Geological Sciences; History, 2011
Year of Memory: 2010
I started working at the museum in the fall semester of 2008 at the suggestion of my best friend (a future docent herself!) and worked there during and after undergrad, until I eventually left Ann Arbor to start paleontology grad school (inspired in part by my time at the Exhibit Museum/UMMNH) in 2013. The museum was like a second home on campus to me, and I have a nearly endless supply of fond memories, from scheming to get into the secret aviary, to throwing a particularly mysterious Dinosaur Birthday Party, and even to the small joys of getting working air conditioning in the new store or beating everyone else to the hands-on drawer with the better coprolite at the start of your tour.
I’ll just stick to one story, though: the best scavenger hunt ever. As a docent bonding activity, our boss (a former docent herself!) revived a semi-traditional scavenger hunt. My team was on a roll, getting items worth easy points (a picture with a fossil in the limestone of the Burton Memorial Bell Tower, a $2 bill—readily available from Blimpy Burger), but we didn’t just want to win, we wanted to dominate. The find worth the most points was a picture of your team with Michigan’s President, Mary Sue Coleman. How could we possibly get that? One of Michigan’s satirical magazines had recently printed a connect-the-dot of Mary Sue Coleman’s hair (The Mary Sue Do) that a roommate of mine proudly displayed on our fridge. We raced to my apartment to grab the picture. If the connect-the-dots didn’t get us the points, at least it would be good for a laugh. Then, as we were making our way back to the museum before our allotted time expired, one of our teammates was waiting near the Cube, when who should she spot by pure stroke of luck? The one-and-only Mary Sue Coleman, exiting her office building. My brave teammate approached her with a ridiculous request: Will you pose for a picture with a bunch of scavenger-hunt-crazed museum docents? Mary Sue Coleman, not one to disappoint, agreed. When we got back to the museum, and the point tally came to that Holy Grail of scavenger hunt finds, “Photo of your team with Mary Sue Coleman (50 Points),” we started off by showing The Mary Sue Do photo; as predicted, it got a good laugh, but no points. “Well, then, what about THIS PHOTO?” we asked, proudly displaying our portrait with the President. Needless to say, we won. By a lot.
At a big school like Michigan, finding a community to be part of is a must. The staff and students at the museum were truly one of the most important parts of my time at Michigan, and the ranks of my closest friends are filled with former docents. I never got to go to the Exhibit Museum as a kid, but that couldn’t stop it from being the place where I grew up.
