Wrapping up the second year!

The Suffrage Centennial Workshop, teacher professional development on the subject of Women's Suffrage in Washington State, has been my primary focus for the past six months. Coming up December 6th our third seminar will be held focusing on the contradictory methods used by the two sides of Washington State to win suffrage. The SCW is funded by a grant from National Endowment for the Humanities and is classified as a We the People Project. I am currently serving as Project Director on this grant and has been a wonderful learning experience. The SCW is composed of 6 seminars over 18 months with 5 humanities scholars from area universities. We have 20 teachers participating from elementary to high school teachers. You never realize how much planning and work goes into a workshop until you have to do the work.

In addition to this I've been doing grants research for my organization. Since it is the nature of the beast and is necessary for us to keep running. I'm also learning how to write grants and with a mentor that has a very high return on grant success it has been extremely beneficial.

Over the summer we finished our documentary on small town museums. This is available online at http://history.tincan.org. So check it out if you have time.

When I say we I mean that I've worked with other members of my organization to make these projects happen. After attending the CTCNet conference this month I realized that I am extremely luckily. I have a wonderful organization that I work for, that has never made any kind of distinction between my status as a Vista and as an employee of the organization. And when my service ends in 2 months I will become a full time employee for Tincan. I feel that I have accomplished my goals as a Vista since I've been able to assist in securing funds to make Inland Northwest Memories Project sustainable.

This has been an unimaginable opportunity for me and even though I've made several sacrifices to make these past two years possible it has been well worth it.