Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose - Week 1

 Howdy y'all! 

The internships are normally conducted for a month in July, but due to family reasons I did my internship for 2 weeks in August at the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose in San Jose, California. 

I arrived in California on August 2 after a long, miserable night early morning from Chicago, heading straight to my place I was staying, ready for the next morning - starting with a 1.5 hour commute by the San Jose VTA Light Rail to the Children's Museum. Arriving at the museum was no problem, as the museum has its own light rail stop, not to mention being a giant purple building. You just can't miss it. 

The problem, however, is that the front entrance is decently hidden - so immediately after I arrived, I walked all the way around the entire building, confused and awkwardly searching for the front door - until I conceded defeat and messaged Evelyn, my internship supervisor, who said she would find me, as she was just arriving too. After meeting up and having the calamity subside, she said that she, too, having started only 2 months ago, also had this problem the first day - Phew, it's not just me! 

Finally inside the museum!

The giant duck on the outside of the building where we eventually met up

After inside, we did the usual tour of everything, all the childrens' exhibits from the mammoth to the fire truck to the water works to the play kitchen. But of course, a tour is one thing. Being able to truly understand what is there and the visitors' experience is another thing. So the next assignment: GO OUT AND EXPLORE! I had a whole hour just to play around. Loved it. 

On top of the Fire Truck!!!

Later that day, we also did some more planning for the art activity that would take place over select days in the month of August - an activity of I Spy!, where there are pictures (a tiger, a red panda, a sunset by mountains, and a butterfly), and the little kiddos would look at the different colors and shapes before then drawing what they saw - but in practice, it was a free-draw area. 

Setting up the activity space

With Evelyn, finally done with prep!

The next two days came with hosting the activities - it was open for all so anyone could walk in and out at any time, there were no reservations or fees. Evelyn and I would walk around handing paper to all the kids who wanted to participate and draw (we didn't just leave a stack of paper for free-taking, as that would result in an instant depeleted supply), as well as introduce them to the activity. 

There's a lot to be said about this, but to keep it short, I had great takeaways in engaging the kids, especially how to talk to them about their art, which is an art in itself (pun intended), including questions such as "Are you proud of what you made" and "Was it easy or hard," to really have the kids not only tell you concretely what they made, but also their personal reflections on the process. General crowd control was also a big lesson, as the families would come in waves and ebbs and flows, and being able to seat everyone to give space was also a great lesson. And of course, all with a smile (mask on) and playful voice, because they are little kids, after all.

Hard at work!

The diversity not only in people but also in art!

Later in the week, I was also put on floor staff for the day, including general walking around helping guests and wiping things down, and we also had a vaccination day in collaboration with Stanford, whereby any guests who came in to get a free COVID booster shot would recieve a free museum membership. There isn't too much interesting to go into detail with, but suffice to say I was able to get a real sense of the day-to-day operations of the museum, including special events.

Outside the Stanford vaccination clinic!

That's effectively it for this first (and second-to-last) week! Very tiring working with all the little kids, long commute, and everything else going on before and after, but incredibly fruitful and fulfilling! I love working with little kiddos and have a second week to come soon! 

But first, a weekend trip to Yosemite with another friend! 

In N Out

Spectacular views!

Yep das me!