Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of speaking with middle school students from Oklahoma… all the way from Mount Vernon. It was a virtual learning opportunity for these students and a brand new opportunity for me. The theme of this particular learning day was was stories of resistance. As a character interpreter at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, I portray Ona Judge, Martha Washington’s enslaved personal maid, who successfully ran away from the Washington’s while they were in Philadelphia for the presidency. I tell Ona Judge’s story on a daily basis and it was a privilege to have even more people learn about her.

This was the first time I have ever did anything like this and I feel like everything went well, but I do need to refine my program a bit more. I’m used to portraying Ona Judge in a more informal manner. Guests will come and ask questions and it’s much more guest led. But for this program, I was meant to just talk for 45 minutes straight. I think between nerves and being out of my normal environment, I did feel as if I was dropping information and I was not as fluid and eloquent as I would’ve liked. I ended up only talking for about 30 minutes. I was relived that some many people had questions at the end, that help supplemented the rest of the time. But even with my feelings of not doing very well, I’ve received compliments from the organizers of the event in Oklahoma, the teachers attending the event, and my colleague at Mount Vernon that facilitated the program.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience and I hope I am able to do something like this again! In the meantime, I’ll workshop the Ona Judge program in the meantime. I always knew the program would change over time the more I learn about Ona Judge and the enslaved community at Mount Vernon, so I am taking all of this in stride. Looking forward to see what I come up with!!