Testimonials
What our students say about the Arts Internship program
Feedback from past interns has indicated that they have found their placements in the Arts Internship to be extremely rewarding and, occasionally, they have led to summer or full-time jobs. We believe this to be an exceptional opportunity for students in the Faculty of Arts and a valuable complement to a variety of degree programs.
“My internship at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery allowed me to employ the knowledge and skills I’ve been acquiring in my degree in Applied Arts. It has also incorporated tasks, assignments and experiences that will be useful to my future career in arts education.”
—Jessica Pattinson, 4th-year Bachelor of Applied Arts student
My experience with the Arts 3000 internship program gave me the opportunity to learn in a more 'hands-on-style'. My position at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery allowed me to better understand art and art history because I have been able to develop a more direct relationship with the arts community. During my internship, I have had the chance to work with some of the artworks, the artists in the BAG collection, and many employees at the gallery. By working in collections I gained an understanding of the organizational system of galleries. The internship also enabled me to take a break from traditional university class-room style learning and learn in a more autonomous style. I found this very refreshing and consistantly changing, which made it very enjoyable and rewarding. I gained a better understanding and appreciation for art. I highly recommend the Arts 3000 program to students that have the opportunity!
—Serena Smith, 4th-year History Honours student
The ‘real world’ is a term often used to describe the circumstances that most people find themselves in as they enter adulthood and the workforce. In North American culture there is an attitude among non-students of various ages that the ‘real world’ is a sphere distinct from the world in which the undergraduate university student lives. Evidence used to support this claim includes the observation that many young people with a four-year degree, and even many with a graduate degree, do not have a proper perception of the workplace and are not adequately prepared to succeed in the workplace because of a lack of life skills or experience in dealing with difficult everyday situations that are common in the workplace. There is certainly some legitimacy to this claim; however it is clear that there are some students who, through their desire to acquire the skills and experience necessary to succeed in their chosen field, leave university fully prepared to thrive in their professional careers. This brief analysis will survey some of the skills and experience that are likely to be gained through time spent in the professional workplace and in the university classroom. The author’s experience in both spheres will be drawn upon to highlight the differences between the classroom and the workplace and to show that professional success is much more attainable through obtaining both a formal education and workplace experience.
There are some disciplines at university that are designed to prepare students for a specific position in the workforce and seek to give students all the knowledge and skills they will need for that position and very little of the knowledge or skills they will not need. Examples of job-specific programs are nursing and, to a lesser extent, the various streams of engineering and business programs. Many other disciplines, however, such as most areas of study that fall within the Liberal Arts, impart a vast amount of knowledge to students that are not necessarily applicable to any job and yet very useful for virtually all workplace positions. The ability to conduct effective research, write well, think critically, and understand difficult abstract concepts is invaluable and any professional position will require these skills. Yet inevitably more will be needed. Perhaps one of the most frustrating elements of pursuing a Liberal Arts education, especially in the humanities, is that students will often get the sense that they are studying about some of the most important problems and concepts in the world and yet they remain largely unemployable. If an Arts student does not want to be a school-teacher or spend six more years in graduate school then they are left with very few options for employment outside of entry-level service positions. This situation is avoidable, but only with a conscious effort on the part of the student to obtain the workplace skills and experience that they will need in the future while they are obtaining their formal education.
One of the most effective ways for students to gain the life skills and workplace experience they will need to succeed is through internships. Internships that are related in at least some way to a student’s area of study have tremendous value in imparting to the student skills and experience that will effectively complement their education. I have had the fortune, as an undergraduate Arts student at UNB, to have participated in a two-term internship related to one of my disciplines. For the first time in all my years as a student I have had an opportunity to apply the skills I have acquired through my education to a workplace environment. As a history student participating in an internship at a museum the knowledge I have of history and how to properly perform historical research is helpful, but what I utilize the most is my ability to write clearly and effectively and my ability to analyze problems, think strategically, and to designate and achieve goals. The value in an internship lies not just in exposing the student to a workplace situation in a controlled manner, but in showing the student what attributes and abilities will be needed and expected in the workplace. An important observation that I made as an intern is how there seems to be many minor skills and abilities that one is expected to have but that one is rarely told about. From how to properly write an e-mail or make a phone call, to how to fold a letter and address an envelope, to how to request funding or discuss costs, to how to constructively discuss different strategies and know how to effectively deal with circumstances that threaten to undermine your work—students are not told about many of these seemingly minor details and it is unlikely that one could be taught the many and varied skills needed to survive and thrive in challenging workplace environments. One simply must experience these circumstance and ‘learn-as-they-go’. Of course most jobs do not lend themselves to this approach and employers expect graduates to come with many life skills already fully developed. Workplace experience, such as that gained through internships, allows students to learn the individual skills and skill-sets that are best learned, and sometimes only learned, through repetition, trial-and-error, and having the opportunity to observe experienced professionals. Intangible skills and abilities such as social skills, time-management skills, organizational skills, and the ability to work under pressure are essential to professional success and although students will inevitably develop these skill in the classroom, workplace experience will enable students to develop them much more fully.
During my internship I noticed how striking a difference there was between working with students and professors and working with business people and public service professionals. I was forced to pay close attention to how well I communicated, how well I listened, and whether I was being politically correct. As an intern I wrote many things that were in the public domain and represented the institution that I was working for and as such, I was forced to write in a manner that was not just academically appropriate, but also professionally appropriate. It is one thing to write a paper knowing the audience is only a professor; it is another to write something hundreds of people in the community will read.
Another experience with a different type of writing that was valuable for me was the grant application I filled out in order to receive the government funding required for the project I was working on. The ability to write excellent grant applications is vital for success in many professional academic positions. Graduate students, researchers, professors, and non-profit institutions all rely heavily on grants to be able to do their work. Undergraduate students have little opportunity to practice writing successful grant applications and the stakes are usually high. I have not only learned about how to write grant applications, I now can say that I have experience with writing a grant application that resulted in successfully receiving the funding applied for.
Different disciplines within the Liberal Arts impart to students different knowledge, but invariably an Arts degree will teach students how to think properly and how to write well. Along the way successful students also develop their social skills and personal management skills. As a student however, it is difficult to cultivate the many individual skills and skill-sets that are needed to succeed in the workplace. Similarly, it is difficult for those in the workforce to develop their writing and thinking skills in the same manner and to the same degree as they could through formal education. Ultimately success in the professional world will usually require the skills learned both in the classroom and on the job. Due to their mutually supportive nature, the skills and experiences gained in the classroom and in the workplace are more than just the sum of the two when combined. An internship offers a student a rare opportunity to learn new skills, further develop skills learned in the classroom, and integrate these skills to see how they are used in the professional workplace. Internships are a great way to increase confidence, adaptability, and perseverance. I am grateful I have had the opportunity to apply what I have learned in the classroom to the workplace in a supportive environment and to have experienced some of what the professional workplace is like and what it will demand to be successful.
—James Kitchen, 4th-year History Honours student.
Updated March 1, 2013
