Kyle Mathers

I'm Kyle Mathers, Norwich University graduate class of 2022. So the Harley Davidson Museum, I am lead curatorial and exhibits, which just is just a complicated way of saying I'm an exhibit designer, curator, and generally help maintain and develop new exhibits at the museum. However, I wear a number of different hats, I also coordinate all of our motorcycle loans to other museums and institutions. I help supervise and coordinate internal and external media requests and also help coordinate and lead VIP and behind the scenes tours here at the museum.

Before starting at Norwich University, I worked at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Illinois, the First Division Museum as a curator. I knew a lot about museum work and museum studies, but I wanted to expand my knowledge of military history and become more of a content expert in what I was working with. So I found Norwich University's online military history graduate program. So it was a no brainer for me to choose it.

So my wife and I moved up to Milwaukee about a year and a half ago, and we really enjoyed the city. It's a mid sized city, so it has all of the restaurant and entertainment and museum options that a larger city does. The food is great. Cheese is great. The beer is great. All of the things you'd expect living in Wisconsin.

Since graduated in Norwich, I've been able to put to use my critical thinking skills and writing skills that I gained through the program while researching and writing different exhibitions at the museum, helping out with new displays, and even curating some new areas in our military history gallery.

I'm lucky enough to be able to do what I love and work in museums and with history, but in my free time, I still really enjoy, learning how to fly, my student pilot, and hope to get my pilot's since in the near future. I also collect and build Lego sets, which is really cool because a few years ago, Harley Davidson partnered with Lego, to create a, Fat Boy model that I've had the the chance to, play with while working at the museum.

If I had one piece of advice from my younger self before attending Norwich, it would be to take full advantage of your professor's knowledge as well as the other students' knowledge. Being an online course, I worked with professors and students from all over the world who had far different experiences and educations than I did. And so taking advantage of their knowledge and insight, was a huge benefit to the program. Working in museums is a challenging, but very rewarding career. The most important thing starting out is to just get as much experience as you possibly can, whether that's volunteering, or through internships or, you know, working at your local historical society.

For anyone thinking about attending Norwich University, it's an excellent opportunity. The professors, are very knowledgeable and always happy to help you with any issues or work you're delving into regardless of if it's class related or personal or hobby, the biggest benefit was the community, both professors and students. And there's connections I made there that I'll I'll carry with throughout my whole life.