Farewell, Montana

This is my favorite episode of The Brain Scoop.  I've been asked to return to UM and give a lecture on my museum experiences, this program, and the future of it all. This video captured the last time I was in that collection, my exact moment of departure, and I cannot wait until March when I get to go see it again after being away nearly 2 years.  <3 Emily 

I'm not even kidding, have you thought about submitting this in the short film category at film festivals?

Mr. Aranda did a great job capturing Emily's transition to a place where she would see her passion and effort met with similar enthusiasm. I may or may not have cried a little.

I was rewatching this video and was really curious as to what happened to the museum after Emily left it, so I took to google and found the website for the museum. On the staff page, Emily is still listed as an intern. It deeply saddens me to know that the museum has been left in such uninterested hands, and seems to be so forgotten that they haven't even updated the website in 3 years.

(1:25) "…I just feel like I've fought so hard, and it hasn't gotten me anywhere with expanding our space or getting more funding."  It seems to be a sad commentary on our entire generation that hard work fails to generate success, but I'm glad that you have found a new place, and I look forward to watching more Brain Scoop.

My very first job out of high school was at The Franklin Institute Science Museum. The floor staff was almost entirely made up of college students, many on work/study programs. Two months after I left they fired the entire floor staff and replaced them with untrained retired volunteers subsidized by government grant. Exchanging an opportunity to expose young minds to the joy of teaching science for a few dollars was a despicable crime. Their attitude towards science was made even clearer when they destroyed a large research library of primary source material, some of which went back as far as the 1820's, to make room for an IMAX theater and a couple of restaurants. A ghost of its former self, it has become totally dependent on income generated by traveling exhibitions created by other museums that are now out of its league. A sad comment on a what was one of America's first and best science museums.

I'm so glad you got to take the racoon. Such a bittersweet episode ♥

What really inspires me is that Emily was a late bloomer, and that she became so passionate and an active advocate to the public about the beauty and coolness of museums. Thank you. When I go to the Field Museum, I hope I run into you or the people that you have shown in the video to thank you guys.

i've only just started watching this series, but i found this one really touching. also, i can't help thinking of the embarrassment of riches poured into sport programs while things that actually matter languish away in forgotten basements

I am 54 years old {in 2015}, male, and I got a bit 'choked up' over a stuffed raccoon....

I love that title more than anything  "Chief Curiosity Correspondent" 

I only discovered this channel a few weeks ago and stumbled onto this video. I did not realize Emily was from Montana and assumed that she always worked in the Field Museum. So learning that she knew Michael and Hank, and that she didn't even major in a science field was surprising, to say the least. The sheer juxtaposition between the latest episodes in the Field Museum and this episode with her saying goodbye to this humble collection is nothing less than awe-inspiring. This video was incredibly bittersweet. Emily looked so crestfallen saying goodbye to the university's collection, unknowing what its future would be, if it even had one. But now, in the Field Museum, Emily is so happy. Her curiosity has pushed her into history with the new butterfly species. Seeing someone like Emily, someone who didn't even think she was cut out for science, be passionate about it and continues to fight for its preservation is reassuring, especially with how tumultuous the world is now. Keep doing you, Emily. Keep doing you.

This is probably my favorite Brain Scoop video.  There is something so special about working in a small collection.  You remember the first day you stumbled into it, clueless and impressed and overwhelmed, and yet in a few years' time you unexpectedly find yourself having become one of the experts - knowing every nook and cranny of the collection, the how-to's and the make-do's - with so many crazy and wonderful and horrible stories about it and the time you've spent in there!  Nobody else, or very few others, care about or know the collection quite as well as you do, and it's so hard leaving it behind, not knowing what is to happen to all those carefully curated objects.  I had an herbarium I had to leave behind once.  I'm ecstatic that The Brain Scoop was recognized as a gem that could benefit an even bigger audience by moving to Chicago... but I love that it started because of one person's discovery of and devotion to a small, obscure, but no less valuable, collection. :)

This nearly made me cry. After this show got some publicity from decidedly NON-scientific things I decided to check it out and started watching from the start. After all of these episodes a certain kinship is felt and seeing Emily leave her cozy little museum and volunteer job that borders on full time hobby to move up to working in one of the largest Nat History museums in the world... It's an incredibly inspiring story. Watching her walk through the museum at the end and realizing the magnitude of this change is truly awesome.

I just started watching the Brain Scoop and this episode touched my heart. If I had any real money, I know what I'd want to do with it - supporting the sciences. In the end, the best way is to make sure our government support the STEM fields and institutions.

I can't stop crying. Emily, you're my favorite. I'll miss the Wright Zoological Museum, and I hope it lives on and continues to inspire.

SO MANY FEELINGS such a beautifully shot video. :)

I wish these specimens could have been transferred to the Chicago museum as well instead of left in the basement. :(

I love how gentle Michael's voice was every time he asked a question. I know it's already been 3 years and I came super late to the party, but man did I break down at the end. I'm glad to see you're doing well in Chicago, Emily :)

Emily, you are WAY more than "normal"! You're a marvelous, intelligent, charming young woman. Hang in there, lady, your life is going to be wonderful.