Arthur Ross Gallery
Sunny Hua
“I created questions, conducted interviews with staff members and curators, and wrote blogs for ARG's website. I assisted in the organization of powerpoints and documents for the new president’s arrival. I've written research reports on strategies to increase the Gallery's physical and digital accessibility. I proposed changes in gallery facilities, website design, social media practices, and community initiatives to demonstrate dedication to increased accessibility… This internship was definitely above and beyond what I expected. I was included in staff meetings, new projects, and important tasks. I was invited and encouraged to propose new ideas, as well as receiving the appropriate assistance and instructions…I was introduced to not only marketing matters, but also knowledge on art-related research, critique, and administration.”
ArtWell
Gemma Hong
"Besides my typical duties in social media and website management and copy writing, I also had the opportunity to work with children at the Play on Philly summer camp as a teaching artist…I haven’t had time to sit down and draw for a long minute, and this position also happened to help remind me of the joy that art can bring."
Historic Germantown
John Faller
"My main project since I have started has been to document the green spaces and natural amenities of each of the eighteen historic sites and museums throughout the Germantown neighborhood. I visit the sites, take photos of the spaces, and speak with the site directors and other staff about what amenities are offered to visitors of the natural areas.…The archival research and writing process was definitely the best part of my internship. I was able to employ the research and writing skills that I have developed in the classroom, and the work that I completed was much more fruitful than school assignments. I felt like my efforts were appreciated by the people that I worked with and the larger Germantown community, as I was able to provide some insight on a seldom known piece of local history."
Brooke Giddon
"Primarily, my job has been to do genealogical research for an online exhibition about a 1913 pamphlet called A Souvenir of Germantown. The Souvenir was published 50 years after the Emancipation Proclamation as a way to re-envision the narrative of Philadelphia’s history to include the expanding African-American population. It serves as a Black business directory for Germantown, but also features images, statistics about the community, and a personal touch…The best parts of the internship were definitely the people and the neighborhood. Everyone at Historic Germantown was so passionate about what they did, which made it a very pleasant environment to work in. I also really enjoyed becoming familiar with Germantown, as it is an incredibly historic and charming neighborhood that I likely would have never spent time in had I not done this internship."
Institute of Contemporary Art
Helena Muñoz
"My experience at the Institute of Contemporary Art was truly life-changing this past summer… I helped make mockups of the upcoming show this fall, as well as type up excel spreadsheets of needed inventory, book collections, and supplies. I also learned a lot about how museums prepare for upcoming exhibitions."
Emma Poveda
"I have had the pleasure of assisting Brittany Clottey, the recently appointed Public Engagement Project Manager & Administrative Coordinator, in restructuring or “revamping” the ICA Student Board (ICASB). I have assisted Brittany in developing a survey which will be administered to ICASB alums and current members, where they will find a space to vocalize their thoughts and experiences with the board. Via the survey, we will assess what kind of professional development and experiential learning goals are important to people, and how we can build out an authentic community network that the ICASB is a part of. I conducted research into the archives of the board, locating articles, blogposts, and programs published either by or about the board over the past ten years."
Kelly Writers House
Wes Matthews (Summer Workshop for Young Writers)
"I had the privilege of taking on important projects such as giving individual edits to student essays. This was a lofty task given that our students wrote a combined 60 personal essays during the course of our workshop, but it was so worthwhile to read their work. Additionally, I was able to lead group discussions about assigned reading material on a couple of occasions… Towards the end of the internship, I worked on compiling student works for the annual Summer Workshop anthology."
Lucas Schrier (Editorial)
"The magic of the Writers House is in the diversity of jobs and tasks that animate it and in the end, unify around the common goal of preserving the Writers House as a physical and a living, human institution. These jobs and tasks include finances, facilities, event programming, editing (in my case), and much more! My SHIP experience helped ease away some of the clouds of uncertainty looming post-Penn. I now see myself working in an editorial setting for a few years after graduation."
Kislak Center/University Archives
Michaela Hampton
"The best part of my internship was assisting with and taking part in the manuscript skills course… I appreciated the opportunity to practice and improve my material handling skills, and to expand my knowledge of manuscript studies. These opportunities to gain experience were not limited to the manuscript skills class but were always present during work in the reading room and with the inventorying of materials."
Sophie Mwaisela
"I have been cataloging some of this inventory [200,000 pieces from the Gotham Book Mart] and I have been able to see some amazing things! As a history major who is generally interested in any humanities, I love looking at all the poetry, art, and political writings. A lot of the pieces are rare and valuable, and I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity to work alongside this material… I have always loved history and political theory, which made the project as a whole exciting, as it was truly a collection of historical artifacts. However, the exposure to all the poetry and literature reignited a love for English I had forgotten since entering college. In general, this project reaffirmed my love for the humanities; it was truly an interdisciplinary assortment of art, literature, language, history, politics, and so much more."
Charlie Xie
"During my internship at the Kislak Center, I served as a public service librarian. I assisted researchers in accessing special collections, rare books and manuscripts. I also occasionally helped the curators at the Kislak Center catalog newly acquired items. At the University Archive, I mainly catalogued recent acquisitions. I also conducted some research on Penn faculties and alums...my internship at the Kislak Center and the University Archives have both been incredibly helpful because they enabled me to explore Penn related resources that were previously obscure to me. I’ve already incorporated some primary sources into my own research."
National Constitution Center
Lucia Gotera
"I was tasked to create resources and materials for one of the four summer teacher workshops offered by the NCC. I chose to assist in the planning and running of the Bill of Rights Virtual Workshop that runs from July 6th to July 8th. While the workshop was in session, I collected any resources and materials shared by our participants, speakers, and through tours to include in learning modules I will create and present to our teachers and Education Department in August. As part of the learning modules I’ve also researched additional primary sources relating to the Bill of Rights that would be helpful for educators to share with their students."
Tristan Ly
"Through speaking to staff members and the aforementioned demographic data compilation and analysis, I have been able to gain further insights into important ideas and perspectives on education accessibility…Getting to speak with educators and gain perspective on their work was really enlightening, and that in combination with getting to work with them and the scholars that were brought in for the speaker events were my favorite parts of the internship; I never would have gotten this kind of opportunity otherwise…. This internship at the National Constitution Center has been a highlight of my summer and year, and I’m very glad I decided to apply."
Sophie Quaglia
"My focus this summer has been on the virtual Voting Rights workshop, which will take place during the last week of July. In order to help with these institutes, our daily tasks include managing the google classroom, creating scholar bios, daily and weekly schedules, assembling the teacher bios, ordering snacks for the in-person institutes, and lots of research on the topic of our specific institute so that we can provide the teachers with resources to supplement what they’ll learn from the tours and scholar talks...In addition to everything I learned through my research and preparation for the institute, I was amazed by how much I learned from the scholar talks that occurred during each day of the institutes. Between the scholar talks and being able to participate in daily tours of the exhibition spaces, I went from being someone who avoided history classes in college to someone who would come home and endlessly discuss Section 2 of the 14th Amendment."
One Art
Oscar Vasquez
"I’m extremely grateful to have been given the opportunity to directly work in a non-profit organization that prioritizes creative methods for community building, largely in part of my own blossoming as a creative artist myself who centers Black and Brown experiences in my work...Another ongoing project that I’ve taken on involves interviewing artists who have large-scale murals and artwork on display at the center. During my interviews, I ask about their personal history as a professional artist, their creative process, and the reasons that ignited their interest in working with One Art Community Center. Through these interviews, I’ve been able to successfully hone my journalistic inquiring skills, as well as receive unmatched advice and mentorship from successful artists who have made it in such a precarious industry."
Jasper Zhu
"I’ve been working on a series of different posters for the One Art Community Center in Wester Philly. While meeting with Malaika, my supervisor for the summer, she expressed her concern for audience retention after events. She noticed that after large scale events with 1000+ people, many people wouldn’t remember One Art or realize what venue they were in even after having a good time. We quickly realized that this concern was a perfect way to combine my skill sets in marketing and art. After settling on a plan to create a series of six posters to be put up throughout the premises, I got to work designing the posters. I came up with the idea of featuring six unique and interesting features of the space and developing a movie advertisement styled poster series, each with different styles of art."
Opera Philadelphia
Juliet Dempsey (Community Initiatives)
"I am making resources for the Opera’s dress rehearsal programs which are specific viewings of the productions and various programs for Philadelphia public school students."
Blake Velick (Marketing/Digital Content)
"In the Communications department, one of my main projects has been gathering and formatting artists’ bios and headshots for the O22 Festival program. My other ongoing project is the organization of thousands of opera pictures from the 1970s through the early 2000s. By sorting all these photos into folders for specific productions and opera artists, I will be able to create an accessible archive with a digital list of all the content. Lastly, I am working on a photo blog of the 2021-2022 Backstage Pass season, a program that invites local Philadelphia students to learn about careers in the performing arts, to encourage enrollment in the fall… One project that I particularly enjoyed was coding open ended survey responses from Opera Philadelphia’s 2022 production of Rigoletto. This allowed me to learn about the demographics and preferences of Opera Philadelphia’s audiences."
Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Henry McDaniel
"I was an intern in the Penn Museum’s Center for Cultural Heritage, working under the supervision of Dr. Brian Daniels. The Cultural Center monitors global conflicts and works to protect cultural heritage workers at risk, and preserve landmarks/sites of cultural significance. I worked on doing this in Ukraine, in order to hold the Russian military accountable for their destruction of museums, monuments, churches, and other notable sites in Ukraine…The best part of my internship was certainly becoming immersed in a field I hardly knew existed, and discovering that cultural heritage preservation could be a possible career path for me. It was a joy being at the Penn Museum, a place I had been involved with in various capacities for many years. It is a second home for me now."
PennSound
Savannah Sparks
"I have been doing a lot of different tasks relating to updating and expanding the archive on the PennSound website. I have done a few things that I was expecting, like adding new recordings to the website, updating pages, and logging and tracking hundreds of cassette tapes and recordings. Some things I have done that I did not expect were learning HTML, recording a book reading session for a student project, and doing extensive google searches to find more information on some of the recordings that we have been sent...When I had applied to this internship, I had written about how inaccessible the recordings and podcasts on websites were to those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Now, I'm getting to help possibly remedy some of the problems I had written about by creating transcripts of podcasts...The best part of the internship was getting to be in the Kelly Writers House with such an incredibly welcoming and sociable staff. I enjoyed having weekly meetings with the full staff of the Writers House and being able to interact with different staff even if I was not working directly with them."
Play On Philly
Chaily Derecskey
"I assisted with the high school wind and percussion ensemble, which includes every non-string instrument. I usually floated around the room while the students played, stopping to help anyone who is struggling to learn their part. Sometimes, I play along with them on a tuba or euphonium. This was probably my favorite part of my day; the students in that ensemble were all extremely talented, and since they were the oldest, they were able to play the most challenging and complex music… In the afternoon, I worked with the middle school percussionists. There were only four students, so it was very exciting to get to teach such a small group...This was by far my favorite job I have ever worked...For Play on Philly specifically, the internship made me feel like I was actually doing meaningful work and making a difference in peoples’ lives, which I had never truly felt at my past jobs. I think the POP internship is especially valuable for Penn students because there aren’t as many opportunities to work a music-related job or internship as there are in other professional fields." Read more about Chaily's experience at POP in Penn Today.
University of Pennsylvania Art Collection
Zoe Vaz
"I learned first hand the work that goes into dismantling an art exhibit and installing an art exhibit. I learned how to condition report different works of art and how different art works require different forms of art handling. Though I have always loved art exhibits, I never thought about the process of installing them and dismantling them. The second big project I worked on was assisting in finding art options for Penn’s new president. I assisted in putting together a powerpoint of different options selected by my director and going to help condition report artwork that was going to be removed from the house...I was able to work directly with art work and behind the scenes with art management in addition to interacting with art-loving strangers."
University of Pennsylvania Press
Madison Holler
"I have been able to watch books be built piece by piece, having a hand in some of this process. I learned the ins and outs of editing indexes for these large academic manuscripts (I never knew that there were two ways to alphabetize them!), receiving help from my supervisors in every step. Additionally, I learned how to check the first proofs of a manuscript as well as how to compare the author’s edited first proofs to a later, corrected version of second proofs. I have also been able to learn the process of submitting books to the Library of Congress!"
Tiffany Park
"I’ve been keeping in touch with the authors, editors, and reviewers of upcoming academic books — gathering and organizing their information. I’ve also been shadowing different meetings for the department. This includes more technical meetings regarding the Press’s digital library systems and ways to optimize its process, graphic design meetings for book covers, monthly faculty board meetings where professors discuss their notes on upcoming manuscripts, and general board meetings where everyone checks in on their work."
Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History
Ari Burstein
"I have been doing a combination of curatorial tasks and research into future exhibits. The curatorial tasks are rather straightforward, and usually involve checking artifact inventory and taking walk-throughs around the museum’s exhibits to ensure that everything is where it should be. On the other hand, the research has been a little more difficult, though I have definitely enjoyed it more than my curatorial responsibilities. The main research topic that I have been looking into is the history of Jewish soldiers in the U.S. military and their relationship with Kashrut."
Jiayi Li
"I helped processing artifacts that would be donated to the museum by Ben Schneiderman, a renowned professor of computer science and the inventor of the hyperlink, whose family had an extensive involvement in multiple worldwide Jewish affairs in the past century including the Israel-Palestine conflicts and the campaign to help Soviet Jews emigrating out of the country. …I’ve acquired substantial skills in conducting genealogical research as I think I’m proficient with accessing and utilizing relevant online databases at this point. Moreover, I’ve learned much on how a museum/non-profit cultural institution operates. As interns, we were frequently invited to join staff meetings in which we learned about the responsibilities and daily tasks of each department as well as certain aspects of the museum’s strategic plans for development in the near future."
WXPN
Julia Polster (World Cafe Programming)
"[I have been] primarily working on daily deliverables, such as rundown documents and playlist spreadsheets, compiling artist research, and sending broadcast notification emails. I’ve been working to glean as much as I can about the radio industry from this methodical work. The artist research I’ve been compiling may have been the most informative, as I’ve learned quite a bit about the press cycle surrounding an album release and grown familiar with reliable sources for music news. My other responsibilities are primarily an exercise in precision and expediency: I utilize a bookings calendar and broadcast calendar together to keep WXPN’s records, affiliate stations, and artists’ management up to date regarding the daily happenings of the show."
Phoebe Weintraub (Morning Show)
"My day starts earlier than most jobs, at 6:30 AM. I have multiple responsibilities, but the job I always start with is writing stories for my supervisor to read on air. The night before I prepare a list of 8-12 possible stories for the next day, each with a one-two sentence summary, similar to a headline. My supervisor then examines the list I have prepared and by the next morning, has a list of stories he would like me to continue to write. While I am at work in the studio, I research the assigned stories by reading multiple articles about them across media platforms. Then, I take those articles and summarize the story in my own words, but in a much more concise way. I turn the story into a small paragraph, or a 30-second segment that my supervisor then broadcasts. The subjects of the stories include music and entertainment, local community and art, and health and technology…[I also research] upcoming events in Philadelphia and nearby areas of New Jersey of interest to WXPN, working on the weekly assignment of Throwback Thursdays… and researching artists and people involved in arts in Philadelphia for my supervisor to interview."