DECIDING ON THE INTERN PROGRAMS

Though the missions and goals of the Millenial Visions internships were to be, in theory, the same for the model project institutions, both the Friends of Arrow Rock and the Black World History Museum had to evaluate their own needs, programs, and mission in order to create the right kind of intern program for their growth. Both participating organizations had confidently chosen an initial intern structure that matched their needs (see Arrow Rock and Black World History Museum intern models). While the Black World History Museum chose to work with younger, high school students, the Friends of Arrow Rock chose to involve older, college students to participate in its internship. Additionally, the museum would retain the interns for almost the entire duration of the grant, while the Friends would use the interns almost exclusively in the pre-grant period for the writing of the living history script.

Despite their drastically dissimilar approaches to structuring their interships, both institutions came to similar conclusions after working with their student interns. Both found similar needs for formalization in structure and communication, and both came away with valuable lessons after the intern project had come to completion. Most importantly, both organizations found that setting up additional administrative and logistical guidelines before the start of a future intern project would be an essential component of evaluating that project's feasibility and predicting realistic outcomes from the interns. In retrospect, lead administrators of both institutions would suggest doing following before bringing the interns on board for their next intern project:

1. Decide what, specifically, you expect from your interns.

Although Black World History Museum worked with high school students and the Friends of Arrow Rock worked with college students, both institutions found that expectations for the interns must be clearly drawn and communicated to the students. If an institution does not, as Ms. Borgman stated, "have a realistic idea of what [the] students can do," the entire project's timeline can easily be delayed. If, for example, an institution expects a finished product from the interns, it must be certain that either the students already possess the skills, or can acquire the skills within the allotted time period, necessary to completing the project. Otherwise, the public programming and/or the exhibit may be compromised.

2. Give those expectations a structure.

Because the interns are, after all, learning new skills in situations unlike others they may have experienced, they will be looking to the institution for everything from "how-to's" to deadlines. Friends of Arrow Rock Education Director Pam Parsons said of her experience: "I feel that we needed to be more structured in what we expected...and have deadlines along the way for [the interns]." Lois Conley of the Black World History Museum takes this advice a step further. As she explained, the museum is becoming "more and more formal in terms of instruction." Since the grant term expired, the museum has created lesson plans for specific activities, secured more "faculty" to teach the interns, created set time slots for activities and programs, and compiled a formal schedule for future intern programs. These steps, in addition to the progress charts Ms. Conley already had in place during the grant (see intern models), help the intern program to run smoothly, and with minimal frustration to all those involved.

3. Create a mechanism for maintaining the intern's accountability.

Both institutions stated that there needs to be some motivation for the interns to take responsibility for their work. Whether this motivation takes the form of test-taking or encouragement from other members of the intern team, the intern program must be structured so that the implications of not finishing a required task are clearly spelled out.

4. Allocate a considerable amount of time to teaching the interns skills and "job-readiness."
Both the Friends of Arrow Rock and the Black World History Museum found themselves expending a considerable amount of time teaching the interns both general and program-specific skills. In the case of the Black World History Museum, the staff found that it needed to incorporate some remedial academics into its program. Even with the museum's screening process, basic skills were still lacking in the majority of the students chosen; this threatened the overall quality of the project. Similarly, the Friends of Arrow Rock found that the interns chosen for their program were lacking some basic research skills. In addition, the written script that they had expected to be a finished product was, in reality, a working draft that needed major revisions. Both organizations, therefore, conclude that the teaching of skills fundamental to completing the overall project is an essential component of the intern program and MUST be built into its structure. In other words, as Kathy Borgman stated, an institution needs to view the intern program "as part of [its] education mission."

In addition, especially in working with younger students, an organization must be prepared to address basic issues of job-readiness. With these young high school students, an institution must be prepared to devote time to combating immaturity and to addressing issues such as dress code, attendance, on-time arrival, etc. This time can, if an institution is not adequately prepared to expend it, interfere with other scheduled activities and cut into learning or "producing" time. Yet, Ms. Conley, admitted that she feels "ambivalent about [raising the age of interns]." In many ways, "the earlier you start [the interns], the better": an institution spends less time breaking bad work habits and battling preconceived notions if the students are younger.

In short, then, an institution must evaluate its needs and the energy it is willing to devote to the kinds of challenges working with particular groups of students poses. If, in other words, an institution decides that it is unwilling to work around the immaturity or lack of "job-readiness" of young interns, equally challenging issues may well arise. Many interns for the Friends of Arrow Rock, for example, were older; but, because many had families, coordinating schedules and meeting times comprised a challenge not faced by the Black World History Museum, which worked with the younger students.

5. Match your institution's goals with the actual resources at your disposal.

An institution must take into consideration the amount of time, funding, and staff it is willing and able to devote to its intern program. Both the Friends of Arrow Rock and the Black World History Museum, for example, found that their staff members were stretched to capacity in trying to carry out their regular duties in addition to the supervision and/or training of interns. Ms. Conley indicated that, given additional funding, she would have considered hiring an additional staff member who would be specifically responsible for the interns. Because of these considerations, a similar institution taking on a project of this kind would need to evaluate its resources in deciding on the number and the kind of students its staff would reasonably able to handle.