The Quince Orchard Experience

Sometimes you agree to participate in a project without actually understanding what the full process entails. My first month interning for the Quince Orchard Project was an eye-opening experience. Prior to starting I had the privilege of meeting with Jason Green the organizer of the QOP during the Fall semester therefore I was able to start interning before the Spring semester began. I had a brief understanding of the QOP, I knew Green was attempting to film a documentary about his childhood community. Green is a masterful salesman, the type of person who can sell mashed potatoes to a potato farmer. Therefore, the idea of working with someone with such impressive social skills was appealing to me. At the very least being part of the process could help me sharpen my social skills and help with networking.  In January we met to discuss the overall project as well as my tasks for the semester.

Green explained to me the massive enterprise which made up the Quince Orchard Project. There were several layers to the QOP. Not only was he looking to finishing making a documentary on the Quince Orchard community, but he was also exploring the idea of turning his family property (which includes a church, schoolhouse and cemetery) into a museum. It was rather confusing and I wasn’t sure whether Jason really had a firm idea on how he would finish his goals but his enthusiasm was enough to calm my nerves.

Green is a very organized individual, which should come as no surprise to anyone because he once worked on Obama’s campaign staff. During this meeting Green laid out a number of tasks that I would be responsible for during the course of the semester. These tasks included searching grants for the site and filming project, scanning documents, mailing packages and researching individuals from the Quince Orchard community. As someone who had no experience in searching for grants I was a little overwhelmed by the idea but I tried to take it in stride. I also knew that this wasn’t my first task, so I would have time to familiarize myself with the process before I was expected to complete the task.

For the first couple of weeks I was given fairly simple tasks. I received two folders of documents to scan and fifteen packages to mail to individuals who had donated to the film project. I scanned the countless documents which ranged from newspaper articles about the community, old pictures of the site to church food order forms. Green informed me that I would be expected to read the documents and write a brief abstract about each paper. Though it was time consuming, it was not difficult. When the semester started I began to start learning about the process of searching for grants. After I informed Dr. Blair about my tasks, she introduced me to Irene Munster one of the head librarians at USG. Mrs. Munster showed me the basics of searching for grants using the library database. Although it was a difficult process I was told by various parties that this was a skill that could help me later on in life. It was an busy first month but at least I began before the semester started so my schedule wasn’t very busy.