{"id":251,"date":"2026-02-03T18:22:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T18:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lydiapensel.org\/?p=251"},"modified":"2026-02-03T18:22:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T18:22:38","slug":"internship-blog-post-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lydiapensel.org\/?p=251","title":{"rendered":"Internship Blog Post Five"},"content":{"rendered":"
When I started this internship, I understood the gravity of interning at the Smithsonian Institute. Knowing how important it is to our nation and the world in the areas of history, science, and so much more. But I did not fully understand the importance of this until I really started diving into my work. I knew the archives housed a great deal, but I could never, in my wildest dreams, fully understand the extent of the online archive. Working directly with DAMS and sorting through millions of pictures, documents, and sound recordings has been surreal.<\/div>\n
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When I began, I assumed that, as an intern, I would not be allowed to work directly with materials in the digital archive, or that what I could access would be limited. It has been a great joy and honor to access the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage archive and to be entrusted with sorting through the materials to create my own Learning Labs exhibit. Not only being able to access the entire DAMS archives, but also being allowed to participate in trainings and meetings to discuss what items I am looking for and need to find.<\/div>\n
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Another aspect that has been eye-opening, in a good way, is the ability to be flexible. I have been extremely lucky to have a wonderfully supportive supervisor who allows me to show my own voice in my projects. Coming into the internship, I was afraid that my supervisor would be very strict with their ideas and that I would not get to add much of my own expertise. This has not been the case at all. Not only is my supervisor very supportive, but the interactions I have had with others outside of the Center have been equally supportive. Coming from an academic background, I am very used to having a more rigid structure, so this has been wonderful.<\/div>\n
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Finally, \u00a0as we are halfway through the internship, my expectations have changed in the most positive way, but stayed the same a bit too. I knew coming into this internship that my professionality, techinical skills would grow, but I had no idea how much they would grow. I have also exceeded these expectations in my confidence in problem-solving. I thought of myself as relatively good at problem-solving, but running into dead ends, much like all areas of research, has allowed me to expand these skills exponentially. This internship has and continues to be one most rewarding experiences of my life.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I started this internship, I understood the gravity of interning at the Smithsonian Institute. Knowing how important it is to our nation and the world in the areas of history, science, and so much more. But I did not fully understand the importance of this until I really started diving into my work. I … Continue reading Internship Blog Post Five<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lydiapensel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lydiapensel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lydiapensel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lydiapensel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lydiapensel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lydiapensel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252,"href":"https:\/\/lydiapensel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lydiapensel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lydiapensel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lydiapensel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}