Daniel Montes, South Florida State College

Daniel Montes, a second-year history major in the Honors Program at SFSC, has for the past year been an invaluable volunteer assistant in the archives of the Avon Park Depot Museum, working under its director, Elaine Levey. He has organized and helped to conserve their many rare and irreplaceable documents, including early issues of local newspapers, and photographs, manuscripts, and other primary documents dating back to the earliest periods of settlement and invaluable for the study of local history. The Avon Park Depot Museum is staffed by and entirely dependent on volunteers, many of whom are elderly, so Daniel’s computer skills were a highly valued addition. He has also performed service-learning at the Museum of Florida Art and Culture, located on the SFSC campus. MOFAC has a dual focus, on the art of Florida and on on local archeological artifacts. Here Daniel volunteered as a museum docent, and also assisted the director and crew with new gallery installations. Through his service-learning at the Depot Museum and MOFAC, Daniel has had an year-long opportunity to experience and work with the raw materials of historical research, and contribute to the community as well.