Internship Check-In | Annie McCarron
The pandemic has impacted our education experience in ways we could not have imagined. In these tough times with restrictions, budget cuts and availability, many of our journeys have not been what we anticipated at the beginning of our museum studies education. Summer internships were virtually non-existent, and many of us had to scramble to fill course requirements. Luckily, some of our cohort were able to move internships to the fall, and gain valuable experience in this new work from home environment. This week, I talk to Leora Bromberg and Lauren McAusland about their internships, imposter syndrome, and how they are faring working from home during the pandemic.
Lauren McAusland is working as the Interpretation Intern at the Royal Botanical Gardens.
AM: What is your current internship position and how did you go about getting it?
Lauren McAusland: As the interpretation intern, I am part of a small team that has one FT interpreter and a contract interpreter. I have worked a few different positions at the garden. I worked last summer to research the history of the garden and do public programming around their history, to bring a historical perspective to programming that focuses heavily on biology and botany. I found out about the internship through a former colleague who urged me to apply.
AM: What are some of the jobs you are completing in this role?
Lauren: I am developing content for their new online learning platform. Every week we put out two videos, a kids activity, a worksheet, and something directed towards adult learners. My specific jobs differ from week to week depending on what I am assigned. I also assist with programming events. I work from home to develop the online learning content, and do event prep. When the events are actually going on I do get to be on site. I am currently assisting with the Pumpkin trail, which is 300 carved jack-o-lanterns along a forest path, with interpreters stationed throughout to talk to people. I get to be a Pumpkin Scientist! A personal highlight for me is seeing how amazed kids are when they find out that pumpkins float!
AM: What subjects does the content you are developing cover?
Lauren: There is some history content but it is mostly botany. My undergraduate degree is in history and biology so I have a broad subject base which is great for working at the Botanical gardens.
AM: What have you found most challenging in your internship role? Have you encountered any difficulties working from home?
Lauren: Juggling multiple things in the same space can be challenging. Hard to sort school, internship, work-study, and my other job. Setting boundaries of what time is devoted to work and school and sticking to them is crucial. Its Important to remember that this is new for everyone, us students but also professionals who have been in this field for a long time! Before I could just walk by someone's desk if I needed clarification, and at first I felt bad having to send so many emails, but we are all learning and even seasoned museum professionals have had to make changes to how they work.
I also struggled a bit with imposter syndrome and undervaluing my skills. For the online programming, part of it is editing videos, which I have experience with but would never consider myself an expert, I just know from playing around on my own. At the gardens though only one other person knows how to edit movies, and now I edit my own and even help out my colleagues. It was a pleasant surprise at my own skills, and I would never even put it as a skill on my resume before but now I would! It's important not to undervalue your skills. Here is a video Lauren did about Sticky Seeds
AM: What are you excited to accomplish in your time as an intern?
Lauren: I am excited to get the opportunity to write text panels for holiday programming which I have never done before. I also want to work in the arts and culture sector so I appreciate the valuable programming experience.
AM: Tell me about what your internship role is, and how you came about getting the position:
Leora: I am completing my internship as the Education and Outreach Intern in the Bibliography and Print Room at the Robertson Davies Library at Massey College. This position runs in partnership with the Book History & Print Culture Collaborative Program which I am a part of. I started volunteering in the print room in January of 2019. I have always been intrigued by the work, but was intimidated by the space at the start of my masters. However, as soon as I took the plunge and started volunteering, I fell in love with the work, and for the next year I applied to be a printing apprentice and teaching fellow, a position that acts as a representative of the book history program in the print room. Due to the pandemic this apprenticeship opportunity dissolved but I wanted to continue my involvement in some way, and through my previous connections was able to arrange an internship there to further my work with the printing presses.
AM: What is one of your favourite aspects about working in the print?
Leora: As part of my work in the print room, I have been working with and reviving the Hebrew Type Collection, and have been wanting to make an exhibit highlighting this revived collection, as a way to promote it and share its fascinating story. My internship has evolved, with the exhibit as a secondary component, and my main responsibility right now is assisting the print room with building their online presence. I currently help with video tours and printing demonstration series, as they are working towards adapting their content to an online format. The print room is like a maker space for the 19th century library. While technically a library, the space feels like a museum because there are tours and they are preserving the artefacts — like a living history site!
AM: What have you found challenging about this experience?
The aspect of video production, I had not anticipated having to edit videos as part of this internship, but due to the overwhelming nature of COVID I stepped into a video editing role but it’s been a good challenge.
I also initially experienced imposter syndrome. Writing the big script for the video tour of the printing room that two experts in printing would be going over, I doubted my experience, and felt I did not have enough knowledge to write. Through this experience, I ended up realizing I knew a lot more than what I thought, which is cool, and the experience allowed me to identify what I didn’t know and fill in the gaps.
AM: Any advice for future people in your role?
Leora: You know more than you give yourself credit for! And don’t be afraid of what you don’t know, part of this experience is learning on the job. Be open minded to learning new things, don't doubt your knowledge or abilities. I think of myself as a student, but I realized that students are knowledgeable. When I talked to the experts and the print room they even said they wouldn't even use the term expert to describe themselves, because you should always be learning.
AM: Tell me a bit more about the Hebrew Collection that you are working with.
Leora: It’s called the Balinson Hebrew Type Collection but it is actually a Yiddish type collection. You can tell there were letters that were more used in Yiddish. Elongated aleph which is heavily used in Yiddish. It also highlights a history of Yiddish printing within Canada. This position has made me want to pursue future studies in Yiddish. Yiddish is considered a dead language, but it is seeing a huge revival right now in fringe communities. Duolingo is releasing Beta Yiddish in December!
AM: What interesting facts have you learned?
Leora: I have tons of fun printing facts. One is that all the uppercase letters stored in the uppercase and all the lowercase letters are stored in the lower case on a shelf, and that is where we get the term from today!
Lead type is toxic. Type medal is an alloy made from tin, lead, and antimony. Both lead and antimony are toxic, but make the alloy strong. The etymology of antimony is interesting, it comes from the french word antimoine, which means monk-killer or anti-monk, because they died from consuming antimony that was in the ink
(If you are interested in more fun facts check out the video Leora made as part of her internship).
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