Blog 5 - Mentorship Reflection

1. 

For my senior project, I am or will do my mentorship at two places California Science Center in Los Angeles and Planes of Fame in Chino, California.

The first time I found out about volunteering at the California Science Center was a few weeks after I came home from Europe. One of the first things I did after coming home was to sign up for the volunteer program at the Planes of Fame museum as my sole mentorship. I got the idea to volunteer at Planes of Fame after watching volunteers work there when my dad and I visited the previous year and also because I heard a senior from the Class of 2013 did his mentorship there. I applied to Planes of Fame as a cleaner, but the Detailer who was supposed to train me was gone for several weeks. While I was waiting for the Detailer to be available for the orientation, my mother gave me the idea to volunteer at the California Science Center as a second mentorship so that I can start working on my senior project and expand the scope of my project. I filled out the appropriate paperwork and drop it off at the California Science Center. Though I am still waiting to begin my training as a volunteer Planes of Fame, I had already become a volunteer at my second mentorship at the California Science Center.

2.

The most important article that I have read so far was Museums and History by Alex Werner, a Curator at the Museum of London. The article discusses that, even though the purpose of most museums “traditionally revolved around collecting, preserving, researching and displaying objects”, how each museum chooses approach history makes no two museums completely the same. Take for example the British Museum and the British Library. Though both museums contain content that are of historical significance to the history of Britain, the former focuses on the actual history of Britain while the latter portrays itself as a “‘museum of the world’”. I have always classified museums based on its contents, but after reading this article and how even museums categorized under the same type can have completely different messages, approaches, interpretations, management, despite having similar artifacts made me rethink my perspective of what a museum is. This was later reaffirmed during my mentorship at the California Science Center. While both the California Science Center and Planes of Fame contain air and space related content, the California Science Center portrays itself as a learning facility while Planes of Fame focuses primarily on the preservation of its artifacts.