This semester eight Loyola undergraduates are interning for
course credit as part of HIST 398, the History Undergraduate Internship.
Working directly with history-trained professionals in a broad range of
institutions across Chicago, interns are spending a minimum of five hours a
week putting the critical thinking, writing and speaking skills that they have
learned in the Loyola classroom to work in the real world. Not only does HIST 398 allow students
to earn three course credit hours, but it also satisfies the college’s Engaged
Learning Requirement. Interns are
blogging weekly posts about their experiences. I encourage you to check
out their blogs. Comment on their posts. Ask them questions.
Encourage them. And most of all: think about the internship that you want to do
in the spring semester for HIST 398 credit!
Alexandra Vasilou and Jake Vasilakes are digging into the
archives at the Chicago Japanese American History Society. Their blogs give a wonderful sense of
the experience of working with a small institution with limited resources, the
amazing discoveries that can be made, and some eloquent ruminations on what it
means to do history. Jake’s blog
has some beautiful photographs of WWII internment camps from the CJAHS
collection that are worth checking out.
Area museums and libraries are benefiting from the labors of
Loyola undergraduates. At the
Swedish American Museum, Winfred Lawrence is spearheading an oral history project capturing the memories and experiences
of members of the museum, many of whom are first or second generation Americans.
Besides gathering stories for the museum to use in its exhibitions and
programs, Winfred’s project is documenting the history of the Andersonville
neighborhood where the museum is located.
Over at the Newberry Library, Dylan LeBlanc is helping catalogue a collection of railroad material for
the library’s “Mapping Movement in American Culture” project and is hoping to
work with the maps of the Colonial Atlantic World that he studies.
Curious about Taoism?
Qihan Zhao’s blog is both a
fascinating introduction to Chinese philosophy and a view into the work that he
is doing with Professor Elena Valussi.
Each week’s post provides interesting information about Taoist
scholarship.
Anne Burkhardt and Sebastian Villa are digging into the
archives of important women activists this semester. Anne is working in the Archives at DePaul with the papers of the Congregation of
Saint Joseph. Sister Helen
Prejean, whose experience as an anti-death penalty activist was portrayed in
the movie Dead Man Walking, is a prominent member of the Congregation. Sebastian has been working with the papers of Helen Sauer Brown, Mary Agnes Curran, and other
activists in Loyola’s own Women and Leadership Archives. Sebastian is also helping coordinate the
WLA’s social media. His handiwork
can be seen on the WLA Facebook page.
Fall might be in the air, but it hasn’t kept CharlesHeinrich from digging (literally!) into Loyola’s Medieval Garden. Follow Charlie’s humorous posts to
learn how he battles back rogue fennel to reclaim the garden and digs into (five
hundred years) old school urban environmental sustainability!
Intrigued? Want to undertake your own internship? Now is the perfect time to start
thinking about an internship for the spring semester. Visit the undergraduate internship pages
or email me (kroberts2@luc.edu)
for more information.
