The internship program not only has revolutionized the way the College of Arts and Architecture documents and promotes events, but also has changed Thomas’ role from primary photographer and public relations specialist to instructor. She and her colleague and officemate Cody Goddard, multimedia specialist in the Office of Digital Learning, suddenly found themselves trying to determine what these students needed to learn. Each intern had a different skill level and different interest – photography, videography, social media and public relations. What they had in common was their enthusiasm and familiarity with the arts, which Thomas believes is essential for creating quality content.
“I wanted students who loved the arts. They could learn the rest!” she said. “Most of all, I wanted them to complete the internship with the experience to find work as a well-rounded multimedia and communications professional. Many of our students will become arts entrepreneurs, and they will need to be able to manage their brand, document their work, and promote their art on top of excelling in their areas of study.”
Thomas started offering workshops to create a baseline knowledge for Level 1 academic credit interns, and she and Goddard both started offering Level 2 workshops on Fridays with open office hours following the workshops for applied learning. The workshop invitation list grew to include friends of the students involved, staff members who wanted to skill build for their annual job performance goals, and faculty who wanted to share the workshop offerings with their classes.
Over the past three years, the visibility of the program and the offerings grew organically based on what the students wanted to learn. The cohort, composed of College of Communications and Arts and Architecture students as well as students from the College of Agriculture Sciences and the College of the Liberal Arts, began earning accolades. One intern, Natalie Gonzales, earned a summer internship with Canon cameras – one of 18 selected from over 14,000 applications (another intern was a finalist). Avery Belser, a professional photography major in the School of Visual Arts who has interned with Thomas since he was a high school student, earned an award for his photograph in the Art Alliance photography show and mounted a solo exhibition in the fall on campus called, “Freshman 15,” featuring 15 photographs that told the story of his freshman year.
“I’ve been an intern since I was 16 years old, and it has given me many valuable experiences,” said Belser. “It’s not only that I have learned incredibly useful things but also that I have made many lifelong friends along the way.”
Briana Bennett, a former photography intern, glass artist, and staff member in glass research in the Penn State Department of Materials Science and Engineering, will also have some of her glasswork on display in the gallery. The exhibition title, "Dojo," is a nod to martial arts spaces and immersive learning practices and relates to the photographic conversations and learning that happen in 027 Borland.