Roselyn Garcia-Mendoza, Class of 2026 and Technical Services Student Worker

Roselyn reflects on their work in the Washington College Archives.

I am currently a senior student employee at WAC’s archives and I have been working here for all four years of my college career. Throughout my time working here, I have been able to see artifacts of past student lives here at Washington College. This has intrigued my interest in history and museum work. When I see these past writings, videos, and photographs, I like to imagine what it would’ve been like to be a student at those times. In general, I would say that our alum knows how to have a good time. 

I have the pleasure of working under Lindsey Sheldon, and she has taught me how to digitize these past works to make them more accessible to the Washington College community. The thought of people being able to see these memories excites me, since, as a current student, there is some school history I don’t know about that is actually pretty cool. I have been able to digitize DVDs, yearbooks, magazines, and VHS tapes, just to name a few. Before working here, I did not have any of these skills to be able to do this! And now I can carry them into other archival work. 

I just wanted to highlight some things I found interesting during my time at the archives. I would like to note that I don’t remember all the information verbatim; this is just based on what I remember looking back. Around 2005, there was an opinion piece that was written by a student on one of my favorite bands, Panic! At the Disco. Since it is one of my favorite bands, my opinion might be a bit biased. But I thought it was hilarious how this student did not hold back on their opinion and stated that Panic! was poser music. They also mentioned that their first album was not very good. Yikes. Well, now I know how someone felt when the band started being active.  

Smaller notable moments when I found a notepad paper wedged in a Collegian. As most people would do, someone was definitely being used as a bookmark. It had beautiful penmanship, but I personally couldn’t decipher fully what it said. Moments like these feel extra personal since some of these items are donated to the school to preserve them. I know someone owns this book and was actively reading it. I wonder if they read the whole thing? 

I would like to note that I am also an art major, and I have seen many amazing works from past art students. I found them to be very inspiring! And I wish I could see more. In past year books, I saw a great variety of clubs that seem like total fun! But I have noticed that these clubs no longer exist. Some of them seem unique. I wonder how our alumni came up with these ideas. 

Overall, working in the archives is a pretty interesting and fun experience that I will always cherish. I know most of my examples are not the oldest memories of the college, but there were too many to name. One day, my class year 2026 will be considered history.