Belmont Technical College Student Provides Assistance to Local Underground Railroad Museum
St. Clairsville, OH (June 18, 2011) - Dr. John Mattox, Founder and Curator of the Underground Railroad Museum in Flushing, Ohio was looking for a way to provide his website visitors the ability to view the museum online. Fortunately for him, at the same time Belmont Technical College student Christine Austin was looking for an intership project for her capstone course, a class which synthesizes everything that a student has learned into a final project. Christine was notified by her instructor that the Underground Railroad Museum was looking for a student interested in completing a virtual tour for their website. Christine immediately asked for the contact information so she could determine specifically what the museum was looking for, and if it would be something that she could accomplish.
The virtual tour project for the museum took Christine eight weeks to complete. "I first met with Dr. Mattox at the Underground Railroad Museum for a tour, to take photographs, and to discuss what he had in mind for the project," she said. "I did some research about other museum virtual tours to determine what skills I would need to apply to the project, and what new skills, if any, that I would need to acquire. From there, I was able to determine what formats I would be capable of creating that would satisfy Dr. Mattox's project needs."
Christine worked on the project using several different programs that she learned how to use in her courses at Belmont. After learning that the museum was supported through donations, she also created a DVD that contains photographs of the museum items for Dr. Mattox to present to donors as a token of thans for their generosity.
The virtual tour can be accessed here.
"I cannot put a price on what Christine did for the museum. Her ability to create this virtual tour for us is invaluable," said Dr. Mattox. "Christine's skills and dedication to this project were immeasurable, and I am very appreciative of the time she put into this project. The pictures that she included in the virtual tour tell a store of local American history, and now we can share these photos with all of our website visitors."
Christine, who is from Freeport, Ohio, is a 2011 graduate of Belmont with a degree in Information Technology: Interactive Media Specialty.
The Information Technology degree programs at Belmont, like the one that Christine received, include unique courses of study that connect the major areas of Applications, Engineering, and Services into a degree for total flexibility in the rapidly changing information technology field. For more information about Information Technology programs at Belmont, call 740.699.3809 or visit Belmont Technical College's Website.
