Two years ago, I thought about becoming a docent for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. A docent is a person who trains to be an educator and guide. Usually, it’s a volunteer position. The docent training at the museum is like taking a college level class about the overall museum. The class meets for about 60 hours over the course of a few months from September until December. I already had many weekend things planned and could not take the class at that time. I planned to take it last year, but then found out that it’s only offered every other year.
I had it on my radar early this year and filled out an application and interviewed back in May. I’m so excited that our class began about two weeks ago.
I am going to become a docent for several reasons. We love going to the museum. As a family, we go there 2-4 times a month. I want to know about all of the exhibits so as Nick and Sally learn about various topics, I can enhance their knowledge based on what’s availble at the museum.
The other reason to volunteer as a docent is to help inform and educate museum visitors. Docents are guides, they help interpret exhibits, they staff “please touch” carts with specimens and models visitors can handle, they staff off-site events for the museum, and they act generally as ambassadors for the museum. I look forward to sharing tidbits about the museum as I go through the course.
[…] I’ve been continuing with my training to become a Cleveland Museum of Natural History docent. I first wrote about becoming a docent a couple of weeks ago. […]