This spring semester, I have been interning at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH) in the Registration Services department.

At NMAH, Registration Services is generally tasked with keeping the museum’s records, specifically by cataloging online and hardcopy files. This is a big task for a relatively small department—the museum has over 1.5 million objects in its archives, meaning there are over 1.5 million corresponding object records in paper form and in online databases to keep track of. Including myself, Registration Services has fewer than 20 people spread thinly over a variety of important tasks, ranging from file digitization projects to database maintenance and improvements.

Ultimately, this leads to a pretty hectic work environment, which has its pros and cons. For me, this means I always have an interesting task to engage with, even though I am lowest on the totem pole in my department. I was not expecting to be immediately thrown into vital projects when I started in late January, but after interning for a couple of months, I am beginning to realize the significance of the projects I am working on.

One of these projects is the aforementioned digitization project, a department-wide effort to convert all of our hard copy records into PDF, text-searchable form. These PDFs will eventually be attached to file records in the museum’s online database, meaning curators and researchers will no longer need to come to our department searching for often misplaced files.

Overall, this internship has been a positive experience not necessarily because of the organizational skills I have developed—though those have been helpful—but because of the opportunity I have been given to observe and interact with academics in a professional setting.

Learning how to conduct oneself in meetings, how to communicate with coworkers, and how to operate in a bureaucratic work environment are invaluable aspects of moving through the professional world and are some of the most important lessons I have taken away from my time at NMAH.

Coming from a small liberal arts college, the importance of an internship cannot be overlooked, as internship experiences can open doors that may otherwise be left closed. The connections WCSC has in DC’s professional environment are an outstanding resource for EMU students, one that I am glad to have taken advantage of.