Program & Project Description Guide

Smithsonian internships are learning experiences guided by a mentor, occurring during a specific time frame, which provide benefits relating to an intern’s education, coursework, or career goals. With stated learning objectives and a mentor’s commitment, interns may be appointed for a term of up to six months. As an intern’s experiential education progresses, with revised learning objectives and a renewed commitment from a mentor, they may be reappointed.

Program Description examples:

For general announcements, websites, etc. The following examples are taken from units that exemplified strong Program Descriptions on OFI’s website listings.

• The National Museum of American History internship program allows a diverse group of people with innumerable interests, strengths, and goals to encounter an educational environment where they can work with and learn from professionals and scholars in related areas of concentration. The Museum offers interns of different backgrounds incredible opportunities in a variety of fields, from public relations to exhibition research to project design. Learning from knowledgeable mentors in the dynamic atmosphere of the Museum and Washington, D.C. area, interns enjoy an intensive experience as multifaceted as the Museum itself.

• The museum’s programmatic objectives are flexible enough to encourage the creation of projects tailored to students’ interests and needs, while also allowing for a challenging experience and effective results that may be measured by standards of traditional scholarship. Included are opportunities to develop and engage in oral history projects, regional history, community history, and art and cultural history. Under the supervision of museum staff, there is also the opportunity to engage in curriculum development projects. The museum’s permanent collection and archives offer scholars interested in African American material culture excellent opportunities for research and professional development.

• Internships are offered year-round in the fields of folklore, cultural anthropology, and ethnomusicology. Internships are open to all interested persons looking to further their academic and/or career goals in these or related areas. Intern projects often center on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, archives and collections, educational outreach projects, Web production and Web content creation, video projects, and planning and production of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The internship experience is an opportunity to learn - through hands-on training and one-on-one engagement with knowledgeable staff and professionals in the field - about planning, organizing, and producing large public programs and events; marketing and production aspects of a record label; collections management; research and documentation; and working with information to create multi-media educational products that allow for greater visibility by large audiences.

Project Description example:

For each individual intern. These must be tailored to reflect the learning objectives for each intern and the guidance they will receive from a mentor.

 
Project Title: Using GIS & remote sensing to assess the conservation status of grassland-ungulate migration systems.

Project Description: Intern will work with spatial data sets to look at patterns of diversity and migration of ungulates around the globe. He will design the specifics of his project with guidance from his supervisor. Learning objectives include:

1. Gain introductory to advanced skills in geospatial analysis, specifically the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Position Systems (GPS), and satellite image processing and remote sensing.
2. Learn the basics of statistical computing for geospatial analyses in conservation using the open-source software system R.
3. Learn how these geospatial analysis tools can be used for at least two out of five possible, every-day conservation applications, including:
   1. Habitat classification and mapping from satellite imagery;
   2. Habitat or ecosystem change detection;
   3. Habitat suitability modeling;
   4. Species distribution modeling;
   5. Movement analysis, including calculation of movement trajectories or home ranges.