M E D I A R E L E A S E

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Greg L. Potter, Assistant Director
607-273-8284/273-6107 FAX
gpotter@lakenet.org

New York State Awards Grant to DeWitt Historical Society for

Student Historian Initiative

Ithaca - A recently awarded grant from the Museum Program of the New York State Council on the Arts will be used by the DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County to launch a new and innovative educational program aimed at local high school students. The program, called the Student Historians: Research, Training, and Journalism Initiative, will give students an opportunity to do hands-on primary resource research in the Society's collections and have the results of their research published as weekly newspaper articles. The program is set to begin in September.

The innovative program has been designed specifically to introduce participants to the use of primary resource materials and to familiarize them with the differences between standard essay and journalistic writing techniques. Participants will also receive training in the proper methods of handling fragile documents and historical artifacts and will be given access to the Society's unique collections.

>According to Matthew Braun, DHS Executive Director, another benefit of the Student Historians program will be the chance to explore career opportunities in the fields of museum education, archives management, and journalism. "DHS and the community at large will also benefit from the new information and insights into local history that will result from the student's work."

Braun said that a pilot version of the program tested last spring was resoundingly successful. "The twelve Ithaca High School students who participated in the pilot, and our staff who ran it, felt it was a wonderful experience." Adam Pollack, an eleventh grader who participated in the project said, "In all truth, this was one of my favorite experiences in high school. I feel very lucky that I was picked to do this, and I feel great about the entire process." The articles resulting from the pilot program will be appearing in the coming weeks in The Ithaca Journal, which is a community partner in the project.

DHS believes that this program has tremendous future potential and may become a model for similar programs throughout New York State and the nation.

For more information about the Student Historians program, call the Tompkins County Museum at 607-273-8284.