Internship experiences in museum studies graduate programs

Authors:

• Grace Liatti, Master of Arts in Museology
• Chair: Meena Selvakumar
• David Suárez
• Sarah Brenkert



Abstract:

An internship is a typical experience for museum studies graduate students (Welsh, 2013). Internships have long been recognized as central to museum studies education that prepares students to enter the professional museum field. However, current field-wide standards may be outdated, underused, written from the perspective of staff, and/or anecdotal. To date, no empirical research has been undertaken that this author could identify to understand the internship experiences of students from their perspectives. To address this gap, an online survey was sent to students enrolled in eight American museum studies programs. The purpose was to understand how museum studies graduate students think about and experience internships in museums and related institutions. Only results from the University of Washington (UW) Museology program were analyzed. Findings revealed that students were most interested in skills development factors, such as applying theory in “the real world.” Most respondents reported that their internship responsibilities helped them fulfill their priorities, but a recurring issue was that internships experiences lacked structure and clarity, leaving students uncertain if they made meaningful contributions through their internship work. Respondents reported largely positive experiences with their internship supervisors, but results also suggested that some supervisors are not providing clear feedback to interns, and that while supervisors largely showed concern for the interns’ learning and career goals, they sometimes fell short of providing clear guidance on the interns’ responsibilities. Further evaluation of UW internships is recommended to determine how well students’ experiences align with the standards set out by the program. For the museum field at large, further research is recommended to capture broad experiences of students throughout the country, which can inform updated internship standards and best practices created by individual museums and field-wide professional organizations.