Volunteer of the Month – Isaac Garing

Our October Volunteer of the Month is Isaac Garing, a senior at Herron High School, a charter school in Indianapolis. Isaac has been intrigued with history and geography his whole life, beginning when he was 10 years old, when his family visited England. His passion began when they visited a museum that had a case of tiny Roman figurines. He read the sign saying that they were “Romans,” and Isaac asked his parents who they were. They gave him a brief overview, but even at that young age, Isaac felt that they had not told him enough, so for his birthday his parents gave him the book, Horrible Histories: Ruthless Romans. After reading that book, Isaac was hooked, which led to the knowledge of what his career would be and choosing an internship in that profession.

In more recent years, Isaac has been able to travel to Greece and Italy, which has helped give him more perspective on what history actually looks like. Since he first saw the little figurines of Romans, to when he explored Greece and Italy, to now, Isaac has always had thoughts of being an archaeologist.

Herron High School offers internships to their high-achieving seniors, so naturally when Isaac was offered one, he began looking for something related to archaeology. His search led him to Jeannie Regan-Dinius, Crown Hill Foundation’s Director of Historic Preservation, who happens to live in Isaac’s neighborhood.

The prospect of being able to come to Crown Hill Cemetery as a part of school interested Isaac, and an internship was developed. Two days a week, he spends time in the cemetery working on a variety of projects. He’s fine-tuning his wayfinding skills by looking for tombstones and recording their GPS locations, while also learning about research and archival documents by looking into the history of those buried in the cemetery.

Isaac has found the beauty of Crown Hill and loves spending time here. Along with the practical skills he’s learning, our Director is also looking for opportunities for him to visit with her archaeology friends and find workdays he can spend in the field with them and expose him to the various resources available in the city.

If you would like to volunteer at Crown Hill Cemetery and Arboretum, check out our website for more details or to find the application.