Sternberg Museum: Graduate Curatorial Assistant (GCA) Work Expectations
Work in the Sternberg Museum of Natural History (SNHM) collections can be a rewarding job with opportunities for hands on museum collections experience that are not common for graduate students around the country.
The SNHM has a strong national and international reputation. You will become an important part of maintaining and enhancing this reputation. As such, the first expectation for a GCA is to read the SNHM Code of Ethics and sign the form stating that you have read and agree to be bound by this code of ethics.
You are employed by the museum. As such, the director is ultimately your boss. However, you will be assigned a faculty curator as your direct supervisor. This supervisor will assign and supervise most of your day to day duties and projects. However, there will be multiple collections for which you will be responsible. Curators for these other collections will have projects or duties for which you will be assigned. Curators will discuss these duties and time requirements for approval with your direct supervisor prior to assigning or training you in these duties.
The director will also assign occasional museum responsibilities to you that may or may not be directly related to your collections. The director will hold a biweekly meeting for all GCA’s in order to discuss these responsibilities, assess your progress and allow for successful communication between GCA’s. This will be the time for you to bring up questions, concerns, and new ideas with the director. Once each month the director, faculty supervisors and GCA’s will meet to discuss responsibilities and progress.
As a GCA, you will be expected to work 19 hrs/week and keep routine, agreed upon hours at the museum. Standard hours are either 9am-1pm or 1pm-5pm Monday through Friday minus 1 hour on either Monday or Friday. These hours are important as you will be responsible for granting access to and supervision of researchers or other graduate students wishing to visit or use the collections. These hours are only occasionally flexible (e.g. studying for a major exam,scheduled class field trip, or official museum collecting trips). Any deviations from these hours must be cleared in advance with the director. Schedules will be worked around your class schedules.
Wet Lab GCA-
Collections – Ichthyology, Herpetology, Freshwater invertebrate (i.e. molluscs)
Supervisor – Bill Stark
Other Curators – Curtis Schmidt, Travis Taggert
Fleharty Range GCA –
Collections – Mammalogy, Ornithology, Entomology, Library
Supervisor – Elmer Finck
Other Curators- Rich Packauskas, Greg Farley
Paleontology GCA –
Collections – Vertebrate, Invertebrate, Paleobotany
Supervisor – Rich Zakrzewski
Other Curators – Chris Bennett, Mike Everhart, Reese Barrick