MEET THE CURRENT LEPAGE CENTER INTERNS
This year, the Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest is delighted to partner with the Dialogue Institute in Philadelphia, Historic Fallsington, Hershey History Center, Rosenbach Museum & Library, Science History Institute, Maryland State Archives, Fabric Workshop and Museum, American Historical Association, Roebling Museum, and Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index.
We are proud to have four Villanova History MA students and three Villanova History undergraduate student representing the University, their programs, and the Center in the wider world of research and scholarship.
Jane Brenninkmeyer '26 CLAS
Jane Brenninkmeyer, a rising senior in the Humanities and History departments, will be interning with Temple University’s Dialogue Institute. Jane will spend the summer researching and cataloging primary source materials related to Philadelphia’s religious and racial history, culminating in the Institute’s two-week conference, The City of Brotherly Love, where she will serve as a conversational-content specialist.
James Capik '27 MA
Rising graduate student James Capik will intern with Historic Fallsington. James hails from New Jersey, but has resided in Philadelphia for over a decade. His interests in history include revolutions, social movements and change, American identity, and local Philadelphia history.
Grant Kuppinger '26 BA
Rising senior Grant Kuppinger will be interning with the Science History Institute. Grant is a double-major in History and Political Science with minors in Ethics, Legal Studies, and Peace and Justice.
Abigail Clanton '26 MA
Abigail Clanton will be a second year MA student this fall, and is set to intern this summer with the Hershey History Center. She was born and raised in Setauket, New York and has always been deeply involved in genealogical research. Her goal is to work in museums to help bring history to the community in engaging and approachable ways. A Medievalist at heart, she finds herself now working in Early-Modern and Americanist fields.
Weronika Grajdura '26 MA
Spring 2026 graduate student Weronika Grajdura will be working this summer at the Rosenbach Museum and Library, a renowned rare book and manuscript library and a museum of fine and decorative arts. She will be helping the Museum make a collections guide for their American history collection that will contribute to the museum’s America 250 programming. In this project, Weronika aims to highlight some of the lesser-known stories and people within the Museum collection and will also be producing a piece of public programming.
Riley Nelson '25 BA
Riley is a graduating senior interning with the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. Riley majored in Art History and English with a minor in Irish Studies. "During my time at Villanova, I had the privilege of working for the University Art Gallery and Collection. There, I was able to fulfill my wish of bringing art to the community, something I hope to continue through this internship and my career beyond."
Nicholas Ricardo '26 BA
Rising senior Nicholas Ricardo will be working with the Maryland State Archives. Nicholas is a History and Classics major from New York City. He studies pre-modern history, focusing on Medieval Europe and pre-modern concepts of shared identity, such as religion, ethnicity, and nationality. He has also worked in the Middle Temple Library in London as part of a summer internship. He is a lector for Liturgical Ministry at Villanova, and a member of LEVEL.
Isaac Smith '25 MA
Graduating M.A. student Isaac Smith will be working with the American Historical Association's Congressional Policy Brief project this summer. He is a political philosopher who studies Pan-African histories, radical social movements, and the history of political thought. Isaac has participated as a trainer and adjudicator in several collegiate policy debate tournaments, and his interest in history and policy has led him to consider how ideas from the past translate to current policy issues.
Emily Robinson '25 BA
Graduating senior Emily Robinson will be working at the Fabric Workshop & Museum in Philadelphia. Emily majored in Art History and Sociology during her time as an undergraduate at Villanova. She found these majors to be mutually beneficial for one another by encouraging her to think critically and structurally about the world around her.
Alex Shehigan '26 MA
Alex Shehigian is an upcoming second-year M.A. History student. Her personal research interests include urban planning and displacement, school athletics and collective identity, and archival collecting practices in the United States. This summer, she will intern with the Science History Institute. Here, she will produce a new biography of Paul de Kruif and contribute to a new digital exhibit about Kruif’s best-known book, Microbe Hunters.
Olivia Troiano '27 BA
Olivia Troiano is a rising junior in the departments of English and History. This summer, she will be working at the Roebling Museum, gaining hands-on experience working with archives and documents essential to curating the museum. Her contributions will help publicize the historical material to educate visitors on the industrial achievements of Roebling, New Jersey.
Kelly White '26 MA
Rising second year graduate student Kelly White will be working with Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index, where she will contribute to curating the open access database by creating bibliographic citations, indexing content and creating metadata. Kelly is a 2017 graduate of Saint Joseph’s University, where she majored in History and English and minored in Renaissance Studies. From 2019 to 2024, Kelly was a museum assistant and docent at Pennsbury Mannor where her research focused on religion, gender, and slavery.