At the end of June, I started my internship at the Jewish Museum Berlin. The entire semester I had been taking the Internship Seminar offered by IES. It’s an interesting class that introduces students to the particularities of the German work environment and German society as a whole. Like no other, this class gave me a good overview of the complex social security, welfare and health care systems in place here. In this sense, it was a great preparation for my internship experience.
Liane, the wonderful internship coordinator at IES, had been sending out resumes and inquiring about internships on behalf of students the whole semester. She was truly fantastic in that she always found the time to sit down and talk about one’s own interests. Thanks to her, I managed to secure an internship at the Jewish Museum Berlin – arguably one of the best museums in Berlin (I am very biased).
The first three weeks of the internship aligned with the last three weeks of the semester. While IES classes (other than the internship seminar) ended at the end of June, Humboldt classes were just beginning to wrap up. Since I was taking four Humboldt classes, it was a bit challenging, but in the end the supervisors at my internship proved to be incredibly flexible, and the first three weeks I only worked Thursdays and Fridays (on the days that I didn’t have any classes).
For the first three weeks, I was taken under the wing of the director of the visitor research department. My assignment was to create a way to analyze visitor experience with the video installation in the special exhibition. I was astonished at how much responsibility was given to me, an intern, and especially to someone with less than perfect German skills. My co-workers were very supportive and friendly.
Even though it was sometimes tricky to juggle my internship with my exams, I think that having a steady project to work on every Thursday and Friday gave me much needed structure and allowed me to organize my time better. And not to even mention everything I learned while working on the project!
Marta Misiulaityte
<p><span style="color: rgb(29, 29, 29); font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; background-color: rgb(237, 237, 237);">Marta is a Sociology and German double major at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, but has a hard time staying within the boundaries of these two disciplines just the way she cannot stay in any one place for a long time. The thirst for knowledge and adventures is her biggest drive; over the course of her college career she has taken classes ranging from film studies to psychology, and she just spent a semester studying Arabic in Jordan. Originally from Lithuania, Marta has been fortunate enough to call many places her home. When she is not devouring books, she coordinates and leads campus tours, serves as a proctor in a first-year student dorm, works at the Admissions office as well as helping out at the Registrar’s office at Bowdoin. In her free time, she can be found either taking photographs or swing dancing. She can’t wait to check out the Berlin lindy hop scene!</span></p>
