Internship leads to job at Reagan Gallery for Danielle Jordan
March 24, 2008
When Danielle Jordan applied for an internship with Young America’s Foundation in December 2006, she didn’t expect to be chosen. But soon after she competed in spring track regionals in May 2007, she headed to Santa Barbara, California—YAF’s West Coast headquarters—where she’d been accepted to work as a summer intern on the Reagan Ranch project. A week before the internship ended, she was told she was being considered for the position of assistant curator of the Reagan Ranch Museum Gallery.
 Senior Danielle Jordan begins July 1, 2008 as Curatorial Assistant at the Reagan Ranch Museum Gallery in Santa Barbara, California. |
Finally after interviews, visits to Santa Barbara and phone calls stretching from December through mid-March, Jordan heard from Andrew Coffin, Director of the Reagan Ranch Center, asking her if she still wanted the job. She accepted the position of curatorial assistant which will begin July 1, 2008, or possibly sooner. The Gallery, which she helped to plan as an intern, is set to open this fall.
“I can finally get excited and tell people what’s going on!” Jordan related after the phone call on March 19, 2008. She said her job is basically an apprenticeship under Marilyn Fisher, Curator of Collections for the Reagan Ranch and Reagan Ranch Center. Although the curatorial assistant’s responsibilities are very diverse, Jordan summed them up as helping the Foundation host events, give tours, train and eventually hire Gallery workers, and perhaps do research.
Fisher, with whom she worked closely last summer, praised her as an intern. “I was particularly impressed by her ability to get up and run with her work, with just basic instruction,” she said. “Danielle picked it up right away. She is very self-motivated, very mature. She is, without question, the best intern I have ever worked with.”
As a senior this year, Jordan reflected on her internship experience. “I’m a history major, not a political science major, and didn’t feel that I exactly fit in with the other intern applicants,” she said, giving reason for her expectations to be passed up for the opportunity. Young America’s Foundation, as the principal outreach organization of the Conservative Movement, promotes individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values. Although Jordan felt comfortable with those tenets, she said it wasn’t altogether familiar territory. But from among 36 other applicants for the West Coast position, Jordan was chosen along with four other students from the University of Maryland, UCLA, UCSB, and California Polytechnic Institute, to work at the Ranch.
The Reagan Ranch project began when Young America’s Foundation purchased the former president’s ranch in 1998. Their goal was to preserve it as a living monument to Reagan’s lasting accomplishments and pass on his values, primarily to young people.
The Foundation also set up the Reagan Ranch Center in downtown Santa Barbara for its western headquarters and the location of the Museum Gallery. The Ranch is not open to the public, and won’t be for many years. But when the Gallery opens this fall, it will give people a glimpse of Reagan’s Western White House. Historical items such as the original table on which Ronald Reagan signed the largest tax cut in American history into law, important speeches and letters, a jeep called the “Gipper” and a portion of the ranch home are displayed there.
 Jordan joins other student interns at the Reagan Ranch during summer, 2007. From left are (back row) Hans Poschman of California Polytechnic, Jerad Ferguson of UCSB; (front row) Shauna Peterson of UCLA, Jordan, and Ana Lightle of the University of Maryland. |
Jordan spent the first part of the summer helping to plan and host YAF conferences. One was in Washington, D.C., where she met politicians and speakers like Michael Reagan, the former president’s son, as well as Tony Snell, White House press secretary, Newt Gingrich, and Michelle Millikin. Jordan also helped plan the Museum Gallery during this time, working directly with Fisher as Museum curator.
Once those plans were confirmed, Jordan began archival work with letters and newspaper articles related to Ronald Reagan’s presidency. She also worked on recalling original items from the ranch when possible or acquiring replicas when originals were not available. “I got to play on EBay a lot,” she admitted. “I’m still looking for a replica of a polo shirt President Reagan wore while on the Ranch.”
Finally, her last month and a half were spent doing research to find audio and text materials that could be displayed in the Gallery. “
The information Danielle compiled was used to write general text for the exhibits in the Gallery, such as wall panels and a time-line table, which is a wonderful educational tool,” Fisher related. “Danielle was very, very good at searching for information. She was able to put her finger on it pretty quickly.”
“With one of the most popular presidents in the last century, it was easy to find information about him. It was like a scavenger hunt,” Jordan noted.
“One of the most interesting searches I did took place the last week I was there,” Jordan recalled. Just before giving one of his weekly radio addresses from the Ranch, the president was joking around with the media. Unknown to him, one radio line was open and caught a “news slip” that ended up being aired. Jordan was able to find that 10-second blip of audio by going to the radio station that initially aired it.
“I’m not sure how much research my job will entail,” she said. “I liked that part of it as an intern.”
Jordan’s parents, David and Donna Jordan of Medford, Oregon, visited Santa Barbara in December. She said they were excited to see where she would be working and living.
For the future, Jordan expects to spend a few years as assistant curator at the new Museum Gallery. She said the Foundation will fund training at conferences and seminars as well as museum certification that provides almost half of the course credits toward a master’s degree. In order to move up to another position, perhaps as curator, she would need a master’s degree in museum preservation methods.
“Graduate school is up in the air at this point,” Jordan said. “For now this will give me a few years to get my feet wet before I decide what I really want to do.”
Assistant Professor John Scott, Jordan’s advisor, described her as extremely hard-working, very dependable, a good team player, and loyal. “
These are the kinds of things people want in their employees,” Scott said. “I’m not surprised at all that she’s been hired for the job as curatorial assistant. I think she’ll be very successful at whatever she’s doing.”
NOTE: The Reagan Ranch is to be distinguished from The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, CA, operated by The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.
