-Written by Mackenzie Carroll ‘19

Through the Upstate Institute Summer Field School, this summer I had the opportunity to work with the lovely people at the Madison County Department of Health (MCDOH) in Wampsville. During my time at the Health Department I worked mainly with the Preventative Health division. The Preventative Health division offers the following programs and services to aid the Madison Community: Community Disease Prevention and Control, Health Education and Promotion, Vaccination Program, Maternal and Child Health Program and Home Visitation, STI Program, Tuberculosis clinics, Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, Car Seat Safety, and Cancer Services. The Health Department deals with all kinds of people throughout Madison County and works in partnership with many of the nonprofit organizations in Madison County in order to better meet the needs of the people. From doing home check-ups for premature babies, to flu clinics on college campuses, the staff is always running around to accommodate as many people as possible, and they still manage to think of new ideas all the time to further meet the needs of the community. Many of the health clinics on campus are run by them, so next time you hear about one I strongly suggest you attend because the nurses will keep you healthy and they are super friendly!

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-Written by Jolene Patrina ’19

Jolene Patrina ’19 at the Oneida County History Center in Utica, New York

This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to work at the Oneida County History Center (OCHC) through the Upstate Institute Field School. OCHC works to collect, preserve and make available the history of Oneida County and the Upper Mohawk Valley. This nonprofit organization, located in an old Christian Science church, houses a research library, a 5,000 sq. ft. exhibit space, and thousands of collections including artifacts, manuscripts, artwork, and more. With many of these materials, I created an exhibit titled “World War I Centennial: Oneida County and New York in the Great War,” commemorating the 100th anniversary of the United States’ entry into the first World War by focusing on the American experience and local history of the war. Exhibits are usually up for two years or more; OCHC currently contains six exhibits of all different sizes on local history, all of which are open to the public.

OCHC serves the local community in preserving and exhibiting a wide variety of local history. It is often difficult to complete this mission as both archival and exhibit work is largely completed on a volunteer basis, and there is only one full-time employee, Brian Howard, who rarely has time to work on curation.

This summer I curated a large portion of the exhibit space with my World War I project, which will help OCHC in its goal of sharing local history and attracting visitors. Specifically, I looked through the OCHC’s manuscripts and artifacts pertaining to World War I, conceptualized an exhibit from these items, and designed and implemented the exhibit. This process involved working closely with artifacts, such as military uniforms, weapons, gear, and technology, all of which were over a century old and very delicate. Similarly, I worked with fragile documents such as posters, photographs, and newspapers, and often had to encapsulate (i.e. laminate by hand) many of these items. This work culminated in my exhibit that includes topics such as New York’s efforts to fund the war and conserve resources, technological innovation and its impacts, women in the war, and certain Uticans’ experiences during the war. Ultimately, this exhibit will help to preserve and present local history in an interesting and comprehensible way to the surrounding community, and hopefully attract more visitors to OCHC.

My first summer as a Field School Fellow has been both educational and exciting, as I was given the opportunity to create something substantial largely on my own, and was able to contribute to both preserving and making accessible local history. This project enabled me to work hands-on with fascinating materials and added a meaningful component to my studies as a History major. Furthermore, I was introduced to curation, work that I have never done before but am now extremely interested in pursuing as a career. In addition to my wonderful experience with curation, working in Utica allowed me to connect with a local community that I otherwise would not have encountered, and added depth to my understanding of and appreciation for Upstate New York and the local communities it fosters. Ultimately, I have gained invaluable experience in both history and curation, while also forming connections with and learning about the local community.

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-Written by Sarah Allen ’20

Sarah Allen ’20 at the Children’s Museum

This summer I worked at the Utica Children’s museum as an intern focused on developing new programming for the organization. The museum is a non-profit with a dedication to providing children with a place in which they can learn in a fun and hands on manner. Their mission statement explains this well, describing that the museum is meant, “to offer an environment that supports every child’s natural curiosity to learn through hands-on, play-based exploration.” In the past year, the museum entered a management contract with Kids Oneida, an organization dedicated to helping families in need. Their mission statement is, “to empower children, families and individuals who have high service needs and enabling them to live ways that are productive, healthy and meaningful.” This management agreement has helped the museum by allowing it grow more organized and to adopt a similar, community based mentality to that of Kids Oneida.

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Written by Emmy Ritchey ’20

This summer, I had the opportunity to work as an intern at the Midtown Utica Community Center (MUCC) through the Upstate Institute Summer Field School. MUCC is a “multicultural and refugee-friendly place that serves all” that provides cultural and educational programming and assistance to the refugee and low-income communities in the city of Utica, New York. MUCC was founded in 2014 after Chris Sunderlin noticed a gap in the services provided to the refugee community of Utica. While many resources are available to help the refugees who call Utica their new home, MUCC gives refugees a place to gather and continue their cultural practices and helps the community connect with other agencies for further assistance.

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Written by Alicia Violette ‘19

This summer I worked with BRiDGES: Madison County Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, Inc., whose mission is to provide advocacy and services to the local community, through the workplace, families, and individuals in order to improve the quality of life. They focus especially on those affected by addiction and abuse of alcohol, tobacco, and other substances. They do this by implementing prevention and intervention programming in the community in order to promote change and work toward building a healthier community. This summer I was assigned to work with them in order to assess what substance use looks like in adults as well as in youth in the community. I was also attempting to determine what gaps exist in the services related to substance use as well as suicide prevention and the LGBTQ community in this area.

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-Written by Ashlea Raemer

Ashlea Raemer visits a farm that uses llamas as potential livestock guardian animals, which is a wildlife-friendly strategy for managing the wildlife conflict of livestock predation in the Adirondack park.

This summer I am working with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Adirondack Program in Saranac Lake, New York through the Upstate Institute Summer Field School to promote wildlife-friendly farming practices in the Adirondack Park. The Wildlife Conservation Society is an international non-profit originally founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society. Today they are perhaps most known for the Bronx Zoo, but their mission to protect wildlife and wild places is implemented in priority regions across the globe. In the Adirondacks, WCS uses applied science and community-based conservation to link wildlife, wilderness, and human well-being through an interdisciplinary approach. Read more

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Claudia Buszta ’19 at one of the properties protected by the Southern Madison Heritage Trust

-Written by Claudia Buszta ’19

This summer, I have the privilege of working with the Southern Madison Heritage Trust (SMHT). SMHT is the local land trust that serves the general area of Hamilton, NY. It is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization that conserves land for the benefit of the overall community. These lands are preserved for the purposes of protecting valuable habitats, resources, scenic landscapes, and historic features. SMHT currently manages five properties within and around Hamilton, each of which has their own unique features. Members of the community who wish to see a certain piece of land conserved can contact the land trust and either donate or sell their land outright, meaning that SMHT will own and operate the property themselves, or set up a conservation easement on the property. In this way, SMHT is an important part of the community and allows for meaningful land to be preserved for generations to continue to enjoy and use.

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-Written by Erin Burke ’18

Erin Burke ’18 at the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro

This summer I was fortunate to have the opportunity to intern for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOFM), located in Peterboro, NY. NAHOFM is a non-profit museum that explores the history of American abolition by offering exhibitions, guided tours, educational programs, and special events. NAHOFM’s main historical exhibition spans from antislavery agitation in the Colonial period to the Reconstruction amendments that granted African Americans citizenship and African American men the right to vote. Although NAHOFM is a museum that ostensibly deals with the past, NAHOFM interprets the history of abolition to be living history that continues up to the present day. NAHOFM thinks beyond abolition and questions what legal equality really entailed and entails. In the period following Reconstruction, the establishment of Jim Crow, poll taxes, and the KKK sought to deprive African Americans of their rights and restore white supremacy; today, institutional racism and a resurgence of racist politics continue to oppress Black Americans. NAHOFM’s mission statement reflects their commitment to sharing the past in order to question the present and imagine a better future: “The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum honors antislavery abolitionists, their work to end slavery, and strives to complete the second and ongoing abolition: the moral conviction to end racism.”

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Lizzy Moore ’20 displays at the Madison County Fair.

This summer I have been given the opportunity to work with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County through the Upstate Institute Summer Field School. Nationally, the Cooperative Extension System is an educational partnership between County, State, and Federal government that addresses public needs by providing non-formal higher education and learning activities to farmers, ranchers, communities, youth, and families throughout the nation. To achieve this, university faculty members translate science-based research results into language appropriate for targeted audiences. County-based educators work with local citizens and interest groups to solve problems, evaluate the effectiveness of learning tools, and collect grassroots input to prioritize future research. As New York’s land grant university Cornell administers the system in this state. Cornell Cooperative Extension is present in every county of New York State and all five boroughs of New York City, directly reaching 1.9 million people each year. CCE programming covers five primary mission areas: Agriculture, Community, Environment, Nutrition, and Youth and Families. CCE provides educational resources for people interested in starting an agricultural enterprise, or farmers and ranchers looking to innovate and remain viable. The agency runs the local 4-H program, which engages youth in agricultural and STEM activities. CCE also creates events and informational materials to educate the general community about local agriculture and environmental issues.

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Amanda Hauser ’19 uses her experience as an EMT for SOMAC ambulance in her research project with Madison County Emergency Management

Written by Amanda Hauser ’19

This summer I have had the opportunity to work with the Madison County Department of Emergency Management. The department has grown over the years to handle the many aspects of planning for disasters while also supporting local emergency responses and helping to keep people safe before an emergency can occur. Everyday they indirectly serve every community in Madison County and even communities outside the county, as large scale emergencies deplete rural resources quickly and multiple counties often have to share and work together. The department works together with other Emergency Management departments of different counties in order to understand their struggles–such as a shortage of paramedics and EMTs in the region–in order to come up with solutions to help everyone. In everyday work, the department keeps in contact with county and fire agencies to ensure that they are receiving all the help they need, whether it is training or additional resources. The department itself is very interconnected; even though each member is assigned to different tasks and projects, they all work together to share advice and their different viewpoints.

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