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Welcome
Welcome
Hello. My name is Toby Craig. I am a senior at Louisa County High School in the Blue Ridge Virtual Governor’s School (BRVGS) program. I am part of our Kick Off Mentor club to help rising freshmen transition to high school. Outside of school, I enjoy weightlifting, reading, and spending time outdoors. Growing up in Virginia, I have been surrounded by history and have visited many historical sites throughout my childhood. After becoming involved with the Montpelier Archaeology department through a BRVGS sponsored dig program, I decided to pursue a PhD in Archaeology in order to help the public better understand our history.
Internship
I interned at the Louisa Historical Society, transcribing interviews of Louisa residents who lived here in the 1950s. I worked with their Executive Director, Karleen Kovalcik, who has a degree in Public History. The goal of the project was to study the environment of Louisa in the 1950s and generate statistics based on first hand accounts. In the spring, the Historical Society and I plan to incorporate some of these statistics and accounts in the high school history courses.
Research Topic
My paper, “Historical Education and Public Engagement in the Information Age,” addresses technology’s evolving role in the historical field. I evaluate how technologization has affected the way history is presented at historical sites, both negatively and positively, and suggest ways for it to be presented more effectively, especially to the younger generation.
Community Service
For my community service, I continued to work under Ms. Kovalcik, while collaborating with Robbie Guinn, a fellow BRVGS student, to create a cookbook of historic recipes from Louisa County. He focused on making the dishes, while I provided historical background and context to them. Once the cookbook was completed, it was distributed to the public to highlight a unique aspect of our county’s past.
Quote of Quality
“A people without the knowledge of their past, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.”-Marcus Garvey
This quote embodies my belief in the importance of history in societal development. Our history defines our identities; the better we understand our history, the better we understand ourselves. Learning more about other people’s past allows our culture to become more empathetic and, thus, more cohesive. Throughout this semester, I hope to learn how to effectively disseminate historical information to the public in the Information Age.
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