Sarah Rathjen
2010 SLAIS Student of the Year (Master of Archival Studies)
Each year, the Arts Co-op Program recognizes two SLAIS co-op students for outstanding achievement in all aspects of student performance, including academics, the workplace, and professional and/or community involvement. Sarah Rathjen is this year’s Master of Archival Studies winner for her work term at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. Sarah truly illustrates how co-op has played a role in bridging her academics and career development. Her exemplary evaluation by her supervisor exemplifies her contribution to the Ocean Falls project. Sarah continues to enhance her professional development as an active member of the Association of Canadian Archivist and the Association of Archivists British Columbia.
Excellence in the Workplace
Sarah’s work at the Royal BC Museum illustrates her keen ability to apply her education in archival studies to the workplace. As an Archives Technician, she collaborated in a four person team on a project to process a collection of archival material related to the history of the town site and pulp and paper mill at Ocean Falls, the first project of its kind. Her responsibilities included: assisting with the arrangement of records into series, physically re-housing the material into stable containers and enclosures, undertaking preventative conservation, and creating file lists for new containers.
Sarah’s supervisor, Claire Gilbert, notes that Sarah’s greatest accomplishment was her involvement in “an item level inventory of over 19,400 engineering plans and drawings in an electronic spreadsheet.” Through these tasks Sarah gained a deeper understanding of Archival concepts and had the opportunity to contribute to discussions and apply her archival knowledge to the Ocean Falls project.
Claire writes that Sarah embodies “the qualities of a true leader, able to make decisive decisions while encouraging others to succeed.” Her flexibility and ability to learn from constructive criticism did not go unnoticed. These qualities not only made Sarah an asset to projects she worked on, but also enabled her to develop an understanding of the profession and improve her reasoning and analytic skills, the very skills she wanted to work on during this co-op term.
Sarah Rathjen
2010 SLAIS Student of the Year (Master of Archival Studies)
Each year, the Arts Co-op Program recognizes two SLAIS co-op students for outstanding achievement in all aspects of student performance, including academics, the workplace, and professional and/or community involvement. Sarah Rathjen is this year’s Master of Archival Studies winner for her work term at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. Sarah truly illustrates how co-op has played a role in bridging her academics and career development. Her exemplary evaluation by her supervisor exemplifies her contribution to the Ocean Falls project. Sarah continues to enhance her professional development as an active member of the Association of Canadian Archivist and the Association of Archivists British Columbia.
Excellence in the Workplace
Sarah’s work at the Royal BC Museum illustrates her keen ability to apply her education in archival studies to the workplace. As an Archives Technician, she collaborated in a four person team on a project to process a collection of archival material related to the history of the town site and pulp and paper mill at Ocean Falls, the first project of its kind. Her responsibilities included: assisting with the arrangement of records into series, physically re-housing the material into stable containers and enclosures, undertaking preventative conservation, and creating file lists for new containers.
Sarah’s supervisor, Claire Gilbert, notes that Sarah’s greatest accomplishment was her involvement in “an item level inventory of over 19,400 engineering plans and drawings in an electronic spreadsheet.” Through these tasks Sarah gained a deeper understanding of Archival concepts and had the opportunity to contribute to discussions and apply her archival knowledge to the Ocean Falls project.
Claire writes that Sarah embodies “the qualities of a true leader, able to make decisive decisions while encouraging others to succeed.” Her flexibility and ability to learn from constructive criticism did not go unnoticed. These qualities not only made Sarah an asset to projects she worked on, but also enabled her to develop an understanding of the profession and improve her reasoning and analytic skills, the very skills she wanted to work on during this co-op term.