Young Ambassadors 2022 Internship Blog

  Week #3 - Internship Journal Blog Museum of History, Anthropology and Art of the University of Puerto Rico by Rodolfo Enrique López-Gutiérrez/YAP 2022 This week has been my favorite one so far- it was productive as much as it was eventful. On Monday I had finished working on medium sized 2D environments for my Stop Motion workshop. I had the idea to bring these environments to encourage participants to test their puppets in their habitat and inspire them to create ones of their own. It was very fun since they're all made of recycled things like milk cartons and boxes from electronic devices, construction paper, small discarded objects, pipe cleaners, gift wrapping paper, and more. With all these I was able to make a beach, an ocean, and a rainforest.  Green Turtle (Carey) nesting ground environment for the Stop Motion Workshop. Puerto Rican Parrot rainforest environment for the Stop Motion Workshop. Manatee contaminated reef environment for the Stop Motion Workshop. One of...

Lights! Camera! Action! Wait… Fashion Show?! Yes, the El Paso Museum of History hosted a fashion show. I know, I know, fashion shows and museums don’t seem to fit well together, but this one sure did! This was Friday’s activity, the week’s highlight, but this doesn’t mean it was the only thing that I did in the 3rd week of my internship. Of course not! The week was full of many enriching activities, so why don’t we start with where we left off… Wednesday!  Wednesday consisted of me learning to advertise for the museum. I assisted with cutting 200+ flyers for the fashion show on Friday, and spent a few hours walking downtown, posting them on the advertisement boards in various restaurants, parking garages, and bus stops. The flyers I did not use, I gave to the front desk employees downstairs to hand out to visitors as they come in. Thanks to all of these flyers, we had a great turnout on Friday. People were bringing in our fliers and asking if there were still spots left upstairs to...

  Week 3: July 20-26 Week 3 at the Witte :) ——————————————————————————————————————- 7/20 DAY 12      Today was a pretty normal day of camp. I got to do my favorite task which is watering the gardens and open up HEBBA :) For about a week there have been three computers that just won’t work no matter how many times you fix them. I was taught how to report the situation to IT support. Throughout the week I had only been with the green camp but today I did lunch coverage with the orange camp. After lunch coverage I spent the rest of my day working with the green camp. Honestly, another one of my favorite things to do is clean up after camp! The camp facilitators will take the kids up to check out and I’ll usually stay behind, wipe down all the tables with sanitary wipes and sweep up the floor. It’s really fun cause they let me play music while I clean :) It’s also really nice seeing the room all tidied after it was so messy. —————————————————————————————————————— 7/21 DA...

 Hello! Please excuse my late post.       I am officially half-way through with my internship and I am still learning more things about th emusuem world and my community everyday. I was able to visit the museum's library that is filled with old and valuable documents and literary pieces. I assisted in alphabetizing these and inputting them in to the system. I got to flip through and handle a directory that was 100 years old! The book-keeper was very invested in the field and had expansive knowledge. I was also tasked with my capstone project for my internship, which is to research space history in El Paso.       The museum is set to open an exhibit on the Hubble Telescope later this year. I requested to have my project involve community engagement. The museum educational associate assigned me to research local space organizations or groups that could possibly present during the exhibit's opening. I was also asked to look into any astronomical...

      On Thursday, July 21st, the Monarch Butterfly was officially labeled an endangered species. Since the species is critical to Latin culture and Dia de Los Muertos, I thought it would be better to focus more on the butterflies during October and the event. After researching the species, I found the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, 20 minutes from the museum. I suggested a collaboration with the center to my supervisor for the Dia de Los Muertos event as a way to promote the butterfly and to help people learn how they can help with the preservation of the species. I found an activity where kids can make their butterflies out of paper and attach them to sticks to mimic flying as they move around. I also found articles and stories about the butterfly migration and the myths associated with the creatures that will provide more information on the importance of the butterfly to our culture and the environment.  Example of Butterfly Art Activity This ...

 Hey everyone, my third week has been an actual rollercoaster. I was in charge of helping as much as possible for 2 main events: Ritmos Tropicales and the Showcase for the FUSD summer art program. Fresno is hot, and I would show up with about 15 other people to set up a massive party that the museum hosts every summer. I was in charge of selling tickets, checking for IDs, handling the raffle table, and collecting donations for the drag queen performance. This event alone was so work-heavy but so worth it. The community surrounding Arte shinned through with its strong ties to its volunteers. The program manager talked to me about the importance for her that every event that she plans comes out to be better than the last to serve her community, and that was very enlightening.  My new friends and I after a successful event The FUSD summer camp showcase extended my knowledge of a curator's job. A curator at Arte took the responsibility of organizing and setting up everything for t...

 Hello fellow yappers! Week 3 was a very busy week. Most of my time was focused on researching about organizations doing work on the border to help those seeking a safer home. After my information was found, I wrote out brief descriptions of these organizations that will be included in the Día de los Muertos family event pamphlet to bring awareness of what can be done to help in the current immigration crisis. Seeing as I one day aim to be a Immigration lawyer, my research has been very interesting for me and has helped me learn more about my field of interest. Just recently, I have also been working on drafting an email that will be sent out to these different organizations asking if they would like to hold a booth or send a speaker to be a part of the family event. As a part of my internship, I’ve had the privilege of being able to conduct interviews with people working at La Plaza to learn more about potential careers, gain advice, and build networking skills. Because my supervi...

Hello everyone!      Time flies so fast! During my third week at the National Museum of Mexican Art, I spent most of my time with the campers.  The activities from this week were crafted by Kaelyn Andrade, a Museum Educator. Students looked towards Frida Kahlo's archive of photographs for inspiration. They were tasked with building refrigerator archives with paper mâché. At first, when I thought of the word “archive” I thought about it solely in terms of a collection displayed in a museum. However, archives (collections of historical documents/records) are all around us. For instance, refrigerator doors are often the guardians of receipts, images, and memories. I found it interesting how the students added unique touches by creating different-sized compartments within their fridges. After discussing the relationship between food, culture, and identity, campers created magnets that represented their favorite foods. Also, through the combination of photography and self...

     Hello everyone! The past few weeks have been filled with so many activities. The last week we focused on preserving of memories and stories through various methods. The campers also improved so much on their dance routine and have been practicing for their performance near the end of the summer camp.      On Monday, we were introduced to our new instructor Kaelyn and we started on our new project of the week. The project consisted of building a refrigerator out of cardboard and paper mache. We created this because it's very common for families to place important documents, photos, magnets, and other symbolic items on a refrigerator.       On Tuesday, the campers created magnets using model magic so they can stick it to their refrigerator. Many magnets consisted of the campers favorite fruits and vegetables. Grapes, watermelon, strawberries, pizza, fries, and hamburgers were made by the campers.       On Wednesday...

Hey guys! I hope everyone has been enjoying their internship as much as I have. To start off last week I attended my very first staff meet ing. It was so cool to see everyone in one room and hear the latest report from each department. Not only did I get to learn more about the museum and the ways in which the departments work together, but I also got to partake in a delicious chicken biscuit breakfast from Whataburger, a favorite fast food chain for many Texans. Overall, it was a super cool and informative way to start the week. A couple days later, I got to meet with the Director of Visitor and Volunteer Services Mark Osborne, and Volunteer and Intern Program Manager Rennes McCloud. In our meeting, I got to learn more about their roles in the museum and we discussed the process of becoming a volunteer and intern at the museum. They also shared the recent increase of diversity among the volunteers as well as bilingual speakers and their importance in the museum. I was happy to share m...