This post is part of our Internship Spotlight series. For this installment, Aidan Sweeney (鈥�27) tells us about her internship experiences at the .
What organization did you intern with and what was your internship?
My summer internship was with the Burke Museum Paleobotany Collection. During this internship I worked in the offsite collection to catalogue the Beck Fossil Wood Collection. George Beck was a professor at CWU in the 20th century whose research centered on fossil wood identification. Over the course of his career, he curated a large collection of hand samples and slides to identify fossil woods. The bulk of this collection is now housed at the Burke Museum. It is an invaluable research collection that helped establish Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park. Today, the collection is housed offsite. The primary goal of my internship was to improve the access and housing of the Beck Collection through inventory and rehousing.
What did you end up learning from your internship? Did you fulfill your original learning goals? Were there any unexpected takeaways or learning moments?
The actual work performed during this internship differed significantly from our original goals. During the first week, I discovered the roughly 3,000 specimens that had last been inventoried in 2011 represented only a third of the actual material in the offsite storage. Many of these uncatalogued specimens were in rough shape, having previously been stored in a barn. My primary work became organization, labeling, and cataloging this collection. I inventoried 5000 specimens during this internship. Among these fossil specimens were modern plants, vertebrate fossils, and archaeological artifacts. I worked with my supervisor to transfer or deaccession these materials under the guidance of the collections staff of the relevant collection at the Burke. I also learned how to use a geigercounter and evaluate the collection for radioactivity. Thankfully, the Beck collection is safe to handle, but I did find a nearby specimen that is now being evaluated for high levels of radioactivity. Much of my work also became document transcription, as letters from the 1930鈥檚 were associated with the specimens. I also performed some statistical analysis as a demonstration of the use case for the collection. From this analysis, I concluded that gymnosperm and angiosperm wood may have different care needs in a collection, as angiosperm wood was significantly more prone to breaking. While things did not go to plan, I did make the collection safer and ready for digitization. I had to be flexible and modify plans quickly- an experience I believe will be invaluable in my future career.
What did you enjoy most about this internship?
I enjoyed the professional collaboration and the opportunity to apply course information to real-world problems. I felt like the knowledge I brought to the internship was valued by the organization and it affirmed my career goals.
Is there anything you wish you had done differently in your internship? Do you have any recommendations for students looking into internships now?
There is not much I would do differently, in retrospect. I would encourage students looking for internships to not be afraid to reach out directly to organizations or people they are interested in working with. Self-negotiated internships can be more customized to your interests and the funding from MUSE makes this easier to achieve. It is also a good opportunity to practice professional communication and can build confidence in self-advocation.
What鈥檚 next? How did this internship relate to your career goals, interests, and/or plans, and how has it impacted those goals, interests, and/or plans?
I will present my internship summary and findings at WAMA. I will continue my cataloguing of this collection in a workstudy position. Prior to the internship, I wanted to work in a paleontology collection in a collections management position. Working closely with someone in this position and tackling the practical side of this was very rewarding. This wasn鈥檛 my original career track and it is easy to feel doubt when making a major change. This internship not only affirmed this choice and made me feel like I could use my experiences to make an impact.