Kailey Freeman-DePelisi
A More Official Decision: A Reflection of My Elevator Speech Presentation
I went to Dr. Rutkow during his office hours on a Thursday. Prior to presenting I went over my notes a few times. During my presentation, I did keep my notes on me, however, I was not actively reading them during my elevator speech. I just kept them with me to make sure I did not forget any points. Afterward, Dr. Rutkow complimented the organization of my speech and said I did a good job covering all the basic points. One of the things he did point out, that I had admittedly recognized before he even said it, is that I had spoken quite quickly. He said I had maintained my clarity despite talking fast, but that I should slow down. This also resulted in me finishing up my elevator speech sooner than anticipated.
The only other advice Dr. Rutkow gave me about the speech itself is to be more specific. When discussing how doing history work promotes civic engagement, I mentioned that history knowledge gave me the ability to keep my community informed. He wanted me to specify what particular community I was referring to. Also, when I mentioned internships, he wanted me to be more specific as to what kind of internships I would like to pursue. He also advised me to include more “buzz words” in my elevator speech such as skeptical and critical thinking.
After my speech, I of course asked him my questions. He admitted that he was not the most knowledgeable about the internship opportunities at UCF, so he told me to speak with someone like Dr. French. He did specifically mention some form of a podcast production done by UCF that I might want to take part in, as well as where the UCF’s library archives are. As far as opportunities outside of UCF, he told me to look into the Florida History Society, the Maitland Art and History Center, and the Orange County Regional Center.
Overall, I found the speech to lead to some very informative conversations. While Dr. Rutkow did not know a lot of the specifics about things such as internships, he did advise me to get as much experience as I could before I graduate since the historical world is a lot more competitive than it used to be. This experience made me think a lot more about the different kinds of internships I might want to do while at UCF. It occurred to me that I definitely want to do at least two very different internships, just so I am aware of the different jobs under the history discipline umbrella.
Ideally, I would like to do one education-based internship with a museum or other historical center. I would also like to do something more independent, such as an archivist internship. I really want the opportunity to explore contrasting fields and what kind of a lifestyle each one might offer me. Obviously, I am at the point in my degree that I need to start figuring out what I want to do following graduation, however, I am now surer about taking the public history graduate program. Being that I came into the program at UCF completely unaware as to what I wanted to do, this is a big step fore me.
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