Meet Jillyan, The Northeast Region’s New Outreach Assistant

 

Volunteering with the City of St. Augustine Archaeology Program

   

     Hello! I’m Jillyan Corrales, and I just started working with FPAN’s North East Region as an outreach assistant. I was lucky enough to attend Flagler College as an undergraduate, where I studied sociology and participated in the fledgling anthropology program. My time at Flagler presented me with several opportunities to engage with the community through both archaeological projects and nonacademic settings, including my first exposure to field archaeology. 

    During my junior year at Flagler, I participated in a field school at Fort Mose, a local site with a fascinating, yet often unsung, history. As someone who lived in the area for several years prior to attending Flagler, I was struck by how little I, or other locals that I spoke with, knew about the site. My time at Fort Mose was productive: I left with an understanding of field methods, a newfound love of archaeology (which eventually led me to pursue an MA), and an awareness of community-centered archaeology. It also highlighted the need to engage with the public to share important stories, which remains one of the research goals at Fort Mose. I’m delighted to continue in this vein as an outreach assistant with FPAN. 

Site monitoring at the GTM-NERR

    Though I only recently started working with FPAN, I’ve already learned so much from the wonderful Northeast region staff. In the future, I hope to take some of the knowledge and skills I’ve gained through this experience and continue doing community-centered, engaged archaeology. Look out for more blog posts from me over the next few months!