Tori Sutera, AJ Humenik, Emily Papagiannis, and Lucas Gonzalez were awarded grants to participate in the 2024 Native American and Indigenous Studies field school run by MSU’s NAIS program. Natalia Orlovski used her Bigel award to be part of a Global Treks and Adventures internship program in Iceland where she researched and visited several amazing cultural and heritage sites. Ellie Paschalis was able to travel to the Basque country in Spain to participate in the Aditu Archaeological Field School which is focused on the recovery and study of human remains from a medieval-period ossuary. Khara Brown also traveled for an archeological field at James Madison’s Montpelier, the planation of America’s fourth president. Khara’s program studied and excavated at the site to better understand the enslaved community who labored and sustain the plantation in the 19th century.

The student reports were outstanding and clearly demonstrated the special opportunities available to Anthropology students thanks to their access to the Bigel scholarship fund.

Congratulations to Christopher Snyder, an anthropology major in the Class of 2017. The Paterson Alliance gave him an  at a luncheon on May 11, 2017. Snyder was recognized for his outstanding contributions during a  internship that he completed in the summer of 2016.

During his internship, Synder worked closely with Montclair State alumna Claudia Urdanivia and the experience was supported by a Bigel Grant. At City Green, Snyder acted as a docent and conducted research on best practices for establishing community gardens. This summer, he will put that research into practice working with community partners in Orange to build a new community garden along with a fellow anthropology student, Warren Bristol.

This fall, Snyder will return to Montclair State to pursue a Master’s degree in Public Health.

More on:
Department of Anthropology
Grants from the Antoinette C. Bigel Endowment Fund

For the 2016 graduate, the internship was a natural extension of her work as an anthropology major and archaeology minor. She was able to work with artifacts from St. Catherine’s Island, Georgia dating from the Spanish Mission period (roughly 1600 to 1700). Her main tasks were digitizing parts of the collection and rehousing artifacts.

Taking Advantage: Faculty-student research opportunities

Alemy’s studies at Montclair State and her collaboration with faculty prepared her well for the internship. Arriving as a transfer student from Sussex County Community College, Alemy took full advantage of the research institution.

She worked in the Center for Heritage and Archaeological Studies lab and honed technical skills working with . She served a research assistant conducting interviews to assist Prof. Julian Brash with his New York City High Line research, funded by the National Science Foundation.

She also received a Bigel grant and helped with an . This work included physical excavation as well as the processing and analysis of recovered artifacts.

Later, Alemy presented findings from the excavation in digital form by working on the  with Matthews and another student.

In addition to the American Museum of Natural History internship, Alemy completed an internship working in the repository of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Why study anthropology?

“I’ve always been interested in studying people so I took an Anthropology class at Sussex County Community College and was hooked!”

“So what are you going to do with that?” is the reaction she says that she gets from many people when she tells them of her major. And Alemy says she has trouble answering, but that’s because she feels there are so many opportunities and she’s only just started on her career path.

Alemy is also a model of determination. When she first applied to the American Museum of Natural History program, she was not accepted. Instead of moving on, she pursued more outside experience to beef her resume up. On her second attempt she was accepted. “Don’t give up” is the moral of the story, she says.

Next, Alemy is pursuing work in cultural resource management. She’s also exploring different techniques in digital archaeology that will be useful in her career. She plans to pursue a certification in geographic information systems.

Learn more:
Anthropology at Montclair State

Center for Heritage and Archaeological Studies
Anthropology Research