I have always done interships part-time during both the summer and during
the semester which allowed me to maintain a part-time job.  Also, if you
are going to do an unpaid internship, try to arrange getting college
credit for it.  In some instances, colleges may waive the tuition fees
which may justify taking an unpaid internship since you are saving on the
costs of tuition.  I still believe that there should be some compensation
for interns and I know that many museums resolve this issue by applying
precious grant funds towards paying interns -- a great idea which other
museums should consider more.

Laura McMann
Museum Studies Program
George Washington Univ.
<[log in to unmask]>

On Fri, 5 Apr 1996, Jeanne Finan wrote:

> I read numerous listings for unpaid internships on this list and I know that
> museums are not exactly rolling in the dough to be able to pay all the staff
> they need. And sure, I know that internships are great learning
> opportunities, etc. etc. HOWEVER, I also know from my own professional
> experience and also now as the parent of a college student who cannot afford
> to do an unpaid internship, that if we are serious about diversifying our
> staffs (and interns are certainly our future staffs) that we need to figure
> out some way to pay interns. Just as you and I cannot afford to work for
> free, most college students cannot afford that either. Most of them need to
> work at paying jobs in the summer to help pay for their college expenses.
> They are suffering many of the same cutbacks in financial aid that our own
> institutions suffer from. So by offering non-compensated internships we are
> opening our museums only to students who have families wealthy enough to
> support their kids doing this and to foot all the bills for college without
> any expectations from the student themselves. Hey! I wish everyone were that
> fortunate but that is definitely not the reality out there. And it is also
> giving us a very narrow, elite pool of interns which is just the opposite of
> what we say we are trying to do in our museums.
> But how to get funding for PAID internships?
> I'd like to here from some museums (or students who have done paid or unpaid
> internships) on how they creatively solved this problem.
>
> Jeanne Finan
>