Graduate intern presents midterm neighborhood history report and next steps

Megan Raibert, a graduate student at the University of Maryland working as the city’s neighborhood history intern, presented a midterm report to the council summarizing roughly a year of archival research and a proposed path forward to digitize, preserve and expand College Park’s local history.

Why it matters: the project documents neighborhood development, transportation history, historic preservation efforts and under‑represented local histories (including African American history in neighborhoods such as Lakeland). The city funded the internship to create a publicly accessible historical resource and to seed future oral history efforts.

What the midterm report covers: Raibert told the council she surveyed institutional records (national and university archives), historic newspapers (including the Evening Star), county and state historical collections, and community sources. Her report organizes materials by historical narrative, community development (neighborhood‑level histories), historic preservation, transportation (streetcar and Route 1), African American and Lakeland history, and a “notable discoveries” section (one example: historical events at the College Park Airport). She said oral histories would be the next priority to capture firsthand accounts that are not in institutional records.

Council discussion: Council members and University of Maryland faculty praised the work. Assistant clinical professor and project supervisor Dr. Brunner described a Do Good Campus Fund grant that will support short oral histories collected by university students with community participants. Councilmembers raised outreach questions for Spanish‑speaking residents and asked about integration of the project into the city’s strategic communications and website. Raibert and supervising faculty said they plan to develop public‑facing summaries and coordination with civic groups and to pursue oral histories in the coming months.

Next steps: staff and the university will continue coordinating to create accessible web materials, resume oral history interviews (short, 20‑minute sessions were discussed), and link the project to civic groups and student volunteers. Councilmembers suggested using city events and Good Neighbor Day for outreach and building partnerships to translate and record stories from multilingual communities.

Note: the presentation did not include a finalized oral history schedule or a firm budget for digitization beyond the intern funding; staff and university representatives said they will return with implementation details and outreach plans.