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Sarah Love - Episode 56
62 Plays7 years ago
Chris Webster interviews Sarah Love
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Transcript
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You
Introduction to Archaeology Podcast Network
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are listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. The Archaeology Podcast Network is sponsored by Codify, a California benefit corporation. Visit codify at www.codifi.com.
Sarah Love on Profiles in CRM
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This is Sarah Love and you're listening to Profiles in CRM.
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Welcome to Profiles in CRM, episode 56.
Diverse Experiences in CRM
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I'm your host, Chris Webster. Profiles in CRM asks CRM professionals nine simple questions. The answer's very wildly depending on their experience and education.
Sarah's Background in Historic Preservation
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Because of the nature of contract archeology and how small this field really is, some people choose not to reveal their name or the company they work for. Stay to the end of the show to hear how you can have a chance to answer these same questions. All right, we're here on Profiles and here's the first question. What is your name and who do you work for?
Educational Background and CRM Experience
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My name is Sarah Love. I work for the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which also serves as our State Historic Preservation Office. Okay, and what's the highest degree you've earned? I have dual masters. One is a Master of Arts in Anthropology and the other is a Master of Heritage Preservation with a focus on historic preservation. Nice, I like it. And how long have you been working in CRM?
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Between private firms and my current government job, I've been here for a little bit over four years. I've been full time at the Historic Preservation Division for a little bit over a year. And prior to that, I was their intern for a number of years, as well as kind of a contracted part timer.
Career Milestones at HPD
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And then I also worked at a couple other offices. So I'd say all in all, it's been about four, five years.
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Okay. And where have you worked? And by that, I just mean like, what states have you worked in, even if you worked in multiple states for one country, one company, sorry. Right. So, just working, you know, in the United States, I've done a project in South Carolina, I've done a little bit of work in North Carolina, but the majority of my work has been in Georgia.
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Okay. And what position do you usually have on your projects or in the past or right now? And what is the highest position you've ever held? By that, I just mean field tech, you know, up to through project managers, stuff like that.
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I've worked as a lab tech a lot when I was doing private CRM work. I was also an assistant architectural historian when I was working at a different CRM firm, which was kind of fun. But working in the field when I've done field schools and everything like that, it's been kind of different. I've done everything from digging shovel tests to doing a little bit of geophysical work. And so I can't say that I've
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had a usual position because it's been so variable.
Memorable Experiences in CRM
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The highest position I've attained is probably just achieving full-time status at HPD.
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That's nothing to scoff at in this field. Oh no, I love it. It's been amazing. Yeah, full-time status at any CRM-related job is pretty amazing. Yeah, for sure. All right, so now the fun questions. What is the best thing that's happened to you that's related to being an archaeologist? And that can be personal or private. My common example is I met my wife on my first archaeology project.
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I have met a lot of my closest friends. I've definitely met through archaeology. I think that it's kind of one of those answers that straddles both being a private answer and being a professional answer because I think they're getting this position at DNR.
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you know when I started grad school my intention was to get the dual master's degrees and find some way where I could incorporate both historic preservation and archaeology into my life and into my career and so when this position came up and it gave me the opportunity to do that you know that that affects you know my my professional position but it also affects my personal life because I've I've just been so happy doing this job and I absolutely love what I do and I don't know a lot of people that look forward to Monday
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So, you know, I have that going for me. So I think that it's that. And then, you know, in the first year, I've got to work on a number of different projects that have just been very fulfilling. I worked at a project at a Rosenwald School up in Northwest Georgia, and I did a tour of the campus for a couple people that were
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attending here last month and I have to say that I think one of the best moments of my professional career has been when Kenneth Morris and Peter Soli who are descendants of both Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald came on the tour. They heard what I was talking about and they both came up to me individually afterwards and told me that my enthusiasm was contagious and that they loved it and that it was fascinating and I'm sitting here thinking oh my god like people that are related to these
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incredible people and that do incredible things themselves are inspired by what I'm doing and it's so rewarding to get that
Improving CRM Archaeology
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kind of feedback. So I'd have to say that that's probably one of the best moments that I've had. That's fantastic. I like that. That's really awesome. Okay, so what is the biggest thing that you would change that would make being a CRM archaeologist better?
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I think that open access to academic journals would probably be the thing that made working in the non-academic sectors even better. One of the things I worried about when I was graduating is my first thought was, oh God, I'm not going to have library access.
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access to all the journals that I've, you know, been wanting to read and everything. So I think that that would make things significantly better. And I also think that if, if all of us could just continue educating ourselves and other fields, like education, policy, law, urban development, and that sort of things that, you know, maybe aren't directly umbrella under
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archaeological topics, but definitely relate to what we do.
Future Aspirations in Government
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I think that that would be really significant. And I'd like to see that a little bit more of a goal across all sectors. Okay, excellent. All right, here's the, you know, where do you see yourself in 10 years question or longer? So what is what is your career goal in CRM?
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I definitely want to stay in government. I really love what we're able to do. And specifically, you know, in my section, we focus on education and outreach. And I think that I want to stay in that kind of environment. I mean, it's so much fun to interact with everybody from, you know, professionals that work for nonprofits to
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you know, kids that are doing homeschool days and to be able to educate people about cultural resources and everything. So I think moving up in government is definitely my top priority, but I also want to maintain flexible goals because I think that as administrations change, especially, you know, as a state agency every time we have a new administration there.
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you know, the goals of CRM might change. And so I want to be flexible to that. So I don't know that I have one goal in particular, I just want to kind of see what CRM needs as the years
Advice Against Over-Specialization in CRM
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go on. Okay, awesome. Alright, final question. If you could give an undergrad thinking about CRM one piece of advice, what would it be?
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to not over specialize. When I was in my undergraduate program, I had so many friends that were like, okay, you know what? I'm not interested in that. I'm a, you know, I'm a bio-archaeologist or I do withics or I do this or I do that. And I think that that's kind of, you can kind of back yourself into a corner. And I went through so many different types of sites. I think I worked in
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Greece, Belize, and then I even worked on a Magdalenian site before I decided, okay, you know what, I definitely want to work in the southeast, you know, and stay in the US. And I think that being open to different opportunities, whether they align with what you think you want to do or not, is the best advice that I could give my now boss.
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said to me a couple years ago it's there are people that have a skill set that is a mile deep and an inch wide and then there's people that have a skill set that's an inch deep and a mile wide and I think I've maybe been a little bit excessive with that but I think that that's my best piece of advice is don't just stick to what you know definitely expand beyond what you think you want to do.
Conclusion and Call to Action
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Show notes for this and all episodes can be found on the Archaeology Podcast Network website at www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/. At that page you'll also find a form that you can fill out so you can be interviewed on the show. Interviews take less than 30 minutes and you don't need any special equipment. Thanks for listening and I'll see you in the field.
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The show is produced by Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle and edited by Chris Sims. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com