Internships for Academic Credit

Image of museum room with multiple exhibits with historic items protected behind glass.

The CHP minor requires 3 credit hours of internship experience. Students must register for an internship course during the semester. Academic credit is assessed based on on-site work hours, supervisor review, and academic papers as required by the course instructor.

Interested in taking on an internship during the semester for academic credit? Here are the procedures:

  1. Contact Lisa Blee (bleelm@wfu.edu) with an interest in the openings listed below (or a local internship you’ve found yourself)
  2. Apply for internship openings with the institution (process varies)
  3. Confirm a faculty instructor and register for an internship course for 1-3 credits (Options: CHP 300, HST 395, ART 293, MSC 279, ANT 391)

Reynolda House Museum of American Art

The Teaching and Learning Department offers fall and spring semester internships, as well as summer term academic internships that will provide a general introduction to museum careers with a focus on education, programming, or cultural resource management. 

Interns will assist with the daily operation of the education and program departments, specifically helping with school field trips and Museum programs. In addition to completing required readings and accompanying tours of the Museum, all interns will undertake an independent research project that’s tailored to the student’s skills and professional goals. Additional internship experiences may occasionally be available in other Museum departments, including Marketing & Communications, Archives/Library, Collections, and Advancement (Development). All internships are unpaid unless otherwise noted.

For more information, please check the website.

MUSE Winston Salem

The mission of the Museum of Understanding, Storytelling, and Engagement is to connect, enrich, and enlarge the community through history, storytelling, and informed, balanced perspective that leads to acceptance, understanding, and belonging.

Wake Forest Historical Museum

The Wake Forest Historical Museum seeks WFU student interns for spring, summer, and fall terms. The intern’s primary focus will be to conduct research and help build interpretive ideas relating to the lives of enslaved people who worked in domestic and agricultural contexts in Wake Forest, NC. Meetings will take place virtually or on the Reynolda Campus. If possible, a trip to the museum will be arranged.

Intern Responsibilities

  1. Transcribe nineteenth-century documents.
  2. Conduct research related to the experiences of the enslaved people who worked on the Calvin Jones plantation.
  3. Participate in weekly discussions about research findings and assigned secondary readings.
  4. Contribute posts to social media and the museum’s website about research.
  5. Create an interpretive plan that will strengthen museum tours.
  6. Present project findings to the museum board, staff, and partners.

Qualifications

  1. An undergraduate student pursuing a minor in Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies at Wake Forest University. Students in related fields, such as History, African American Studies, or Anthropology are also encouraged to apply.
  2. An interest in U.S. history, public history, African American/Black studies, museum studies, historic preservation, cultural studies, anthropology, archaeology. 
  3. Experience conducting historical research, including reading and transcribing nineteenth-century handwriting.
  4. Comfortable working individually and with a team.
  5. Ability to work effectively in a remote environment, including maintaining communication with supervisors.
  6. Excellent writing and public speaking skills and an ability to engage academic and general audiences. 

Applications: Interested students should send a letter of interest and resume or CV to Terry Brock (brockt@wfu.edu)  and Sarah Soleim (soleims@wfu.edu). In your letter of interest, please include any relevant internship or coursework experiences.

Program in Material Culture & Public History at William & Mary

The National Institute of American History & Democracy (NIAHD), a partnership between William & Mary and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, invites students at other colleges and universities to apply to join the Program in Material Culture & Public History as a Visiting Student. This program is open to undergraduates in any major as well as to graduate students who would like to spend either one or two semesters in residence at William & Mary.