Working as a Graduate Assistant at Historic Sandusky

My name is Lilly Smith and I had the pleasure of serving as the Graduate Assistant for Historic Sandusky for two years. It is sad yet exciting as this chapter closes and the next one begins. I am thankful that Dr. Perault connected Greg Starbuck and I with an aim of continuing Sandusky’s community outreach by hosting and attending events. We discussed how we could go about making Sandusky’s presence in Lynchburg more prominent and there is no doubt we did just that! Throughout my two years we accomplished hosting a book fair which brought in over 1,000+ donated books from community members, welcomed middle-school-aged students for an archaeology day camp, conducted ghost tours, set up at New London Day events and provided open archaeology days to name a few.

Apart from each of these accomplishments, my daily tasks included welcome locals and tourists to the property, educating them about the Civil War and detailing the key role Sandusky played during General Hunter’s Raid of Lynchburg. With a background in tourism, thanks to a University of Lynchburg Alumni House job in my undergraduate studies, I felt more than confident conducting tours of this wonderful historic home. Despite studying for a Masters of Science Education and possessing a minute background in historical studies, there is no doubt that the history and knowledge obtained while working here at Sandusky will stay with me forever.

I have truly loved everyone that I have had the chance to work with and to call some of them my lifelong friends. Although I will be leaving Sandusky I am excited to announce that I will be staying in Lynchburg as the Environmental Educator for Camp Kum-Ba-Yah. At Camp K I will be leading students in outdoor education field trips, writing lesson plans, and doing general maintenance of the property. Thanks to Sandusky for preparing me for this new role I am about to take on!