Okay, we all agree that internships can lead to jobs at the institution
where one does the internship--but that is regardless of whether the
intern receives some sort of money for their work or not.

Richard Chute pointed out that there are funds available to support
internships, if the institution wants to take the time and resources to
seek them out and apply for them.  If the museum has an intern
coordinator, perhaps this should be part of their job duties (in
collaboration with the development officer).  Also, it would help if at
least 25% of those funds were unrestricted as to the person's race!

I know when I worked at the Smithsonian, I could not had accomplished my
diverse and heavy responsibilities if I had not had the help of talented
and dedicated interns, none of whom were paid. They were my right hand.
Yes, I put a lot of time and energy into training them and after 3 or 6
months I had to start over with a new one, but I repeat I could not had
done my job without their labor, creativity, laughter and devotion!

Being as many institutions depend on volunteer labor, perhaps we should
spend a bit of time researching and applying for funds as Richard Chute
avocates.

Lisa Falk
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