Interview with Jaclyn Fiscus-Cannaday
- What organization are you a part of?
The Museum of Everyday Writing (MoEW), which is a digital museum (https://museumofeverydaywriting.omeka.net/)
- What is your current role?
I'm the faculty liaison of the MoEW. I work with four graduate students who work as co-administrators for the museum. As co-administrators, they work one-on-one with our 3-5 undergraduate interns to curate new exhibits, advertise for the museum on social media, help instructors/students at FSU use the museum for class projects, and keep the Omeka website up to date.
- Can you explain the work your organization does?
Our job is curating and housing exhibits of everyday writing in a digital museum space so researchers can use our exhibits for research purposes. You can learn more about us, here: https://museumofeverydaywriting.omeka.net/about.
- What opportunities do you have available for students?
We have 3-5 interns in the fall and spring semester. Internships involve working about ten hours a week on things like curating exhibits, creating a social media campaigns to encourage museum interaction, cataloguing or geotagging artifacts, and creating supplementary materials to help MoEW researchers or future interns.
- How should students go about applying for these opportunities?
We send an email to English advisors in October and March outlining the internship and calling for applications (which typically involve sending a statement of interest and resume via email to Dr. Fiscus-Cannaday at jfiscus@fsu.edu). Once the team reviews your materials, you may be asked to join a group interview with the MoEW leadership team and other potential interns. Upon interviewing, we then ask you to send two letters of recommendation. We review the letters, along with our notes from the interview and originally submitted materials, and choose between 3-5 applicants to be interns for the following semester.
- Are there any specific prerequisites (such as major, skills, previous experience, etc.) you look for in students?
We do not have formal prerequisites, but if the student wants to do our internship for credit (which is an option), then they should review the prerequisites for internship credit. We have worked with students from a variety of majors, with varying levels of past work experience, and at different credit levels. We do like working with students who have an interest in archival work, museum studies, everyday writing or writing more broadly, and/or social media engagement.
- What qualities would a stand-out candidate have?
Because we have four co-administrators and our 3-5 interns, it is important that candidates like to work in a team setting. In addition, our interns have a few mandatory projects and also the opportunity to self-select some projects that benefit the museum. Therefore, it's important to be independent and take initiative.
- What will students gain by interning for this organization? How will this internship contribute to their professional growth?
Interns will gain experience writing in a professional setting, creating social media content, and working with Omeka. We structure our internship such that we can support you with the career goals that you hope to accomplish.
- Is there any other information you would like students to know?
We're excited to meet you and potentially work with you; don't hesitate to apply, even if you're not quite sure what "everyday writing" is! In fact, most of our interns don't come in with much knowledge about everyday writing, and we spend the first couple of weeks working with you so that you have a better understanding of what everyday writing is and why our museum is an area of research for some!
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