Historic Preservation – Penn & Beyond

Missed Rebecca Chan’s live tweets on @PennCareerDay? You can read her archived tweet feed on Storify.

We’re excited for our upcoming PennDesign Career Connection Day on March 23rd for *PennDesign students only* in architecture, fine arts, landscape architecture, planning and preservation. If you’re interested in these paths, but can’t attend the event – follow @PennCareerDay on Twitter on Thursday, March 22nd. Rebecca Chan will discuss how she combined her passion for historic preservation and creative industries. Read about Rebecca’s background below and remember to follow her on the 22nd!

Rebecca Chan graduated from Penn Design in 2011 with a degree in Historic Preservation. While at Penn, Rebecca augmented her preservation studies by completing coursework in community economic development and public policy. After researching and writing her graduate thesis on the relationship between the creative industries and historic preservation, Rebecca was brought on as a project manager for Station North Arts & Entertainment District in Baltimore, Maryland.

Currently, Rebecca is coordinating the first National Symposium on Arts/Cultural/Entertainment Districts to be held April 4-5th in Baltimore Maryland, as well as one of the largest street art festivals in the country, Open Walls Baltimore, which kicked off March 6th and will run through the end of May.

Read Sabra Smith’s archived tweet feed here: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/SabraSmith_Feed.pdf

Our national historic landmarks would be lost, ordinary objects from the past if it weren’t for historic preservationists. Learn about this unique and interesting career path when Sabra Smith (Penn Design ’07), contributes to @PennCareerDay on Thursday, March 17th. To find out more about Sabra, read below and don’t forget to follow her on St. Patrick’s Day!

Sabra Smith is currently a Historian (Architectural) at the National Park Service’s Northeast Regional Office in Philadelphia. When her term is up in three years and she’s looking for a new job, you can count on hearing from her. Her career started out in publishing and public relations in New York City. She comes late to historic preservation, but finds crumbling old buildings to be even more interesting than Norman Mailer. Doing a sidewalk survey during her UPenn studio project, she observed people recoil when asked about things “historic.” Her blog, My Own Time Machine: People, Places and Things, tries to remind people that history is about stories and can be lots of fun. Follow her on Twitter for the day and you’ll hear about the National Historic Landmark vessel Olympia, John Coltrane’s house, women’s history, Franklin Fountain (ice cream for everyone!), and her kids.

Sabra graduated in 2007 from the School of Design with her master’s degree in historic preservation. Her thesis was “Dead Men Tell No Tales: How Can Creative Approaches to Communication Keep Historic Sites from Going Silent?”

Find Sabra on:

LinkedIn.
Twitter.
Wordpress – here & here.
Etsy.