New Steinmetz Family Foundation Museum Fellow at Corinth

The American School is pleased to welcome Taylor Cwikla as the new Steinmetz Family Foundation Museum Fellow at Corinth Excavations.

Taylor Cwikla became the third Steinmetz Fellow at Corinth in October of 2023, succeeding Fellows Eleni Gizas (2019-2022) and Katie Petrole (2014-2018). A graduate of Florida State University’s Master’s program of Classical Archaeology, Taylor is a trained archaeologist with excavation experience at Cetamura del Chianti in Italy and Corinth, Greece. She has experience teaching students on excavation at the Cetamura field school and in the classroom, for various ancient history and mythology courses.

Prior to becoming the Steinmetz Fellow, Taylor taught ninth-grade Ancient World History at Currey Ingram Academy, a K-12 school that serves students with learning differences. There she differentiated instruction to support students with diverse learning profiles and developed an ancient world history curriculum to promote student-led inquiry. Beyond the classroom, she volunteered as a docent at the Nashville Parthenon to lead educational programs for the museum’s varied visitor population. 

Soon after she arrived to Corinth in October, she put her passion to practice as she participated in the celebrations of International Archaeology Day organized by Corinth Excavations staff, Manolis Papadakis and Nicol Anastasatou, in collaboration with the EFAKOR (Εφορεία Αρχαιοτήτων Κορινθίας) and SEAK (Σύλλογος Επαγγελματιών Αρχαίας Κορίνθου).

In early January, Taylor attended the AIA conference in Chicago to present on the free K-12 educational materials available through Corinth Excavations, from lesson plans to virtual field trips. Since she returned to Greece, Taylor has conducted multiple virtual field trips for groups from third grade to seniors, from the USA to Azerbaijan. 

Taylor is eager to keep contributing to Corinth Excavation’s database of educational resources and to design new outreach events, both for local and global audiences. As an educator she recognizes the time constraints of teaching within a K-12 curriculum, and as an archaeologist she is ready to collaborate with teachers to personalize lesson plans, classroom activities, and virtual field trips to bring the archaeology of ancient Corinth to classrooms world-wide.