s history?
I originally came in to help create a documentary on the Battle of Ridgefield, and with a team from the historical society, went to the Quinnipiac University laboratory where the remains that were recovered off Main Street in 2019 were being examined. (These are believed to be soldiers from the Battle of Ridgefield.) It was awesome. I spent two or three weeks over the summer reading about the Battle of Ridgefield, something I hadn’t really known much about prior. The other projects I worked on and probably spent the most time on include the Oral Histories and the Native American Project.
The oral histories covered LGBTQIA+ community. There have been about 20-25 members of the LGBTQIA+ community of all ages, identities, and backgrounds, interviewed for the assignment. As someone who is not of the community, it was incredible to learn the different stories.
The other oral histories were interviews that Collections Manager Betsy Reid had done many years earlier with World War II veterans who were from and/or living in Ridgefield. Those experiences ranged from storming Normandy to fighting in the Pacific to working on the homefront. My role with these interviews was to transcribe them and also create time stamps to make it easy to find a specific subject, like D-Day.
The other project I am most proud of while interning here is working with Lynn Marie Wieland on the Native American artifacts that she uncovered in Richardson Park about 15-20 years ago. The artifacts are now a part of the Ridgefield Historical Society collection. Ms. Wieland, along with Annie Tucci, Grade 6-12 Humanities Supervisor for the Ridgefield Public Schools, coordinated a presentation featuring those discoveries for some of the high school students in September, with Ms. Wieland explaining their significance.
I have learned so much about the history of Ridgefield. What I have worked on in the last couple of months is only the tip of the iceberg of what goes on here at the Ridgefield Historical Society.
What was the most interesting thing you learned during this internship?
My biggest takeaway from this was Lynn Marie Wieland and the Native American archaeology project. I have heard nine of her presentations about the artifacts she uncovered in Ridgefield and I always seem to learn something new.
I am planning on continuing to volunteer here because I’ve been able to work with such great people here and I learned so much. Stephen Bartkus, Betsy Reid, and Janet Graves are all-star staff and the volunteers are a really great group of people. It’s really been a good experience and I have only positive things to say about this place.
