Pictured: Melina Testin at the South Carolina Historical Society.

Melina Testin (History BA 2022) is the Education Coordinator for the South Carolina Historical Society (SCHS) in Charleston, South Carolina. As a public historian, Melina wears many hats: she works with teachers, students, and researchers visiting the SCHS, conducts archival research for new exhibits, and uses her skills as an artist to create illustrated flyers on Charleston history. 

After graduating from Loyola, Testin began her professional career as Education Coordinator for the National Czech and Slovak Museum in her hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There, she gained experience running tours, presenting lectures, researching collections, and even planning events with visiting international scholars. But her graphic novel, which she created in 2021 as a Loyola Provost Fellow under the mentorship of Professor Patricia Mooney-Melvin and in partnership with the Pritzker Military Museum and Library, caught the attention of the SCHS. She began work in Charleston in April 2023, where she has had opportunities to conduct research on military history, her specialty, as well as to put her creative talents to work. 

Melina’s experience as a Loyola Provost Fellow also prepared her for the work of teaching difficult histories, a core skill for any public historian. Interviewing prisoners of war taught Melina the value of “find[ing] ... discomfort” to “gain a different perspective” on the past. At the SCHS, Melina works with difficult histories by reading documents written by enslavers against the grain to interpret the history of enslaved Black Charlestonians, “making sure that the right people's voices are being heard” in SCHS exhibits.  

Up next for Melina are two projects for the SCHS: new interactive exhibits and a building tour. The upcoming interactive exhibits are designed with younger visitors in mind, including a “voting activity that introduces children to Supreme Court cases that affect them at school,” and 3D models of ships. The second project, a building tour, will provide visitors with context about the nearly 200-year history of the 1826 Robert Mills Fireproof Building, now the home of the SCHS.  

Pictured: A drawing by Melina Testin explaining the significance of the Robert Mills Fireproof Building.

To our Class of 2024 graduates, Melina offers the following advice: “Don't be afraid to own it that you are an historian,” she says. “Show your passion, show your knowledge, and don’t be afraid to take up space and to be a loud voice in the room.”