Young Ambassadors 2024 Internship Blog

  Week 3 at IMAS was extremely fun for me 🌸 It was very satisfying to see a full week of summer camps completed, and continue to work on my Smithsonian project. As well as working with my coworkers on an education department art exhibit that will be put up next week. I also learned more about museum procedures and that I will be featured in the official museum Mussette!  On Monday the two art activities where still life painting and glass stained replicas. The process for these two activities included different materials such as graphite sticks and pencils, black artists tape and shiny plastic multicolored paper. We instructed campers to sketch out different objects placed in front of them, and they even had the chance to sketch a small structure they themselves built from interactive blocks.   On Tuesday The main activity of the day was 3-D mask making! Campers started off with a plain white mask to start, and began sketching ideas on a paper. Then they used a combin...

Week 3 was a busy one as the Teen Tech Center was filled with many students from various groups during the week! Much of my formal work on the Open House was simply continuing to build the relationships with community-based organizations throughout the week. I had Zoom meetings with representatives from four different groups, including Adelante Mujeres, a Latina-serving organization that has youth programming focused on keeping Latina women in school, and Hacienda CDC, which promotes Latino small businesses and provides other community support through youth and family programs.  I wanted to highlight some of the amazing work that the partner organizations I have been working with are doing. Adelante Mujeres, which translates to ‘women rise up,’ is a grassroots organization that seeks to uplift and empower Latina women through educational and leadership development programs. They encourage Latinas to engage with education, entrepreneurship, and leadership and have a special youth pr...

Monday, July 22nd: I went into work and touched up the prompts for the Es Devlin Sketching project. After finishing, we had a meeting to review the prompts and then tested them out in the gallery. The prompts worked great, and the other staff members agreed. I spent the rest of the day grouping and printing the prompts. Tuesday, July 23rd: This was my storytime day at the New York Public Library in the Bronx. Despite being excited, I woke up feeling extremely nervous because my NAML shirt hadn't arrived, which added to my anxiety. I double-checked everything, knowing I might forget something, and set off on my 90-minute journey covering 9 miles. Practicing reading the story in Spanish during the car ride boosted my confidence. Upon arrival, I was shown to the room to set up and was informed that the kids did not speak Spanish. Although unexpected, I saw it as an opportunity to expand the NAML brand to a broader audience. The program went very well, with about 17 children atten...

This past week has been incredibly eventful, offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the diverse range of community events. The week kicked off with the dynamic Beat Builders DJ summer camp, where the campers delved into the art of DJing against the backdrop of our Musica sin Fronteras exhibit. I had the privilege of preparing for the campers' arrival and being fully immersed in the camp's activities throughout its duration. The highlight for many was the presence of the renowned DJ Johnny Kage, a familiar face in El Paso's DJ scene. His expertise and amiable personality left a lasting impression on all of us. It was fascinating to hear about his journey, which began at the young age of 15 in Ciudad Juarez, where he honed his skills using records cassettes and CDs. The camp also provided an opportunity to explore the origins of House, Techno, and Disco music, shedding light on their historical significance. The week also included an exclusive preview of La Nube...

 Yesterday marked the end of my third week. I have no words to describe how awesome this week was. For the first time, I was exposed constantly to something that I am very passionate about: nature and animals. To explain what I did this week, I will explain the layout of the museum and the tasks that I did/helped. At the Frost Museum, we have five floors, each floor has a different exhibits and animals. This week I will focus on the animal side.  5th Floor We have the WetLab, which is a research room, where we grow corals and test the conditions of every tank in the museum. In here I spent some time helping Natalia feed the Pilar Corals, which are extinct in the wild.  4th Floor  On this floor we can find "The Vista", which is a combination of various marine habitats. We have an aviary, which focuses on the beach and mangrove habitats with different fish like tarpon, and birds like spoonbills. There is also a Stingray touch exhibit and the Gulf Stream exhibit, in whe...

This week was week 2 for me at HistoryMiami and I learned so much about doing research here at the museum. I want to start this post by talking about what I couldn't mention in my last post... Saturday: I came in on Saturday, July 20, to survey the visitors of the museum since Saturday is our busiest day. I realized that even on our busiest day, we only have 20-30 visitors. This bothered me immensely because I have come to love our exhibitions, and to know that most people have no idea that we even exist is incredibly disheartening. Talking to the people who did visit, I was able to meet some very interesting individuals. I met a woman who used to be a reporter. She lived in Miami for many years and did not know its history. She came to the museum to learn more about the city she calls home and spent 3-4 hours exploring our "Tropical Dreams" exhibit, which delves into Miami's history. I also met a man who was here on vacation from Jamaica. He wanted to visit the museu...

 Arizona State University Art Museum (ASUAM) - Cailinn Allen - Week 3 This week I worked remotely for the museum as I was at the  Hispanic Heritage Foundation's  LOFT Leadership Institute at Trinity Univeristy in San Antonio, Texas. Here I met phenomenal young Latino leaders, engaged in cultural leadership, and met with professionals from various fields and disciplines. In every introduction of mine, I spoke about NMAL - and it was the first time many of the students had heard of the museum! I also engaged in my first Open Space Agenda, where  Malinalli Diaz and I led “Indigeneity: Deconstructing Latinidad” - a seminar entirely crafted by us. We honored our respective Akimel O’odham and Nahuatl cultures and their intersections with our Latino identities. This was an experience I’ll cherish forever. From speaking about decolonization vs. Indiginization, Native Icons of the past and present, and examining the use of Hispanic vs. Latino across nations, we created a safe...

The Witte Museum - Xochitl Aguero, Week 3  It is officially been three weeks interning at the Witte Museum and I’ve been having such an incredible and engaging experience! I continued to help out at camp as well as helped out at public programs and shadowing a fellow Witte Staff member! For the camp focus this week, the 6-8 year old campers are doing “Engineer It!” and the older 9-12 year old campers are doing “Artventures.” I focused on the older campers this week and I made sure to follow their objective which is to explore the outdoors to inspire art with plants, pebbles, feathers, and more. They will also be using their imagination to express themselves through colorful canvases and artistic discovery. I continued to help set up the activities, supervise, and teach the campers about science, history, and culture at the Witte!  On Monday,  the first thing we did is a drawing activity where had to draw what they think is under the rug from the picture shown below. The c...

     Saturday 7/20  I can't believe I am approaching the end of the internship already! On Saturdays, most of the staff is gone, so I am given a list of tasks to complete. Today, I went through art supplies and moved them to their appropriate areas. I then worked on my main project, which is to create a proposition for an activity in the upcoming interactive gallery Natural Histories .   Monday & Tuesday  Unfortunately, I caught a virus near the end of the weekend, so I stayed home these two days.  Wednesday    Today, I was assigned a new project to make posters for the Dixon Teen Council Program, which commences in the fall. As I have no prior design experience, this project took me a couple of hours. However, I am glad that I was able to attain a new skill, and contribute to a program I was once a part of. During the evening, I helped with K Club and their print making project. Thursday Today, I continued to work on my posters by making...

 Museum of Science & Industry - Thalía Estrada, Week 3      Hey guys! I mostly spent my time on my laptop working in the offices, but I did snap a few pictures along the way! This week, I dove deeper into my research by finding which companies and organizations I can find that would help the museum connect with more of the Hispanic and Latino community in Chicago. I looked for Latinx community groups, Latinx STEM organizations, and Latinx STEM companies. I spent my time scrolling through google, clicking on websites, and looking through these organizations and companies. I would go thorough their staff list and “About Us” tabs. After finding a few that I felt like truly represented the Hispanic/Latino community, I took note of them. Additionally, I looked through an excel sheet provided to me that contained a list of past organizations and companies that have worked with the museum. Then, I organized a new Excel sheet where I listed which of those orgs./companies...