Howdy folks, my name is Zachary Fischer but let’s pretend like you know me and just say I’m Zac. Let me tell you a little about myself. I like long walks on the beach, gazing at the stars, and… I’ve just been informed that this is not a dating site. Great! There goes my plan for an archaeological personal ad (on here anyway). Well this is awkward and I’m no good at transitions so…
This is my face, you’re welcome world.
I graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Anthropology where I focused on archaeology. I’m currently a student of the Applied Archaeology MA program at IUP. I’ll be blunt, archaeology was not Plan A. I started as a Natural Sciences: Pre-Pharmacy major but organic chemistry blocked that path. I decided to start looking around for a new venture. I honestly had no clue what else I wanted to do but I knew I wanted to find something that made me happy. I remember reading an undergraduate catalog while grabbing lunch and the section that popped out most to me was anthropology. Something about it took me back to a contemporary anthropology course I took with Dr. Abigail Adams. It was one of the few courses that I took something away from beyond the course material. I figured it was worth looking into and took an intro to archaeology course the next semester with Dr. Lara Homsey-Messer. It stuck on me so I made the switch. It didn’t take long for me to feel like I made the right decision. I became more interested with each class I took and field school just cemented that feeling. I could drag this on and on, and I kind of want to, but I think most of you don’t want my life story and I totally get that. So I’ll stop this particular line of rambling with this, I consider finding archaeology alongside an incredibly supportive department to be a blessing. My undergrad years spent with the anthropology department at IUP are something I would never trade away.
Dr. Sarah Neusius showing me how it’s done.
I really don’t have any archaeological experience beyond field school and a few other focused undergrad courses, unless you count watching a ridiculous amount of documentaries on ancient Egypt as a child. Anyway, I took some time off after graduation with the intent of working in CRM but ended up working for an insurance company in Pittsburgh. So after about a year later I decided to apply for graduate school, ready to refocus myself on archaeology. Besides if I didn’t do it now, well, who knows when I would have? So here I am. I hope you’ll join me and follow along as I learn with my new cohorts.