East Broad Top Archives and Special Collections
Internship Program
Meet The Interns
Zoe Merkel
2025 Summer Intern
The East Broad Top Archives and Special Collections welcomed Ms. Zoe Merkel as the Summer 2025 intern. Zoe (‘27) is a junior at Juniata College with a dual Program of Emphasis in History & Museum Studies, and Social Studies Secondary Education. Zoe completed a 10-week internship with the EBT Archives focusing on the Friends of the East Broad Top’s PHMC HARC Grant award for the East Broad Top Railroad Oral History and Film Preservation project.
While working in the Archives Zoe inventoried analog oral history and film materials from the Broad Top Area Coal Miners Historical Society, EBT Foundation, and Friends of the East Broad Top to prepare the materials to be digitally reformatted by a third party vendor. While creating the inventory, Zoe also created a tracking sheet for release forms, filled out temporary custody receipts, developed a data dictionary, and practiced using the collections management system, PastPerfect™ Web Edition. Also during her internship, Zoe learned about copyright, finding aids, and metadata in conjunction with oral history projects. At the end of the internship, Zoe tested the AI transcription service rev.com using one audio sample from the FEBT’s oral history collection.
Reviewing her internship, Zoe noted several lessons she learned. 1. What is considered important, standards, and best practices all change over time. 2. When conducting an oral history project having a set of standard questions/ introduction of people is extremely helpful. 3. Building an inventory takes time (longer than we would hope). 4. Don’t sit outside the station as the steam engine is sitting there too, unless you want to be smoked out (Zoe’s first introduction to Engine No. 16!). In the future Zoe hopes to complete another museum/archives internship to build on her experience from the East Broad Top Railroad Archives and Special Collections.
Andi Bradsher
2024 Summer Intern
Andi Bradsher ‘27 is passionate about the stories of the past and loves the challenge of sharing them in an engaging way that inspires people in the present. She is currently a rising sophomore at Juniata College pursuing a History and Museum Studies degree. Andi was honored to join the East Broad Top Railroad Archives and Special Collections for a 9-week internship designed to build a solid foundation upon a variety of important collection management skills. Under the expert guidance of the Archives team, she continued inventory for the NRHS Heritage Grant project “Preservation of EBT Architectural and Engineering Maps and Drawings,”, practiced preservation techniques, became familiar with scanning and digitization techniques, and helped to physically process and catalog several Friends of the East Broad Top collections. Andi especially enjoyed uncovering unique treasures in the Orbisonia Passenger Station vaults and cabinets, strategizing organization and outreach methods with the team, and talking with people who share her passion for history
As part of her internship, Andi developed a digital exhibition in partnership with the Juniata College Museum of Art and Museum Director Kathryn Blake. The exhibition “Into the Vaults: East Broad Railroad Archives,” follows Andi’s journey in learning about what makes the EBT unique through its valuable archival collections and how to best preserve their stories. You can find the exhibition on the JCMA Digital mobile app.
Connor Green
2023 Summer Intern
Connor Green ‘24 completed a 12-week internship in the Archives during the summer of 2023 working on the NRHS Heritage Grant project “Preservation of EBT Architectural and Engineering Maps and Drawings.” He was responsible for inventory and physically processing and preserving the inventoried maps and drawings, which included cleaning, MylarⓇ encapsulation, polyester tubing, and boxing for permanent housing and storage.Connor was also instrumental in supporting the scanning of oversize drawings using a wide format scanner with EBT Archives Technician Sammy Bellin.
Connor graduated from Juniata College in May 2024 with a Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education/Social Studies. He is currently a special education teacher in Rochester, NY at Rochester Prep Brooks Campus Middle School, where he is also a head coach and assistant coach at the high school. Connor is also currently enrolled in the Master’s of Special Education through Juniata College’s online degree program with an intent to graduate in May of 2025.
Brian Standfest
2022 Summer Intern
Brian Standfest ‘23 was the second intern to work with the Archives from Juniata College. He focused his internship on the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) Heritage Grant project “Preservation of EBT Architectural and Engineering Maps and Drawings.” Brian successfully inventoried over 2,000 maps and drawings such as EBT Right of Way and Profile Evaluation maps, Rockhill Iron and Coal Company maps and drawings, and many EBT rolling stock parts and building drawings.
Graduating in May 2023 with a Bachelor’s degree in Museum Studies and a minor in History, Brian was the recipient of the 2022 Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Employers (PennACE) Joanne Day Student of the Year award highlighting his internship with the Archives. After graduation, he was employed as an Archival Data Specialist for the Army National Heritage Center in Carlisle, Pa. As of July 2024, Brian is an Archives Technician at the National Archives Records and Administration (NARA) in College Park Md.
Sammy Bellin
2021 Summer Intern
Sammy Bellin is the Archives Technician for the East Broad Top Railroad Archives and Special Collections. He rejoined the Archives as part-time staff after spending the summer of 2021 as the Archives’ first intern representing Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa. Bellin learned under the tutelage of Archivist Julie Fether Rockwell. Together, they started to build the program from scratch, first creating a spot inventory to determine the scope of the inestimable amount of materials and records found in the collections, an estimated 5,000 linear feet. Sammy graduated from Juniata College in May of 2022 with a Program of Emphasis in History. To date, Sammy has cataloged over 5000 records into the online collection management system PastPerfect™ Web Edition, and has scanned thousands of archival materials for online access and internal research. Sammy previously worked as a tour guide and ticket agent for the EBT from 2021-2023.
During his time in college and after joining the Archives team, Bellin provided narrative consultation and supplied images for A Brief Guide to the EBT, a joint collaboration among Juniata College, the Friends of the East Broad Top, the EBT Foundation, and the East Broad Top Railroad Archives and Special Collections. He is a new member of the Society of Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T) and attended the Archives 2024 Conference at the National Archives in April 2024.