Dan O'Shea '08
After taking my first anthropology class during my sophomore year, I was hooked, but it was the area of forensic anthropology that really fascinated me. I was determined to pursue a career in my newfound interest, but first I needed some hands-on experience. That's how I ended up interning in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Boston for the past two summers. Connecticut College's Career Enhancing Life Skills program (CELS) helped me continue with an internship that directly related to my academic studies.
The medical examiner is responsible for determining the cause and manner of death in suspicious cases throughout Massachusetts. I worked on four homicide cases, the recovery and reburial of a 500-year-old Native American skeleton and even several cold cases. Bone analysis often boils down to some basic observation, finding out what makes a bone different. When they examine human bones, anthropologists use the size and structure to estimate the subject's race, sex, height, weight, and whether they were right or left-handed. It's amazing to see how what we do in life really affects our body, even after death.
As a double major in English and anthropology, I'm excited about the prospect of editing a manuscript about forensic anthropology and also giving a talk on the subject on campus. Next year I hope to attend graduate school for forensic anthropology or archeology.