HUMANITIES INTERNS: SIX FROM '06 INFILTRATE PHILADELPHIA'S CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

While many Haverford students leave the Philadelphia area at the culmination of the academic year—most eager to travel around the world, experience a new city, or return home for a few months of R&R—six rising seniors prepared to spend their summer weekdays working at organizations in Philadelphia where they had secured internships through a new program sponsored by Haverford's John B. Hurford Humanities Center. Lewis Bauer '06, Emma Chubb '06, Meredith Foote '06, Sarah Hallenbeck '06, Emily Kline '06, and James Weissinger '06 are spending their summers working for six different organizations that Emily Cronin, Program Coordinator for the Hurford Humanities Center, and Richard Freedman, Director of the Hurford Humanities Center and Professor of Music, hope will provide the students with opportunities to utilize the tools they have gained from their educations in the humanities. Individually, the students are performing marketing tasks, archiving and investigating two-centuries-old documents, writing biographies, researching, editing, and learning how to survive in a 9-to-5 job.

According to Freedman, the roots of the internship program—which secured internship spots at The Johnson House Historic Site and Underground Railroad Stop, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Arden Theatre Co., The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Library Company of Philadelphia, and The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe this year—sprouted from the mind of English Professor Kim Benston and other faculty members who comprised the 2003-2004 Steering Committee (including Professors Freedman, Maris Gillette, Laura McGrane, Hank Glassman, and Israel Burshatin). Benston wanted the Center to develop an internship program that could give students“opportunities to think of themselves as humanists.” After the Center secured funding to pay each intern a stipend for their work, Cronin and Freedman began soliciting internship proposals from various organizations in the Philadelphia region where they had contacts. They looked for internships that would allow“committed student humanists to discover the ways in which a liberal arts experience can contribute to cultural or scholarly institutions,” said Freedman. Once they had six enticing internship proposals, Cronin and Freedman secured internship spots with the organizations and began the application process at Haverford.

Bauer, who is interning with The Johnson House Historic Site and Underground Railroad Stop, was immediately attracted to the Center's call for applications:“Having been given the opportunity this fall to direct a student seminar by the Humanities Center, I kept my eyes peeled for other programs the Center was getting off the ground. I didn't have to ‘peel' too hard, though, as this [internship program] and all of the other programs were well publicized all year.” The Center received about three times as many applications as they had spots for, but Cronin says that between one-half and two-thirds of the students who applied were given the chance to interview with one of the host organizations, who ultimately chose their interns. While applicants could express preference for an internship at one of the organizations through a ranking system, Cronin and Freedman decided which applications to forward to which organizations based on the applicant's skill sets, his or her quality of writing, the uniqueness of the application, and the student's depth of academic experience. Five of this year's six participating students stated that they were placed at their first-choice organizations.

The six students have varying job descriptions and responsibilities at their respective organizations, but each is finding that his or her background in the humanities has helped them succeed at some of Philadelphia's most well-respected cultural institutions.

Foote, and English major who will graduate next spring with a certification in secondary education, interns for Philadelphia's Arden Theatre Co., where she organizes files, helps organize the theatre's subscription solicitations, and performs various marketing tasks for the company. She applied for the internship because“it looked like an interesting opportunity.” While she doesn't know if she will pursue a career in the administrative world of theatre productions, she appreciates that the internship provides her with“new experiences. This is just something different for me.”

Bauer, who is working toward an English major with a minor in philosophy, didn't rate The Johnson House Historic Site as his first-choice organization on his application. Instead, he favored institutions that sought students with experiences that matched many of his own. Yet Bauer, who spends his time doing archival and investigative research, has become very interested in his work,“despite my initial thinking that studying literature, and not history, would make me ill-suited for clearly historically based work.” Bauer's investigative research supports the Site Director David Young's project to compile a detailed history of the Germantown neighborhood and its inhabitants. Bauer spends his time“leafing through more than 200 books from the early to mid-19th century and transcribing the handwritten inscriptions of names, dates, businesses, etc.”

Bauer recognizes that his educational background in the humanities has helped him succeed at the Site:“Nearly all of what I do here centers on description and explanation, whether I am giving a tour or writing up an inventory, and I feel like the excellent guidance in writing and thinking I have had from my professors in all of my literature and philosophy classes has made me capable of being a compelling and (usually) efficient communicator and thinker.” While Bauer doesn't have plans to pursue a career at a historic site, he believes that the researching skills he hones every day at the Site and his elevated attention to detail could prove useful in a career in journalism or publishing.

Kline, an English major, is spending her summer months creating a Web-based exhibit about early-American women writers while interning for The Library Company of Philadelphia. Kline applied for the internship because she“wanted a chance to get to know Philly better. I especially wanted the opportunity to get to know the city in some way through its libraries, museums, and other arts-related venues.” In preparation for launching the Web-based exhibit, Kline will research the biographies and works of about 60 authors, then write short biographies for each author. She credits her humanities classes for preparing her for her daily tasks:“I think that having studied both English and history helps me to ask interesting questions about these writers. I can pursue issues about these writers' motivations for writing, their status as women, their status as Americans, how they fit into or rebel against the era's expectations for them as women and as poets/novelists/editors/journalists, etc.”

Weissinger, like Kline, yearned to explore Philadelphia, especially its“art community”:“After talking so much this past year about Haverford's ‘arts community,' I felt that I had never really gotten in touch with Philadelphia's.” His internship at The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe allows Weissinger to interact with Philly's performing arts community. As a marketing/promotions intern for the organization, Weissinger has assumed a role as temporary photo editor for the organization, and has worked on a Festival Guide for an upcoming show.

Chubb made a decision to apply for an internship with The Philadelphia Museum of Art before she learned about the Humanities Center sponsored internship at the PMA. Chubb applied for an unpaid internship through the PMA's regular internship program, but after learning that the Humanities Center would offer a stipend, she began working on the Center's application. Chubb was ultimately accepted by the PMA internship coordinators through Haverford's program.

At the PMA, Chubb undertakes two projects: cataloguing loan files—created when the museum loans objects to other institutions—and researching contemporary African-American artists. The museum will incorporate her research when organizing an exhibit slated to open this fall that will feature an African-American painter. Chubb, who will earn bachelor of arts degrees in history of art and French when she graduates from Haverford next year, credits her educational background in art and French with providing useful knowledge and skills that she employs every day at the museum:“Having taken a lot of History of Art, or related, classes over the past few years definitely has given me a background for the paintings, sculptures, etc., whose files I'm reassembling. My knowledge of French has been helpful as well, since the French museums are the only foreign museums to conduct all of their correspondence with American museums in French.”

Hallenbeck, an English major with an education minor, says she was attracted to the Humanities Center sponsored internships because of her own interest in not-for-profit work. At The Philadelphia Orchestra, Hallenbeck helps arrange visiting artists' itineraries and accompanies the organization's guests as they prepare for rehearsals and concerts. Hallenbeck does not plan to pursue a career in arts administration after graduation, but she believes that her experiences at The Philadelphia Orchestra are honing skills that she will exercise at other jobs:“The focus on ensuring that everyone is working together to create a wonderful experience for the audience, musicians, and visiting artists is valuable for almost any job.” Hallenbeck hopes that future Haverford students will pursue internships like hers with the Orchestra.“This is not one of those internships where you spend your time copying and filing, though I do do that. The people I work with go out of their way to explain the organization philosophy behind their actions, and ensure that I am able to participate in every activity,” says Hallenbeck.

When students return to campus for the fall semester, Freedman and Cronin hope to“create a conversation” between the community and the six interns. They hope that the students will share their summer experiences and encourage others to exercise their own humanist impulses through jobs and internships at organizations in Philadelphia and around the world.

Benston believes that the six Philadelphia-based internships that comprise this year's sponsored internship program“take advantage of the fact that Philly is a very vibrant urban center,” but he, Freedman, and Cronin expect that as the program grows, the Humanities Center will reach out to organizations beyond the Philly borders.“We anticipate that [the program] will grow,” says Freedman,“We want to have different hosts from year to year.” According to Cronin, the Center may search for possible participating organizations in Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. She expects that alumni working around the globe will figure as contacts for potential host organizations.

As Freedman and Cronin begin planning for next year's internship program, they hope to attract the interest of even larger numbers of students. Perhaps this year's group of student interns will encourage many students to apply, because, as Weissinger explains,“Haverford's new Centers have some great opportunities, applications are never as long as you think they'll be, and you can buy yourself a Coke or something when you finish one to celebrate.”