About Me

My name is Amanda Arnold Stephenson, and I work as a Library Associate at a local county library. I was born and raised in Rhode Island, but I currently live in Southern California with my husband, our cat, and our two dogs. 

I love to read, and I've long been interested in history and archaeology. One of my first jobs was working part-time in a small, independently-owned bookstore in my home town, and I also volunteered at a local historic site while I was in high school. 

As an undergraduate at the University of Rhode Island, I continued to gain experience in libraries and cultural heritage, working at the university library and at a historic fort in Newport, Rhode Island. It was during my time at URI that I became interested in the ancient world, particularly ancient Roman history and art. After graduating in May 2014 with Bachelor's degrees in Anthropology, History, and Classics, I worked as a summer curatorial intern in ancient art at the RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island, before beginning a MA program in Classical Art & Archaeology at the University of Colorado Boulder, which I completed in May 2016.

Although my original intention was to continue on and obtain a PhD in order to either teach ancient history and art at the university level or to become a curator in ancient art, by the end of my graduate program, I decided that a PhD wasn't for me. A brief stint as an adjunct professor, teaching Latin at my undergraduate university, confirmed that while I enjoyed teaching, it was not something I wanted to do full-time. 

My experience teaching, along with an interest in registrar work that resulted from my museum internship, led me to begin considering going back to school for a MA or certificate in Museum Studies. After moving to California in December 2016, I ended up working in several public and elementary school libraries and was reminded of how much I had enjoyed working at my university library as an undergraduate. The sense of fulfillment I got from working in libraries and the lack of museums in the area I currently live in led me to alter my plans a little, and I decided to pursue a MLIS degree with a focus on Museum Studies so I would have options wherever my husband and I end up settling permanently.

I began the MLIS degree at Kent State University in Spring 2019 and focused mainly on taking courses within the Museum Studies pathway, with a secondary focus on courses relating to information organization.

For more information about the courses I took and the program specializations I focused on during my time in the MLIS program, please visit the Curriculum page. For more information on my educational and professional experience, please see my CV/Resume. To learn more about my background, beliefs, motivations, and goals and how they relate to and have impacted my journey as an information professional, please view my "This I Believe" Essay, Elevator Speech, and Diversity Statement.