Meet the Friends of Minidoka Interns

Rachel Alldredge, Camille Daw, and Erin Aoyama

This year, Friends of Minidoka has been growing our team through a brand new internship program! We are very excited to showcase the work of our three interns, who are supporting the joint mission of Friends of Minidoka and the National Park Service through their work at Minidoka National Historic Site as well as remotely! The internship program is designed to provide hands on training and experience to those interested in exploring potential careers with the National Park Service, resource management, and public history. 

Our first intern was Rachel Alldredge, from Idaho Falls, ID. Rachel previously interned with the National Park Service in the interpretation and education division, and was interested in cross-training in the maintenance division to learn the basics of woodwork, electrical, plumbing, and welding and become versed in new skillsets. Rachel worked at Minidoka National Historic Site under the guidance of Sam Bowlin of the National Park Service’s Maintenance Division. Rachel served for 12 weeks from January through March, and helped behind the scenes to ensure that visitors to Minidoka have a great experience. She also helped restore and install a 1/6 scale model of a Minidoka guard tower at the intersection of I-25 and Hunt Road. 

Camille Daw began with Friends of Minidoka in late January, and her internship is currently ongoing. Camille is a history student at Boise State University, and has previously served as a summer intern at Minidoka National Historic Site in education, interpretation, and visitor services. Camille is working remotely through a partnership with Boise State University to digitize the Robert C. Sims Collection in Special Collections and Archives. Dr. Sims was the preeminent scholar on Minidoka and theJapanese American experience in Idaho., and The Robert C. Sims Collection on Minidoka and Japanese Americans is one of the most-used collections at Boise State. Camille is assisting in digitizing, indexing, and identifying collections items so we can better understand the scope of this collection for future exhibits and interpretive programming. The final product will be used to enhance finding aides and documentation for future researchers. 

Erin Aoyama is serving as a Community Research & Outreach Fellow for Friends of Minidoka and the National Park Service. Erin is a Ph.D student in American Studies at Brown University and will be working on public outreach engagement programs including special events, the 2021 Tadaima Virtual Pilgrimage, as well as integrating Japanese American history into Pearl Harbor National Memorial’s Beyond Pearl Harbor event to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. We are excited to have Rachel, Camille, and Erin on board, and to be able to support their great work!