The places she’ll go
Amy Livermore ’19 teaches joys of literature to children at Dr. Seuss Museum
Internship: The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum
Supported by: Merit Scholarship
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Springfield, Mass.
Working with children: “I am a psychology major, but I’m also pursuing a minor in education and hope to earn a master’s degree in early education. The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum was a perfect fit for what I was looking for because it focused on teaching literacy to young children in a new setting for me, and allowed me to work mainly with children under the age of 8, which is the age group I hope to teach.”
Literature corner: “I interned in the Cat’s Corner, which is an area in the museum where children are encouraged to make crafts, look at books, and explore other literacy activities. My responsibilities included welcoming guests and explaining the various activities to the families, answering their questions, and informing them of other kid-friendly exhibits in the other four museums.”
Knowing when to help: “Most of my work experience with children has occurred in a classroom setting or while at summer camp—where parents are not present. The biggest challenge I have faced is finding the balance between helping a child with their activity and letting their parent intervene and help them. I am used to being the one in charge of mentoring the children in my classroom or camp group to how I see fit, but with their parents present, it is much different because I have to gauge what level of involvement is appropriate based on the needs and desires of the family. As time went on, I started to adjust my mindset from feeling like I had to be extremely observant and conscious of all the children to only offering up assistance when it was asked for by families.”
‘From here to there..’: “One of the biggest surprises for me was to hear about how far people traveled just to see the Dr. Seuss Museum. In the Cat’s Corner, we have maps of Massachusetts, the United States, and the world—all of which have hundreds of stickers on them representing where our visitors call home. We reached all 50 states having a sticker, which is a huge accomplishment for our museum because it truly shows how popular and beloved Dr. Seuss is, for both children and adults.”
Aspirations with imagination: “In our ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go!’ room, we have a wish box where visitors can write down their wishes, what they want to be in the future, or places in the world they would love to visit. We then collect their papers and hang our favorites in the Cat’s Corner to display all the happy, hopeful and adventurous dreams that people have. Kids truly do have the wildest imaginations.”