Reflections and Takeaways-Be Creative!

 During the summer, I had the opportunity to work with Hope To You Community Church, where I helped with a project to collect the church's history through Oral History. Looking back at the Oral Internship with Hope To You Community Church, it was a fantastic opportunity that opened many theoretical doors into potential career paths I had not thought about. Even though this internship was not a typical internship that worked within a museum or archives, it was an experience that I will always be thankful for the chance. Even though this internship was in a small community and might not have made many connections within the field of Public History, the skills I learned were far more valuable as it is something that I can show.

As the final takeaway from this Summer internship, venturing into a project different from the norm is not inherently bad, as the skills developed will be universally helpful. The ability to have some talk to you, listening closely as well as recording it, and putting the pieces together seems easy. Still, from my experience, it was initially difficult to come up with the right questions that would develop into a casual conversation and not into an interrogation. However, over time, I learned how to write the question and how to keep the conversation going. It does not seem as much, but looking at this summer internship in a larger view, the internship helped me connect with people and the past.

Although I did not have a person to teach me the ropes on what to do, self-learning, I think, is what I enjoyed the most, with the rise of self-employment. This was an experience that I hope everyone can get. Whether it is in an internship with a direct supervisor or one that is present to check your progress but is hands-off any sort of internship is something that is whole heartily an experience that I was thankful for experiencing.