Luther junior Robert Muller interns at the Caesarea Ancient Harbor Excavation Project

On the coast of Israel in a city rooted in history, Luther College junior Robert Muller worked as a junior staff member with the Caesarea Ancient Harbor Excavation Project.

Muller, son of Kim and Eric Muller of Urbandale, Iowa, graduated from Urbandale High School in 2016. He plans to graduate from Luther in 2020 with majors in religion and Biblical languages.

As he partook in educational opportunities, Muller participated first-hand in a major archaeological excavation. He dug and sifted through the remains of Caesarea Maritima while he used radar mapping and analyzed pottery.

Muller experienced a new aspect of his studies that extended beyond a typical classroom setting. Muller recounts about his time with the project, “Through the excavation, I learned how to work hard-sometimes pick-axing up to eight hours a day-for something I am passionate about. The joy of discovering an ancient piece of work from a different time and different culture that gives us a look into peoples different than our own is like nothing I have experienced before.”

Approximately 10 percent of Luther students take an internship for academic credit each academic year. The Luther College Career Center assists students with their internship search through resume preparation, networking, online internship searches, career fairs, on-campus interviewing and connecting the student to alumni through the college’s Alumni Internship Program. Students also meet with a faculty adviser prior to the internship to create an internship learning plan that includes learning goals and assessment benchmarks.

An internship work supervisor assists in the process by writing an evaluation of the student at the end of the internship. Students also complete a self-reflection form to help finalize the learning experience.

A national liberal arts college with an enrollment of 2,005, Luther offers an academic curriculum that leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree in more than 60 majors and pre-professional programs. For more information about Luther visit the college’s website: http://www.luther.edu.