Prehistoric Drill: PennDot Highway Archaeological Survey Team (PHAST) Find of the Summer!

My name is Cher – (Yes, like ‘Sonny and’…) – I’m a second year grad student in Applied Archaeology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). Like most of the grad students in our department, I basically live in the basement of McElhaney, so come say hello and help me procrastinate – I’m a pro, but hey, I bet you could use an excuse too.

By writing this blog, I’m hoping to:

• Promote some highlights of our Masters in Applied Archaeology program at IUP by sharing the wisdom and miseries of some of our students here in the program
• Keep the student body aware of some current archaeological issues on the local, national and international scale – and start some conversations about these politically charged topics.
• And selfishly, to write about archaeology in my own voice as opposed to the many pages of academic and technical writing produced in graduate school and expected of the CRM and academically employed archaeologists out there … (though some are better than others…and some don’t write at all….)

Archaeology is a social science after all – its fun, its exciting and it draws the interest of many other professionals in all kinds of fields. We love talking about this stuff – It is so much more than bullwhips and kickin some Nazi @$$.

So I’ll start out light for the semester – I asked our now-seasoned second year students for some advice to give to the incoming first-year students.

Here is the wisdom they bestow upon you:

* “Don’t get discouraged……you can do it!”

* “Take GIS classes – meet the geography department professors – worth it.”

* “Manage your expectations – be diligent and consistent, but flexible.”

* “For the sake of your sanity, start your term papers early!”

* “Keep on rockin’ in the free world.”

* “Use class projects as preliminary work for your thesis!”

As you are meeting a million people right now, try to branch out beyond the department. Its a small world, people – no need to make it even smaller. Go to the grad student gatherings, go to school events and get involved, go to The Brown. And come say hello to me! I live in G4 and G5 in McElhaney right now, please interrupt me at work, I need a break already.