Yaxunah Community Website: https://www.yaxunahmexico.com/

I am presenting this blog as part of a graduate course in museum studies at UMSL: Museums and History in the Digital Age. My name is Taryn Pelch, and I have worked in the St. Louis area as an anthropology professor for ten years. I have either been in college or taught college since 1995… I currently teach at Lindenwood University in St. Charles and at SIUE in Edwardsville. I have much experience in collections management and hope to snag a position at an anthropology museum. I worked for three years as a volunteer/student research assistant at the Missouri Botanical Garden Herbarium, curating and databasing their historic maize (corn) collection. I am planning, at some point, to pursue a doctorate in anthropology, going back to my roots as a bioarchaeologist. I want to continue teaching, as it’s something I find truly rewarding. I would love to return to Belize and Mexico to continue working with the Maya communities there.

At the moment, I am assisting my friend and former chair Dr. Cory Willmott with her Voices in Wood Project Virtual Museum exhibit as through the SIUE Museum. This will also be my exit project/internship for my graduate program at UMSL. We hope to have the public website up and running soon! This semester, I hope to learn more about local history and how to effectively engage the public using digital media. I would really like to learn more about designing blogs and creating websites, especially since my internship will pertain to these topics.