Because of my Internship, I am…: Interning at the Smithsonian #8
Because of my internship, I am more aware of how the Smithsonian works. Like so many students in public history and related fields, in the back of my brain has always been the idea of “how great would it be to work at the Smithsonian?” It’s pretty nice, even if I’m currently just interning. But just because it’s nice doesn’t mean that it’s practical right now. Through my internship I’ve learned that the Smithsonian appreciates hiring people who have significant experience already in their fields, and as an intern if I want to work with the Smithsonian, I should leave and get experience elsewhere before coming back. In addition, I have a better understanding of how segmented each of the divisions and museums at the Smithsonian are. Collaboration is possible and welcome, but even just things like my supervisor moving from one education department to a different education department required her to swap and change a lot more than you might think for an internal move.
Because of my internship I’ve also doubled (maybe tripled) my digital project portfolio. I’ve added four projects where I was the primary creator, and then 24 projects that I collaborated on. So much that I decided to add a whole new section just for collaborative projects I’ve done work on in my portfolio. I’ve also really enjoyed all of the free benefits of working with the Smithsonian including access to internal job listings, employee trainings, webinars, and networking events.
I feel like I’ve also gained considerable skills in the Smithsonian’s proprietary “Learning Labs” systems, which is a double edged sword because my next adventures will likely not require this knowledge, but I’ve also practice learning and getting skilled at a program, which prospective employers might be able to relate to their own proprietary systems.
While I’ve gained a lot from interning with the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives Education department, I believe I have also meaningfully contributed to their traveling trunks programs. I have tested and critiqued trunks, created expansions to the materials in various digital formats, and I have even brainstormed the next steps for tactile humanities education at the Smithsonian through a current in-development project.
For fun I think I’ll also my top 3 favorite things I’ve done during my internship.
- Developing the “Can AI Write an Essay? – Flights of Friction Facts and Fiction” Learning Lab. I had so much fun taking the idea of “what is information literacy today?” and coming up with a way of teaching students about tech and history wrapped up in one package. I really enjoyed coming up with how to explain it in a student friendly way and creating graphics that show off what I’m doing, while also incorporating AI to subtly show how both AI text and images are still flawed.
- Helping work a field trip at the Hirschhorn Museum in DC. Early on during my internship, the project that eventually turned into the Reading the Canvas trunk and American Art on the Margins Learning Lab, was actually a field trip called Art History Mystery and so to get a better understanding of how the original concept for the trunk evolved, the team invited me to help with a field trip and write notes and critiques before I eventually added my own expansion. It was also fun actually seeing what students get out of our work, since the majority of what I’ve done with the Smithsonian has been very much aimed at students that we don’t directly interact with.
- Coding student evaluation forms at the Library of Congress. Last summer I needed to go into DC to get set up within the Smithsonian security systems in order to finish my on-boarding, and after I got all that sorted I had a bit of a wait before my train home so I got a reading card at the Library of Congress so I could transcribe and code some student evaluation forms while I waited. It was so fun for a change of scenery that I wouldn’t have planned for if not for having to go into DC for some administrative tasks.
I’m really proud of the work I’ve accomplished, especially after some very troubling months this past year. I am extremely thankful for the mentorship and support of my team: Sara Cardello, Jennifer Rosenfeld, Caroline Morales, Bindi Chauhan, Joel Richard, and Wildalys Quiñones. Thank you.
