History undergraduate intern moving on to Texas Tech archives

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Natalie Idom (BA History, 2021) will be moving on to a fantastic job opportunity following her graduation this month. In addition to graduating with honors; serving as president of the UTA Classics Club; and being an active member of Phi Alpha Theta, Natalie has accepted a job as Archival Associate at Texas Tech University. She credits hard work, internship opportunities available through the Department of History, and the mentoring of faculty and staff members for her new job. Recently, she sat down to discuss her academic career to date.

Natalie began her academic career at UTA as a non-traditional student; she knew she wanted to pursue higher education, but did not know exactly what she wanted to do afterward. Natalie described taking classes because of her personal interests in History, Art, and Art History, and trying to find things that she genuinely loved and could translate into job skills. Natalie credits Dr. Stephanie Cole, her professor for HIST 3300: “Introduction to Historical Research,” as being foundational to her interest in archival work. “Dr. Cole really got me interested in pursuing archives as a job,” Idom noted. She also said that Dr. Gerald Saxon’s undergraduate course dedicated to archival management was very important. “His guidance helped a lot. I didn’t know formally about archives to that point.”

Natalie’s archival work reflects an impressive number of internships and job opportunities that she was able to pursue as a student at UTA. Ms. Idom took advantage of the Department of History’s internship program, completing an internship with the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, where she catalogued Eamon Kennedy’s negative collection from the Jack Ruby trial. Beyond the Department of History, Natalie has worked with Cheryl Mitchell in the Department of Art and Art History, where she has catalogued the department’s Guatemalan and African collections. She has also been working in the UTA Special Collections for the past year, where she processed Judith Cohen’s Cowtown Modern last summer. This semester, Ms. Idom interned with the Dallas Historical Society. During the interview, Natalie stated, “if you have the chance to do an internship, do it!”

Because of these internships and hard work, Natalie believes that she gained valuable hands-on experience that helped her ace the interview process for her new position at Texas Tech. When asked what advice she would offer to her fellow students, she encouraged them to be proactive. “Seek out those internships, whether it is for a semester, or whatever. You never know when you may want to go to grad school, and the practical experience is important. It is so hard as it is to break into your desired field, so the internships really make a difference if that is the field you want to break into.”

Natalie Idom will be graduating summa cum laude during the commencement celebrations of Friday, May 14, 2021.