Oral History Program Heidi Orchard Interviewed by Janessa Knotts 23 January 2007 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Heidi Orchard Interviewed by Janessa Knotts 23 January 2007 Copyright © 2015 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in University Archives. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Orchard, Heidi, an oral history by Janessa Knotts, 23 January 2007, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Heidi Orchard. The interview was conducted on January 23, 2007, by Janessa Knotts. Orchard discusses her experience at Weber State. JK: Heidi, do you give consent for this interview to be used in Special Collections and be made available to the public? HO: Yes. JK: What is your overall perspective of Weber State University? HO: Overall, my perspective is very positive. The experience I’ve had at Weber State has given me a direction in life that I needed, as far as what I wanted to major in and the career that I wanted to pursue. I don’t think I would have had that unless I came to Weber State. JK: And what’s the career that you want to pursue? HO: Well, I am a history major with a public history emphasis. I’d like to go on to get my Master’s that would give me more experience in public history and, hopefully, to someday work in a museum, either behind the scenes doing archival work or curatorial work, or upfront giving tours. JK: Very nice. How long have you been in attendance at Weber State? When did you start? HO: I started, 2002, fall of 2002. JK: When will you graduate? HO: I graduate this May, spring 2007. JK: Exciting. As a senior graduating this May, what classes are you taking this semester? HO: I have public history, intro to public history, Dr. McKay, and senior seminar, and then an hour of directed reading credit. JK: Your directed reading, what is it in? HO: I’m not sure yet, I’ve been trying to meet with Dr. Sessions to talk about that. I’ll find out today actually, we have a meeting. JK: And what’s the topic of your senior paper? HO: I am doing interviews with OSS veterans, trying to—well I’m asking them about their lives after their OSS service. There’s been a lot of research done on OSS itself and the different missions and things people accomplish during the war. But I’m focusing on after that and the things they did after those amazing experiences, and how OSS influenced the rest of their lives. JK: Very interesting topic. Can you explain exactly what OSS is? HO: OSS was formed in World War II, it’s Office of Strategic Services. It was basically the CIA before the CIA. JK: How did you come up with this idea, this topic? HO: I read a book my freshman year at Salt Lake Community College called Sisterhood of Spies, and it was about women OSS agents, and the things they did during the war, and it just perked my interest. I’ve always been fascinated by it. JK: Do you have any advice that are going to be taking their senior seminar/ HO: I think it’s good to pick your topic before you actually take the course. That way you’re not trying to rush in those first few weeks of class to figure out what you want to do. It’s good to have ideas, I think, a semester beforehand, and to talk about them with different professors and kind of tweak it a little to find the right topic that you’d be able to research, to write primary documents to help you in your research. Things like that. Just so you can use the full semester of your senior semester to work on it. JK: Who would be your favorite professor? Do you have a favorite professor at Weber State? HO: Yes. Well, yes. I think Dr. McKay is my favorite professor. She’s helpful the most out of any other professor, she explains things in a way that is easy to understand, and she treats students as colleagues instead of students sometimes, and I really appreciate that, and I’ve appreciated her association. JK: Is there anything that you would change about Weber, change about your experience here at Weber State? HO: Only on a personal level. I didn’t go to school between the years 2003 and 2004, and I wish I would have gone that year and gotten done a year sooner, rather than taking it off. But as far as just the school, no, I think I’d leave it the same. JK: Is there anything that you wouldn’t change? HO: I wouldn’t change the experience I’ve had as a history major. Taking different courses from different professors. I think the history professors here are amazing and they care about the students, they care about their subjects, and they convey that in their lectures, in their association with different professor and different students. I really appreciated that. JK: Would you encourage other students that are going to be beginning college to attend Weber State? HO: Yes. I think Weber State doesn’t get the credit it deserves with the institution that it is. I think overall that it gives a good experience to students in general, but specifically freshman students, or even transferring students. I think Weber State gives them a good idea of what college should be, and how you can accomplish things at college. So, I think Weber State is a good place for students to come. JK: And what have you enjoyed most about coming to Weber State? HO: Again, probably being a history major, that’s been my greatest experience, just being in those classes, associating with different people, different professors, and learning about a subject that I love. JK: Would you give Weber State a grade for academics? HO: Yes, but I would split it. I think general education would be like a B, B-, just because it’s generals, I guess. But, for history, with my experience as a history major, I’d give an A-, they’re pretty much perfect. JK: Pretty much perfect and you’re only giving them an A-. HO: Well you can’t have an A, no one get A’s in college. JK: Okay, why did you give the grade of B, B- to generals? HO: I think sometimes generals are just looked at generals by students all the time, but it kind of puts a damper on them when the professors look at it that way too, and just treat the class and treat the students in the class as just you’re passing through, so I’m going to give this as little time as I need as possible. Just because you’re just doing this to get through your first two years of college. So, I think that kind of doesn’t, that’s why it gets a B-. It just lessens the general studies experience I think. JK: Have you had any hands on experience, as a student, that you think wouldn’t be available elsewhere/ HO: Well, not yet, but I will this semester in my public history class. We’re going to be able to have the opportunity to work on the museum here at Weber State, The Natural Science Museum. Just putting exhibits together and just making it better than it is. I don’t think there’s many places that would give that opportunity to students. I’ve heard graduate students don’t even get that opportunity, so I’m really excited about that, and I think that’s a Weber State exclusive. JK: What made you decide to come to Weber State? HO: Well, I’d been attending Salt Lake Community, I went there for a year, and then was given a tuition waiver here at Weber State. So I transferred, but I’d also heard from history teachers in junior high and high school that have attended Weber State, their history program was one of the best in the state, and that’s what I had always wanted to do. So that influenced my decision as well. JK: So from a young age. HO: Yes, eighth grade, actually, Mr. Dart. JK: Very nice. Thank you for your time, Heidi.