As Graduation approaches, we’d like to give special mention to Hannah Scruggs, one of our outstanding graduates, and share what’s next for her after commencement.
Public history graduate student Hannah Scruggs, fourth from right, with her classmates during a service trip she organized to Pennsylvania.Hannah Scruggs
Graduate Program: Public History (M.A.)
On campus: In addition to serving as a teaching assistant, Scruggs organized a graduate student service trip to Braddock, Pennsylvania — just outside of Pittsburgh — in both 2016 and 2017. “I brought students from the public history program and we did preservation and archival work for the Braddock Carnegie Library, where I volunteered with AmeriCorps for two years,” she says.
In the community and beyond: Scruggs went to Crooked Tree, Belize, in summer 2016 with history professor Alicia McGill and public history doctoral student Lisa Withers. “We worked with community members to create an exhibit focused on life in Crooked Tree in the Visitor’s Center there,” she says. “I mainly worked with 12- and 13-year-old students in two local schools, hearing their stories and chatting with them. I created materials for school-aged children to go along with the exhibit.”
Scruggs, Alicia McGill and Lisa Withers in Crooked Tree, BelizeWhat’s next?: “I will be working at James Madison’s Montpelier as a research associate in African American history. I will be researching slavery at Montpelier and in the surrounding county, as well as connecting with descendants of those enslaved there.”
Favorite experience at NC State: “I’ve really enjoyed getting to know my colleagues and professors in the Department of History. I have had excellent classes and just really enjoyed the people I’ve been able to work with.”
