Jimmart (Jay) Amamio (center) with Samantha Papili (left) and Ethan Saylor, who were also funded as Undergraduate Community Engagement Summer Scholars, at the Symposium for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity.

Community outreach in Milford

Article by Tabitha Groh Photos by Leann Moore and courtesy of the Milford Museum October 06, 2025

UD undergraduate Jimmart Amamio helps the Milford Museum connect to the community

Nine years as a U.S. Marine prepared Jimmart (Jay) Amamio to spend the summer as an intern at a small-town museum, helping people discover their history. But how?

“The key word is service,” said Amamio, a senior comparative literature major pursuing a museum studies minor at the University of Delaware, who was funded as an undergraduate Community Engagement Summer Scholar to work with the Milford Museum in southern Delaware.

Jay Amamio worked with the Milford Museum’s collections — such as photos of a visit from the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team — which tell the city’s history.

Amamio’s journey from Millville High School in New Jersey to UD included an associate degree from a community college and being deployed to South America, the Middle East and the Pacific during his time in the U.S. Marine Corps.

“While I was in service with the Marine Corps there was a lot of community outreach with my fellow Marines,” Amamio said. “But in terms of organizations such as this, [it] is fairly new to me, how volunteers, staff and the board triangulate and put their collective efforts together to serve the guests.”

Connecting with the community has been mission critical for the museum since director Tom Summers came on board two years ago.

“Probably more than half the people who live here in Milford aren't from Milford,” said Summers, who directly supervised Amamio. “We have to go out to the people. We have to go outside the building. That’s what Jay's been working on.”

Beyond the typical daily tasks of supporting a museum — answering inquiries and preparing the collections for an upcoming move — Amamio has created an interactive activity for visitors to identify the city’s historic buildings from old photographs, and then recreate the photo with themselves in the picture. The work fits with his major in comparative literature.

“There's always written work that connects the present with the past, but seeing it firsthand through people is a wonderful experience,” Amamio said. “[It’s an] asset, the reconnection and that nostalgic feeling that we get from seeing an item or seeing a building, or an old photograph.”

Charles Hammond (left), president of the Milford Museum’s board of directors, with Jay Amamio at the museum’s annual Hippiefest community event.

For a region experiencing exponential development, the museum’s collections tell an intimate story that is unique to Milford — from the schoolchildren who lobbied to make the ladybug the state insect to the Milford Seven, who successfully integrated Milford High School in the 1960s.

“This partnership is an excellent example of the complexity of local communities,” said Leann Moore, associate director of the Community Engagement Initiative. “Rapidly changing landscapes drive home the need for partnerships across a wide range of experience.”

Amamio said that his work “helps connect the community with their history … and specifically how the people of Milford have influenced the history of the surrounding area and the state of Delaware.”

“Jay's history as a community and national servant in the Marines, combined with his desire to build his comparative literature and museum studies skills, was showcased in his ability to serve the needs of the museum and the diverse community in Milford,” Moore said.

About Community Engagement Summer Scholars

Community Engagement Summer Scholars is a long-standing summer program that provides highly motivated undergraduate students the opportunity to immerse themselves in community-based projects. The program is open to all undergraduate students and is administered by the Community Engagement Initiative, which works to facilitate and strengthen UD’s identity and impact as an engaged research university and community partner throughout the state of Delaware and beyond.