Erin Schulte grew up in Plant City, but gained a whole new perspective through her internship
Plant City native Erin Schulte recently completed a five month Intensive Internship Program with the Plant City Photo Archives and History Center where she also received a certificate from the American Association for State and Local History for her completion of the Basics of Archives course.
A graduate of Plant City High School, Schulte then attended Florida State University where she began as an English major but ultimately graduated in 2020 with a B.A., Summa Cum Laude, in Interdisciplinary Humanities.
In addition to the professional experience gained through her internship with the Plant City Photo Archives, the program also opened her eyes to the important role that archives play in a community’s history.
“I think that working at the Photo Archives gave me an insight to Plant City that I didn’t really have before,” Schulte said. “Growing up there and living there my whole life, there was still so much that I didn’t know about and so much of the town’s history that I had no idea even existed. Meeting some of the people that came in and hearing some of the stories that they had to tell, it was really fascinating.”
The Plant City Photo Archives received its first collectoin in 2000 with the acquisition of an entire set of photos from long-time Plant City area photographer Bill Friend after his passing in 1999. Gil Gott was the founding executive director, a role he still holds until his retirement later in the year.
The archives have grown throughout the past 20 years and now serves as a valuable resource that provides a glimpse into the long and storied history of Plant City.
“To really understand who you are and where you come from, you need to understand your history,” Gott said. “And there’s an opportunity (at the archives) to just walk in and learn a great deal more than you knew before. It also gives you a different perspective on who you are, where you came from and where you’re going. I think that’s all what we offer you and it’s right here.”
Now done with her internship at the archives, Schulte is currently in Orlando working with the Disney College Intern program. Disney’s internship is a six month program that was originally scheduled to begin in the fall of 2020 following her graduation from FSU, only to be temporarily put on pause due to COVID-19.
But despite moving on to a new challenge and a new internship, Schulte will always have the memories and knowledge gained from Gott and the Plant City Photo Archives with her.
“It’s so important,” Schulte said about the archives. “A lot of people would come in and have no idea that the archives had even been there. They would come in and ask questions and look at the photos and there would be so much stuff that nobody even knew about and it’s so important to preserve that history. Because there’s so many great people and so many people that left an enormous impact on the town and many would not even know about it or remember it if not for the archives.”
