Joy Leland often asks her elementary and high school art students to list 20 things that they would like to accomplish in their lifetimes. No matter how impossible the goals may seem, she encourages students to write them down.

"I want them to learn that you can make things come true if you really want them to happen," she said.

This picture of Leland was taken at Luxor Temple in 1998.

After all, when Leland was growing up in Vermont, her dream of taking part in an Egyptian archaeological dig seemed pretty far-fetched. Yet today she regularly finds herself in ancient tombs deep beneath the Egyptian desert, making drawings of sarcophagi (stone coffins) and mummies and the ornate jewelry and pottery that were part of burial rituals nearly 4,000 years ago.

"I never would have believed it was possible for me to do something like that," she said.

Leland, who graduated from the University of Hartford in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in art history, works full-time as a public school art teacher in the small town of Orford, N.H. As the only art instructor at the Orford School, she teaches students in grades 1 through 12.

But during vacations or short leaves of absence from her teaching job, Leland trades the tranquillity of small-town New England for the mysteries of ancient Egypt. As a freelance archaeological illustrator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Leland makes detailed drawings of artifacts that have been unearthed in Egyptian archaeological excavations. Her illustrations are then published by the museum in archaeological journals, books, and scholarly publications.

To date, Leland has made seven trips to Egypt -- four for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and three for the University of Toronto, where she began her career in archaeological illustration.

Leland specializes in "in situ" illustrations -- drawings of artifacts that have not been moved from their original positions and locations. For the past three years, she has been drawing artifacts found in the tomb of an Egyptian woman named Sit-Werut, who lived during the Middle Kingdom period, about 1780 B.C. The woman, the wife of a nobleman, was buried with ornate beaded jewelry and more than 100 pieces of pottery, many of which were filled with food.

Sit-Werut's burial included several coffins and sarcophagi. First was an outer sarcophagus made of limestone, holding an inner coffin made of cedar. Within the cedar coffin was an anthropoid sarcophagus, me

Leland works on an illustration in the tomb of Sit-Werut in Dahshur, Egypt.

aning one in the shape of a human body. It held the mummy of the actual remains.

Leland's job of producing detailed illustrations of the burial was made considerably more difficult by the fact that the heavy lid of the cedar coffin had collapsed at some point, probably during an earthquake, and crushed everything beneath it. The resulting ruins included thousands of tiny beads from jewelry that had been on the mummy. "I can't over emphasize what a mess it was," Leland said.

Over the last three years, Leland has spent a total of 10 weeks working in the tomb. Her job is definitely not for the claustrophobic. The tomb, which is 13 meters (about 43 feet) underground, is about 5 feet high, 6 feet wide, and 10 to 12 feet long. "It is kind of scary being that far down," Leland said.

The tomb of Sit-Werut is located in Dahshur, about 20 miles south of the Great Pyramids at Giza. It was found in a "mastaba field," or cemetery, associated with the pyramid of King Senwosret III. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has been conducting an excavation of the pyramid site, and Sit-Werut's tomb was discovered during the course of that excavation.

Now that she has finished working in the tomb, Leland's next task is to do reconstruction drawings that will attempt to recreate what Sit-Werut's burial looked like when it was intact.

Leland got her start in archaeological illustration as an undergraduate, with the help of Associate Professor of Art History Margaret Finch. It was Finch who encouraged her to get a copy of The Field Work Opportunities Bulletin, published by the Archaeological Institute of America. The Bulletin contained an advertisement from the University of Toronto seeking volunteers to take part in an Egyptian dig. Finch helped Leland make the arrangements.

"That's how I got my foot in the door to work as an illustrator," Leland said. "It wouldn't have happened without her (Finch)." Leland still has a close relationship with Finch, whom she visits on her way to or from meetings at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Finch specializes in Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance art, fields that closely match Leland's interests.

"Dr. Finch ignited in me a passion for art history," Leland said. "She is a teacher who is passionate about her discipline."

Finch said the feeling is mutual. "Having students like Joy -- that's one of the things that makes my job so rewarding," Finch said.

Joy Leland stands at the entrance to the underground tomb of Sit-Werut, an Egyptian woman whose remains are believed to date back to about 1780 B.C. The Red Pyramid of Sneferu can be seen in the background.

Leland started out as a student in the Hartford Art School. What she really wanted, however, was to major in art education, a program that the Art School did not offer. So, after three semesters, she transferred to the University of Vermont.

She soon realized that she missed being part of a campus community. At the University of Vermont she lived in an off-campus apartment because of a shortage of on-campus housing. And she missed the intimacy and personal attention that a smaller university like the UofH was able to offer.

So, after a few semesters in Vermont and a semester off to participate in her first Egyptian dig, Leland came back to Hartford -- this time as an art history major in the College of Arts and Sciences, with a minor in drawing.

"I never regretted going back," Leland said. "I had personal relationships with all the people I worked with at the University of Hartford, and I really enjoyed that." The art history program gave Leland a well-rounded background that serves her well today in her teaching job, she said.

"As an art teacher, I have a much richer educational background because of the choices I've made," Leland said.

She probably will not be going to Egypt in 2000. This summer, she has more important plans. In June she will marry Keith Michelson, an architectural designer and builder. She and Michelson recently bought a Vermont house built in the 1890s, which she describes as "an old Victorian beast." The couple is "taking it down to its skeleton" and restoring it.

"We've got an archaeological excavation of our own going on," Leland joked. In the process of restoring the house, Leland and Michelson have discovered a farmer's diary from 1876. Leland plans to use her skills in historical reconstruction to dig up more information about the farmer and his family and pass it on to the local historical society.

Meanwhile, she continues to thrill her students with stories of her adventures in Egypt -- stories of ancient burials, of a society preoccupied with death and its rituals.

"It really grabs my kids," Leland said. "I tell them how I always wanted to work on an Egyptian archaeological dig, even as a kid from a middle-class family in Vermont. I tell them that anything is possible."