History Intern Explores Archives at Weston Historical Society

Isabella DeFrancesco’s internship prepares her to inspire students as a history teacher

Key Highlights

• Sacred Heart University senior Isabella DeFrancesco, a history major in the five-year education program, completed an archival internship at the Weston Historical Society
• Researched and documented the lives of Weston’s Revolutionary War soldiers, contributing to local preservation efforts and community initiatives
• Gained hands-on experience using archival and University resources while preparing to become a history teacher focused on bringing local history into the classroom

Sacred Heart University senior Isabella DeFrancesco ’26 spent her spring semester before graduation interning at the Weston Historical Society in the nearby town of Weston.

The history major, who is in SHU’s five-year education program, worked as an archival intern. Her responsibilities included combing through archives and curating research and information.

She worked primarily on documenting the lives of the town’s Revolutionary War soldiers, collecting information such as birth and death date, line of service, and in what regiment and companies they served.

The Sons of the American Revolution plans to dedicate a tree to one of the soldiers, and DeFrancesco has been compiling biographies of the top two candidates for a committee to review.

In addition to studying the town’s Revolutionary War history, the Sacred Heart senior spent time at the historical society identifying influential families in Fairfield County’s past. One of those was the Coley family, and DeFrancesco was interested in the fact that the Weston Historical Society is located on what used to be Coley property.

Intrigued, she dug deeper, using resources available at SHU. “I was able to utilize the Sacred Heart University interlibrary database to have supplemental reading to support my research,” she said.

DeFrancesco’s upbringing was rooted in learning about history, so being a history major and pursuing an internship with a historical society were both logical choices. “My mom’s a big history lover,” she said. “When I was growing up, she’d always have a history documentary on. So, when I was looking at what I wanted to teach, I knew social studies and history were areas that would always keep me interested.”

She found out about the historical society internship from her history professor, and she took advantage of Sacred Heart’s Center for Career & Professional Development services to help with her résumé as she prepared to apply for the position.

DeFrancesco thinks history is fascinating, and her internship confirmed that it can be just as intriguing at the hometown level as it is at the national and international levels.

SHU classes reinforced that same idea. She visited Bridgeport’s Seaside Park with one of her classes, and the professor talked about the rich history of Bridgeport, once a major manufacturing center producing sewing machines and brass products, and perhaps best known for one of its most famous residents, the great showman and politician P.T. Barnum.

DeFrancesco is excited about the chance to become a teacher and bring local history into a classroom. “I think there are a lot of ways to incorporate the type of work that I’m doing now into my future career,” she said.