Tag: internship

Internship

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by Frances (’14)

Sometimes it takes a while to figure things out. I learned this in my internship this year. Because of the self-governed, self-created nature of the Community Internship, I had chances in class to reflect on the direction I think we should take the project. However, I quickly realized that I do not have very much experience in outreach or volunteer-work, which were the two initial ideas from which we constructed the internship. In class, I could easily identify the problems we needed to fix—not enough diversity in Creative Writing being one of them—but I couldn’t think of any good way to stop it.

We spent most of our internship classes discussing the problems, as well as possible solutions, before we all agreed as a group that it was a problem too big for us to really tackle. Instead, through the conversations, we found a new window open to us, which still had to do with work in the community, and by extension, outreach; we decided we wanted to volunteer, write about, and learn about various people and organizations in our community.

I found this to be a positive experience. Although outreach did not succeed this year, Giorgia and I will renew our efforts next year, running a portfolio workshop at 826. Now I know the problems and obstacles in organization and leadership, and I feel prepared to tackle them.

826

Tom’s Final Play

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by Lizzie (’14)

Last year, one of our internships was teaching the students of Room 208, high school graduates with special learning needs. Part of our job was to work with the students to create a skit which we then performed in a brown bag for the school. Unfortunately for us, the students of Room 208 now gather at a different site but I thought it would be nice to reminisce. Here is a play that I helped edit. It was written by the student, Tom. You could call it a silly exploration of what it means to feel excluded or you could just call it a masterpiece.

Working with Tom was a pleasure, although it had its challenges, but then again, what doesn’t? I discovered that Tom could be pretty indecisive at time. The way we created the skit was by me presenting Tom with several different choices for the characters, plot, setting, etc. At times, Tom couldn’t decide between the choices, for example, if he wanted to write a skit about hot air balloons or playing ball, and there were even times when it felt like Tom was unmotivated to even make the decision. That was the hardest part because I occasionally felt like I was making the decisions and making the skit more about my ideas than his (and perhaps that was the reason why he was unmotivated originally—he may have felt it wasn’t his play). And of course, I was there as an editor, not a writer. However, despite those lapses in our creative process, which I often experience myself when creating a piece, Tom’s Play turned out to be truly Tom’s.

Tom’s Play

(Curtain Rises. Duck, Bike, and Clown are playing catch.)

CLOWN

I’m so glad we came today. You guys are my best friends.

 

DUCK

You guys are my best friends too.

 

BIKE

(Obviously ignoring DUCK)

Yeah, Clown you’re my best friend.

 

(They go quiet and awkwardly continue playing catch.)


BIKE

Hey Clown, I know a game we can play.

(Turning to DUCK)

But only two people can participate.

 

CLOWN

Umm…I guess we could play. Duck, is that OK with you?

 

DUCK

(Obviously hurt)

Yeah, you guys can play.

 

(CLOWN and BIKE begin to play their two-person game, which is just catch. DUCK gets upset and runs off stage sniffling. CLOWN and BIKE continue playing until CLOWN realizes DUCK has left.)

CLOWN

Hey, where did Duck go?

 

BIKE

It doesn’t matter.

 

CLOWN

It does to me. What if she’s lost?

 

BIKE

She’ll find her way back on her own. Let’s not waste time trying to find her.

 

CLOWN

You know, I’ve been getting the feeling that you don’t like her.

 

BIKE

I don’t like her.

 

CLOWN

Why don’t you like her?

 

BIKE

Because she never talks to me

 

CLOWN

What? She’s always talking to you.

 

BIKE

Yeah, but one time I saw her on the bus and she didn’t say hi to me.

 

CLOWN

She probably didn’t notice you…Come on! We got to go find her.

 

(CLOWN and BIKE run off stage. DUCK walks on stage from opposite direction. She sits down in the center of the room and quietly cries. CLOWN and BIKE run on from the side DUCK entered.)


CLOWN

What’s wrong, Duck?

 

DUCK

You and Bike made me feel left out!

 

BIKE

That’s only because you’re mean to me!

 

DUCK

How am I mean to you?

 

BIKE

You ignored me on the bus!

 

DUCK

That’s only because I thought you didn’t like me!

 

BIKE

WHAT?

 

CLOWN

Whoa, whoa, whoa! I think we have a little miscommunication going on here.

(Turns to audience)

Bike thinks that Duck doesn’t like her because she ignored her but Duck ignored her because she thinks Bike doesn’t like her. What do you think? Whose fault is it?

(CLOWN waits for audience to enter. No matter what the audience says CLOWN will continue like this)

You’re right, no one! Now that we’ve realized it’s no one’s fault, no one has to apologize, no one has to be mad, and everyone can play catch!

(CLOWN throws ball into air and curtain closes)

Zest Books

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by Noa (’16)

Zest BooksA few months ago, Colin and I began an internship at Zest Books. Zest is a company that publishes non-fiction books geared toward teen audiences, on subjects ranging from how to make clothes out of old jeans to the memoir of a teenage girl diagnosed with leukemia. It’s an awesome company that accepts teen advisors (such as myself) to come in and work with a very nice and fashionable lady named Anne and read manuscripts that Zest is considering publishing, in order for them to get a teen’s perspective. We all sit around a table and drink tea and eat cookies and talk about what we think of people’s writing, which, at least to me, is a pretty ideal way to spend one’s time. The great thing is that we are actually allowed to say our honest opinions about the manuscripts, like “this cover is so weird why would this exist,” or “I really love the idea of this book, but the graphics are off-putting,” and it seems like they generally appreciate and value our advice. As a young person dipping my toes into the (very, very intimidating) writing industry, I can honestly say that the fact that the company and the adult-people running it are so lovely and interesting makes me want to be part of the publishing industry so much more.