Happening on Campus: Archives Class Introduced This Fall

For the first time, Wooster has an Archives class here on campus. It's a full-year elective course offered during our Wednesday G Period, which runs just over two hours. This provides ample time for Brooke Thaler, who also teaches Journalism and is the Alumni Relations Coordinator, and her students to dig, discover, sort, scan, investigate, and uncover the hidden treasures and stories that exist after 98 years of Wooster.

This first year, three students have signed up for the class - they are all three members of the Class of '26 (which happens to be 100 years!) – Ellie, Hannah and Jaxs – and have passionately jumped right in. We have dug, climbed, opened countless boxes and photo albums; explored indoors and outdoors; and pondered and imagined people’s backgrounds; uncovered many buried stories from Wooster's past; and have had so much fun while doing all of this. Our class has shared facts and stories in Chapel with both Upper and Middle School students, written articles in WiNK (our student publication), and created displays for current students to see. 

The highlight of the trimester was definitely Homecoming, when our three Archives students spent the entire day in the Archives (it's the Grover Basement - some of you have had classes in here), meeting alumni and hearing their stories, and showing them all we have discovered so far. This experience went so far with our alumni, who not only appreciated the Archives space and organization, but were blown away by the enthusiasm of three juniors in high school with such a passion for Wooster’s history, and their ability to chat with adults so easily.

Here’s what Hannah '26, had to say about her day in the Archives space during Homecoming, as she shared in WiNK back in October.