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Hello! My name is Alyssa Adkins, and I am a junior at the University of Central Florida working toward my bachelor’s in history. During the Fall 2025 semester, I was given the amazing opportunity to be the Processing Intern and work with UCF Libraries’ Special Collection & University Archives (SCUA) team. My work consisted of processing three collections: the Richard Crepeau U.S. Bicentennial collection, the UCF International Student Association collection, and the UCF Office of Global Perspectives & International Initiatives records. 

At the start of my internship, I began processing the Bicentennial collection, which chiefly contained memorabilia, including fliers, comic books, ephemera, and other items from the 200^th anniversary of the American Revolution in 1976. It was a smaller collection – only taking up one box – so it didn’t take me long to survey the items, start the processing plan, and conduct background research. Once I finished the processing plan, which is a document that helps archivists sort the collection into the order that makes the most sense, I was able to start rehousing the materials and eventually start with the finding aid. A finding aid is a detailed guide published online to help researchers understand what an archival collection is about and what is in a collection. I completed processing my first collection within the first few weeks of my time here, so I moved on to the UCF International Student Association (ISA) collection. 

The UCF International Student Association collection consists of photographs of ISA events from the 1980s to the 1990s. These photographs range from parties that ISA held to award ceremonies and cultural celebrations. This collection was slightly bigger than the Bicentennial collection, and a lot of the photographs were loose in the boxes, so rehousing the materials took longer. I also worked on a third collection, which documents the activities of the Office of Global Perspectives & International Initiatives during the 2000s and early 2010s. 

 In addition to processing, I was challenged to create an outreach activity for the SCUA department. The goal of my project was to connect with students and inform them about the archives. I decided I wanted to make a game so classes that visited the archives could have something engaging to do. Playing games is one of the best ways to learn new things, so I created a SCUA-themed Jeopardy game with 4 categories of questions, 5 questions each. My supervisor, Arielle Petrovich, also suggested I create a matching card game that introduces useful information that will help students answer my Jeopardy questions. Both activities were extremely fun to work on, and I hope that the students who play them enjoy them. 

We also went on a field trip! My supervisor, Arielle, another archivist, Chloe, and I visited the Rollins College Archives. While we were there, I learned about how different archives work and the different specialties that archivists can have. One of these differences between our archives and theirs is that they still make use of a card catalog system, while we don’t. As a private institution, Rollins also has different priorities, resources, and audiences than we do. Their archives have a designated Digital Services Coordinator who talked with us about digital processes to save old technology. It was really interesting! 

I really enjoyed my time as the Processing Intern this semester. I was able to learn about archives and what working inside one would be like. I gained a lot of experience from being a part of the team and definitely developed more detail-oriented and research skills while here. I am very grateful for the opportunity to work alongside the SCUA team, and I can’t wait to put the new skills I learned to use going forward. 

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