My Experience from Field School and Advice for Others
My name is Michele Goodson. During Summer 2009, between my Junior and Senior years at NYU, I attended an 8-week intensive Archaeology Field School at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC). My decision to attend field school is probably one of the best decisions I have made thus far, as the experiences learned are infinitely applicable to my future in the field of Anthropology. I would highly recommend to students who are interested in Archaeology or Physical Anthropology to attend a field school, as it will qualify students for Cultural Resource Management work as well as many other jobs that require practical excavation experience. Additionally, field work is now a prerequisite for most graduate programs in Anthropology.
It is important to know what kind of experience you are looking for when you decide upon a field school. During my search I knew that I wanted to test myself; I wanted to place myself in conditions that would challenge me and create a make-or-break scenario so that when I left the field school I would know whether or not I would be happy with digging and field research as a career. With these thoughts in mind, and the notion that I preferred to stay within the country, I chose the Archaeological Field School of South Texas, a field school located in San Patricio, Texas: Population 318.
While this field school fit my desires for a challenging environment (we slept in tents, temperatures were constantly in the triple digits, and we bathed in outdoor showers with cold water), there were several other aspects of the school that attracted me. The AFSST was run through an accredited university (Texas A&M University Corpus Christi) and offered 6 credits to attend the school. This was important to me, as I wanted to transfer the credit and have a field school on my academic transcript (be sure to petition before you go!). Additionally, AFSST was run by a professional archaeologist, Dr. Bob Drolet, a Professor at TAMU-CC and Curator at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History. These connections with a museum and University were terrific aspects of the school, as they allowed students to learn exactly how materials and discoveries get from the dirt in your trowel, all the way to a museum display or the classroom.
I also knew, when applying for field schools, that I wanted to learn it all: excavations, mapping, lab work, data analysis, everything. I knew that in order to do this and make my time worth it, I needed to find a field school that was as long as possible- providing me with as much time as possible to absorb all that I could. There were very few field schools that lasted longer than 5 weeks, and this 8-week AFSST program provided me with the unique opportunity to not only do it all, but to do it all several times and genuinely learn. By the end of the season, I felt as though I was an Archaeologist and that I had the skills I needed in order to hold my own on any other dig.
By far, the best trait of the AFSST was the fact each student had to write a paper. While this isn’t typical of a field school, this was something I knew I wanted. The papers that the students of the AFSST wrote were based on a formulated thesis started at the beginning of the 8-week program and developed through data collected at the site. But even better than the formulation of the paper was the fact that students were given the opportunity to present their findings at a professional conference (Texas Archaeological Society Meetings) in October. The process of writing this paper helped me to better understand what kind of work is necessary to achieve a finished product good enough to present to an academic community. Not only was this process priceless, but the networking and the practical experience of presenting a paper was beyond invaluable.
Feel free to ask me questions about my experiences!
Michele Goodson
NYU 2010
