After a successful pilot project in 2018, Touching History: Preservation in Practice has launched its second year with two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)–Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, and Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama. Six students from each university’s School of Architecture will participate in the internship.

Orientations have taken place, and the student participants were highly enthusiastic to begin the program, with more than double the space available applying to participate at both schools. Morgan State students will begin at Grand Teton National Park then return to Baltimore for a two-week project with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Hands-On-Preservation-Experience (HOPE) Crew. The students will spend the final week in Washington D.C., touring historic sites and networking.

The Tuskegee University students will spend their first week at the National Park Service’s National Center for Preservation Technology and Training in Natchitoches, Louisiana. They will then spend two weeks at Grand Teton National Park for fieldwork and the Guiding Principles class, then fly back to Tuskegee to work on a HOPE Crew Project and visit historic sites, as well as attend networking opportunities.

The Tuskegee program was met with great support from University President Lily McNair. Other partners include the National Park Service, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Alabama State Historic Preservation Officer. The SHPO will assist in organizing the historic site tour and a networking event that will include local architects and historic preservation professionals.

The goals of Touching History are to:
•  Connect student participants to job opportunities
•  Create opportunities for students to interact with organizations, federal agencies, state and local governments, elected officials
•   Inform African American students about opportunities in preservation fields
•   Raise awareness of the rich cultural legacies of buildings on HBCU campuses
•   Encourage students to reinvent legacies of historic resources on campus through active historic preservation work
•   Expand the number of HBCUs participating in Touching History