The Creative Archeologist
Class of 2012 alum, Ella Beaudoin, is a perfect example of a student who was challenged both artistically and academically during her time at PiM. After high school, Beaudoin was awarded a Fellowship in Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) with the National Science Foundation: a research opportunity funded by the National Science Foundation supporting research of damage to million-year-old stone tools at an excavation site in South Africa.
When asked about how arts-learning has influenced the work that she does, Beaudoin shared, “I honestly don’t think that I would have ever been able to do everything that I have done without my theatre background. Being involved in theatre taught me not only how to juggle a million things all at once, but also the importance of reliability and dependability. Another thing theatre showed me is that you cannot operate as a singular unit. It takes so many people supporting one another to get anywhere.”
Like Ella Beaudoin, PiM believes in the power of creativity and collaboration. As Executive Director Matt McFarlane shared, “Multiple perspectives create open-minded, lifelong learners who cultivate a positive society. Ella Beaudoin is a great example of a dedicated student artist who met the post-secondary world as leader, and there are many more like her.”
During her time at PiM, Beaudoin she was active in theatre, playing various roles in Dracula, Twelfth Night, Dancing at Lughnasa and The Producers. As Beaudoin shared, “After PiM, I came to the American University knowing archaeology was going to be my future. I joined the Koobi Fora Field School in 2015 where I narrowed it down to Paleolithic archaeology being what I want to spend my life doing. I then began interning at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and became a research assistant at the Center for the Advanced Study of Paleoanthropology at George Washington University.
I’m often asked to give a lectures to the Human Origins courses at my University, speaking about my research, stone tools, and the process through which they are made… all that theatre training has been amazingly useful for conferences and presentations!”
