Wesley,
I wish to clarify a few points below, as one who has processed over 900
interns for our museum and has personally trained and supervised over
200 interns.
* A good internship should be designed to benefit BOTH the
intern and the museum, not just the intern.
* A student does not have to apply for credit in order for the
experience to be deemed an internship, unless the credit stipulation is
designated by museum policy.
* A paid or unpaid internship experience is something that is
decided upon by the museum. Even though one could be a paid intern does
not classify it as a part-time, temporary or seasonal job since the
structure of the experience, expectations and outcome for both the
intern and the supervisor are different than a job. In addition, may
internships that are paid offer a stipend not an hourly wage.
You have described your internship experience and how you personally
define an internship based on your own experiences but it is only one
kind of an internship and that is not the norm for the variety of
museums out there.
Dawn Scher Thomae
Milwaukee Public Museum
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Wesley S. Creel
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2008 9:41 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Intern pay
Good Morning Beth,
Here's my two cents........ on the question of paying interns.
Perhaps we should first define what is an INTERN -- in a museum context.
1.) Intern - The intern experience is designed for the benefit of
the student. The intern experience is the "real world/vocational" part
of the student's formal (and often theoretical) education in museum
studies. The student MUST be receiving academic credit (by the
college/university s/he is enrolled in) for the intern experience.
Museums should not confuse the word "intern" with a part-time,
temporary, or seasonal job. Since the intern is a student, the intern
is not normally paid. In fact, the intern is paying the
college/university for the credit hours s/he is enrolled in for the
"internship." Usually the intern has to submit an academic paper to
her/his college/university, providing a detailed description of the
"practical skill-sets" that were learned during their internship.
Often, the work that the intern produces during their internship - such
as collection catalog or a program-planning document - is submitted to
their college/university for academic credit/grade.
An internship in a museum may be seen (in the best of cases)
as analogous to a medical internship in a hospital; where the intern is
exposed, over a year, to a variety of medical fields and
specializations. Back in the Bronze Age, when I was a graduate student
in museum studies, I was blessed to have such a museum internship.
2.) Part-time, temporary, or seasonal job - Such an experience,
is designed for the benefit of the museum. The museum needs some type of
work to be done, so the museum pays people to perform those tasks. These
experiences are JOBS not, internships. Often these jobs are filled by
students, who need the "museum experience" to put on their resumes. A
student filling such a job may or may not be enrolled in a
college/university. Academic credit is not awarded to the student for
such an experience. Physically putting registration numbers on
archaeological materials for an entire summer is a summer job, it is not
an internship in my humble opinion.
3.) In over 30 years of museum work, I have never paid an
intern.....but, I have paid many college and university students to work
(in part-time, temporary, and/or seasonal jobs) in a museum environment.
Many of those students and recently graduated young professionals, have
learned a variety of museum-related skill-sets that have assisted them
in preparing them to work in the museum field. All I am saying is....
call a job a job..... and an internship, an internship.
Best Wishes and have a Wonderful Weekend!
Wesley
Wesley S. Creel
Administrator of Programs
Pink Palace Family of Museums
Memphis, Tennessee
www.memphismuseums.org <http://www.memphismuseums.org/>
________________________________
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Yearous, Jenny Dee
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 2:41 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Intern pay
I am sending this out for someone else, please respond to them directly
- email is below thanks
We are currently discussing internships for next year and I'm hoping
that you can help with a little information. We want to be sure that
our pay rates are competitive. First, is your organization offering
paid or unpaid internships? If they are not paid, how is that working
for you? And for those of you that are paying, how much are you paying
them? Thanks for your assistance, Beth
Beth Campbell
Visitor Services Coordinator
State Historical Society of North Dakota
612 East Boulevard Ave
Bismarck ND 58505
701/328-2674
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
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