"Nice to meet you, I'm the intern."

Two weeks ago yesterday, I started my internship. Wow. I’ve been doing both administrative and public work, in my own office (see below) and on the Museum floor — in the exhibits and in our hands-on kids’ room, the Field Station. (And just like with my journey to finally get that semester abroad, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who helped me get this internship.)

My primary task this summer is to put together an EcoFair, which will happen in conjunction with the traveling exhibit the museum is getting this fall called Sustainable Shelter. Right now, I’m putting together a list of vendors — people we think would like to participate — and then in the next few weeks I’ll be contacting said vendors. I’m also in charge of creating the registration sheet, sending it out, and collecting everything from the vendors. So for now, this Fair is my baby.

The great thing is, both of my supervisors are doing their best to make sure I get a really broad spectrum of experiences in the museum. On my first day, we talked about what I hope to get out of this internship (my honest answer is that I want to find out if museum work is right for me) and so they have gone above and beyond to make sure that I can see what it takes to run a museum. I've met a lot of people (which is the inspiration for the title of this post) and learned a good bit about the various kinds of people that it takes to make sure everything runs smoothly. Let me tell you, I will never look at a museum in quite the same way.

This past week, I’ve spent a lot of my time in the Field Station. We have various learning stations and activities for kids to enjoy during their trip to the museum, such as “Be an Artist,” “Be a Zoologist,” “Be an Anthropologist,” and more, to introduce kids to the kinds of people that contribute to a museum exhibit. Some days are quieter than others; most mornings, I straighten up the Field Station and then have forty-five minutes of reading time! Sometimes a daycare or day camp program will reserve the Field Station for an hour or so — during which I bounce around from station to station protecting some of our more delicate items (like the book of animal x-rays that’s falling apart), refreshing craft supplies, and cleaning up the mess that is inevitably left behind. Most days, however, there is a steady flow of people coming and going through the Field Station.

Despite the fact that I sometimes feel like a glorified maid (with this unpaid, not-for-credit internship), I do like what I’m doing. I get to interact with kids, just like I wanted, and be involved in their learning process. I whole-heartedly enjoy playing and talking with these kids. The kindness and the curiosity they display is so amazing. For instance, one little girl asked me about the bird skins that we have on display. She had been looking at the skins (which are stuffed, but aren’t quite as life-like, meaning they don’t have eyes and haven’t been placed in poses) and then started looking at one of the posed birds that we have out on a counter. She asked me why this bird had its eyes open, so we talked about the fact that when we put birds in museums, we want them to look life-like so that people can learn from them and see them the way they might look in real life. She followed that up by asking if we kill the birds in order to put them in the museum; I explained that the birds have already died by the time we get them and that people bring them to us (the museum) so that everyone can have a chance to see the birds and learn about them. She nodded slowly and then said, “if I ever find a dead bird, I’m going to bring here to you so that everyone can learn about them.” (A little morbid, yes, but the sentiment is still sweet.)

Or there’s the little boy who attended one of our day camps this week. He arrived early on the first day, so his dad brought him over to the Field Station to hang out until camp began. This little boy and I ended up building with blocks, looking through a bird book (where he quickly picked up on the fact that the green map meant the birds lived here in the summertime and the blue map meant that they lived here in the wintertime), and talking. He colored me a picture, very proudly wrote his name for me, and then waved goodbye before going down the hallway to his camp. At the end of the day, he made his dad wait for him while he ran back to the Field Station to wave bye again. This little guy visited me all week before camp and waved to me everyday after camp was over — and it made me smile every single time. It’s kids like this that make me love what I’m doing.