It has officially been over a month since I arrived in Philly, but somehow I haven’t yet talked about a huge part of the TPC program: the internship. I’ve spent the last few weeks in the internship placement process, which started with writing resumes and cover letters and researching different organizations. TPC has a database and file cabinets full of internship opportunities, so it’s really just a matter of reading through the files and thinking about what you’re interested in working on.

After a week, I was able to present my advisor, Mark, with a list of six organizations I was particularly interested in pursuing. We then set up several interviews in the following couple of weeks. Now, this was definitely not my first rodeo in terms of job interviews, but it was still excellent practice and it helped me see some new areas of the city. After a total of four interviews and several offers, I was able to make a decision earlier this week: to split my time between two organizations.

The first is a mid-size museum, the Rosenbach Museum and Library, which is located in a historic home near the high-end area of Rittenhouse Square. The collections include examples of fine and decorative art, furniture, and important literary collections from writers like Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, and Bram Stoker. I will be spending three days a week at the museum; I will work under the Assitant Curator for half that time, and in External Relations for the other half.

For one day a week I am also interning with a start-up organization called Food Nerd Jr. It’s a small business that’s just getting started, so I’ll be working directly with the founders and helping them from a writing/communications capacity. The organization develops and hosts food workshops for kids with the mission of teaching them critical thinking skills and encouraging their creativity.

I’m very excited to get to work with both organizations, which complement my majors — History and Film & Media Studies — very nicely. This will be my first full week of interning, and though I know it will probably be a challenge at first, I can’t wait to get started!