Local History, Local Heroine
Many students have enjoyed HNR 260 otherwise known as History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, and some have gone on to do amazing service with the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation. Instructor and foundation director Sally Roesch Wagner has a gift for inspiring Honors students like Caitlin Hunter (AS/ED ’15) who took part in the making of a video virtual tour of the Gage museum and “helped make a local piece of history more accessible to the public. Knowing that my time can help others learn about local heroes and history is very important and humbling to me.”
Julie Saltisiak (AS/ED ’15) took her commitment even further doing work her parents undoubtedly wish she would do at home—cleaning out the garage! The garage was scheduled to be torn down and mountains of materials had to be sorted and dealt with. Julie said afterward that helping out “showed me that a lot of people’s lives and time are dedicated to keeping the museum running…[B]eing able to give back to the Gage Center in this way was also extremely important to me because I got so much out of HNR 260 this semester and was eager to help out the Gage Center in any way I could.”
Prof. Wagner was as appreciative of the help as the volunteers were for the chance to serve. When she signed the form to document Julie’s civic hours, she raved, “Julie worked a miracle for us. She stepped in when we desperately needed to organize a hodge-podge of material…Julie worked with brawn and brain—smartly deciding what needed to be done and then doing the heavy lifting—quickly and joyfully!”
And Prof. Wagner’s closing words? “send [Honors students] our way. We exist because of volunteers.”