The Plant City Photo Archives and History Center (Photo Archives) has announced that its Intern Program is open for application for the Summer Term 2018. Applications must be submitted by Monday, June 4. The program is open to high school, undergraduate and graduate students. The intensity and depth of the assignments will be tailored to the educational level of the intern(s) selected.
The Intern Program was established in 2010. The program is monitored by both a mentor and the Photo Archives’ Executive Director, Gilbert Gott. “Applicants must have an educational background that indicates they have a strong desire to learn and have an interest in history, archives and museums. Age is not as important as attitude,” said Gott.
Programs of work are set out in advance and interns are provided with formats for daily journal entries and checklists. After completion of the schedule, the intern is presented with an evaluation and final report.
Gott said, “We first familiarize them with the normal day-to-day operations of our institution, office procedures and equipment, photographic and documentary resources, archival procedures, data collection, information storage and retrieval, historical research, and monograph composition. From there we are flexible and work to develop the intern along lines consistent with current and future interests.”
Internships do lead to successful jobs and careers. Gott said, “The education a student receives in a classroom setting is frequently enhanced by the hands-on experience of working in an institution that performs the actual work you are studying. There are usually many more details of the historian’s profession and the archivist’s profession that come out in the actual performance of these tasks in an institutional setting.”
Gott added, “The Plant City Photo Archives and History Center’s Intern Program is unique in that the institution is very small and an intern will receive person-to-person training. We develop our program in accordance with what the intern needs and is interested in. For example, we will do hands on research, prepare finding aids and organize papers and documents. The theory becomes a practicum.”
For more information, please visit www.plantcityphotoarchives.org. Interested students can obtain the application by visiting the History Center located at 106 S. Evers St. in downtown Plant City. You can also email Gott at gil@plantcityphotoarchives.org.
