She’s making history

For the second year in a row, Gwyneth Harris is on top.

The Redkey native turned Ball State University student was awarded the Lester Schmidt Memorial Scholarship for having the highest grade point average in the school’s history department. This is the second consecutive year she has won this scholarship.

Harris, a 22-year-old junior majoring in public history and anthropology, also enrolled into the BSU’s honors college this year and has an internship lined up this summer with the Indiana Medical History museum in Indianapolis.

That internship will likely have to be completed at least in part remotely, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, Harris is living in Redkey while taking online classes and working at her job in Minnetrista remotely, which has been a big adjustment for her.

“It feel likes I have no time to do what I do,” said Harris, who added finding a work-life balance at home is difficult. She has taken classes online before, but not from home. She completed an entire semester from Wales last fall during a semester abroad.

Her interest in history was instilled by her mother, Chris, who has been active in the Jay County Historical Society. Harris herself serves on Redkey’s preservation committee.

Lately, however, she has become more interested in medical history, which correlates with her interest in early 20th century American history.

The irony of becoming an intern for a medical history museum during a viral outbreak is not lost to her, but she is excited for the opportunity nonetheless.

As she enters her final year at Ball State, she is considering pursuing graduate school somewhere in Indiana to study some sort of history.

Harris credits her years of home schooling for instilling a love of learning and history. She was allowed to research various topics she was interested in at her own pace, which was instrumental in expanding her horizons and creating a love for history.

She never thought about going to college growing up, she said, so when it came time she first went to Ivy Tech to figure out what she wanted to do. She went from there to enrolling at BSU in the spring semester of 2016, originally focusing on anthropology, archeology and music.

After taking a public history class, she realized how much history can be immersive and loved interacting with people and talking about history. She then dropped music and archeology in favor of public history.

“I like it because I like finding new ways in engaging the public with history,” Harris said.

After she changed her major, the rest is history and now she’s at the top of her class in her department for the second straight year.