VOLUNTEER MUSEUM EDUCATORS - EDUCATION IS THE KEY!

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The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History is the leading and the best Museum of its kind in the world. We strive to open minds and change lives through the exploration and celebration of African American history and culture.

Volunteer Museum Educators work directly with our customers providing interactive learning experiences and tours of the exhibitions. They must have a passion for and love of African American history and storytelling activities.

If you love history and love to teach, this is the volunteer opportunity for you!

Education and Experience:

Associate's degree (A.A.) or higher in History, Education, English, or appropriate discipline, or the equivalent combination of 2 years college and work experience.

Excellent presentation and verbal communication skills required. Prior experience as an educator, storyteller or actor with a strong interest in history preferred. Ability to quickly learn permanent and constantly changing tour content. Ability to deliver content to a variety of audiences in an educational and entertaining manner.

Looking for individuals who love history and enjoy educating others. "Each one teaches one" is our motto. Once you learn, you have the opportunity to share your knowledge with our customers and teach other Volunteers to become Museum Educators.

Storytelling: One of the responsibilities of the educator is to tell a compelling and coherent story. The story should have a clear overarching theme as well as a beginning, middle, and end. There should be effective transitions from one exhibit space to another and one story to another. The theme should be introduced at the beginning, reiterated throughout the tour, and summarized at the end, all while making the presentations and the exhibitions come alive!

Visitor Engagement: The educator should have a good balance between presenting information and engaging visitors in discussion. Throughout the tour, the educator should have visitors share their prior knowledge; elicit responses/reactions from the visitors to the space and to the information presented; and promote meaningful dialogue among visitors. Educators are also responsible for ensuring that all visitors comply with the Museum rules.

Job Requirements: In order to be agile and flexible and considering all of the movements required for tour delivery, one must be able to stand, walk, use hands, arms, talk, hear, sit, climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. Educator must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities are required include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.

Must be available for educator training which includes the time required for individual study, shadowing skilled Museum Educators, practicing tour delivery and certification activities.

Once certified and based on your availability, conduct one-hour tours during the week or on weekends between the hours of 9am and 5pm. Evening tour opportunities are also available for special events.

If you would like to apply for this exciting volunteer opportunity, please contact Reba Johnson, Coordinator of Volunteers, at rebajohnson@thewright.org or 313-494-5826.