Each summer, interns come to NCPTT to learn about and participate in the Center’s various research programs. This summer, seven students from widely diverse backgrounds are interning with NCPTT.
Lydia Archuleta
Lydia Archuleta is operating research equipment such as a laser profilometer this summer as part of her internship with the Environmental and Materials Research Program. Her work includes testing limestone samples to compare surfaces of the samples and grouping them based on the similarities of these surfaces.
Archuleta is a chemistry major at Northwestern State University of Louisiana. She recently performed research on the immobilization of cells on a glass slide in order to mathematically study their movement. The research will ultimately be used to find a cure for African Sleeping Sickness.
Kara R. Dotter
Kara R. Dotter joins the NCPTT staff this summer as the environmental and materials research graduate student intern. She will be performing laboratory tests aimed at discerning the effect of air pollution, particularly the effects of SO2, on consolidated limestone and marble. Additional work will include refining and implementing a methodology for artificially aging treated stone samples, as well as assisting with the American Cemetery project.
Dotter has a B.S. in Geology and spent several years as a professional in the oil and gas industry. She is currently a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, studying for both a M.S. in Historic Preservation and a M.S. in Geology. After graduation, she will pursue a career in historic preservation as a stone conservationist, either in private practice or as university faculty.
Hyun Hee “Shine” Park
Hyun Hee “Shine” Park comes to NCPTT as an exchange student in the National Park Service’s Cultural Resources Diversity Internship Program. Park will be assisting the Heritage Education – Louisiana program in organizing summer teacher workshops. She is a senior at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia and is majoring in English.
As an exchange student, Park will complete a year at ODU and will then return to Yeungnam University in Korea. She plans to become involved in developing programs that incorporate education and historical resources.
Callie S. Reames
Callie S. Reames, a senior journalism major at Northwestern State University, is working as a documentary photographer this summer for NCPTT’s American Cemetery project. Reames’ internship duties involve photographing grave markers in the cemetery using digital and black and white photo techniques, creating a digital and black and white archive, and assisting in grave marker preservation efforts.
Reames plans to graduate after spring 2004 with a degree in news-editorial journalism. Her future plans involve either continuing undergraduate work to pursue a degree in photography or applying to graduate school for journalism-related studies.
Nadina Reusmann
Nadina Reusmann is NCPTT’s summer 2003 American Cemetery intern. She will be working with Dr. ElizaBeth Bede Guin in the initial phase of conservation of the monuments in the cemetery. Her tasks will include completing condition assessments initiated by former intern Jennifer Capetto last summer.
In addition, Reusmann will develop and implement a testing program to determine the most appropriate method for cleaning the monuments. She will also begin the development of prototypical conservation treatments specific to the needs of the American Cemetery and will help identify and stabilize all hazardous markers in the cemetery.
Reusmann is an architect from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, trained in architectural restoration with an emphasis in stone conservation. She is training as an objects conservator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
She has been working as an assistant conservator at U. C. Berkeley, Department of Classics. Her work involves assisting with the restoration of a collection of ancient Greek plaster casts, including Parthenon friezes, donated to the University of California in the early twentieth century.
Kristin Pepperman Sanders
Kristin Pepperman Sanders is the Architecture and Engineering Research and Training intern at NCPTT this summer. She is working with Andy Ferrell on the Engineers and Historic Preservation Training Initiative, an effort to develop preservation training for engineers.
Sanders will aid in the development of content and resources for the architecture and engineering research and training component of NCPTT’s website. She will be focusing on expanding the Engineers and Historic Preservation Training Initiative web pages. She will also begin researching sustainable preservation and creating a program to involve underrepresented groups in the preservation community.
Sanders graduated from Louisiana Tech University this spring with a bachelor’s in history. As an undergraduate she was a NCPE intern with the National Register of Historic Places Writing Travel Itineraries. In the fall she will begin her Master’s in historic preservation at the University of Georgia, where she hopes to also pursue a law degree.
Joan Walker
Joan Walker is working as a materials research intern at NCPTT. She will be involved in continuing studies on the interactions between air pollution and stone surfaces with Dr. Mary Striegel.
In the materials research project, Walker will be assisting NCPTT staff with artificial weathering experiments and analysis measuring sulfur dioxide deposition on stone, as well as stone consolidant testing. Additionally, she will be working with other projects, such as the American Cemetery project, as needed. Walker is a senior at Washington University in St. Louis majoring in chemistry and art history. She has been involved in several education outreach programs related to science and art during her college career and in high school in Indiana.