Erin Powell ’21, a double major in anthroplogy and zooology, describes her 2019 summer internship as “exhausting, messy and super-hot outside.” In the next breath she exclaims “I absolutely love it!” She’s working at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, taking care of the giraffes and an okapi (the closest relative to giraffes native to the rainforests of the Congo). It’s a job that includes significant feeding and care, including maintaining indoor and outdoor spaces for the animals. “I’ve always wanted to be a zookeeper,” says the zoology and anthropology double major from Fairfax, Virginia. “Next year I plan to do an internship at a different zoo, hopefully with another type of animal. I enjoy the giraffes, and have fallen in love with the okapi, but I'd like to get some different experience.” Despite the deprivations, her internship hasn’t dampened her enthusiasm for the work. She’s looking forward to taking the “Zoos, Exotics and Endangered Species” class at UVM next semester. (Photo courtesy of the Maryland Zoo).

Senior Tali Gelenian learned new ways to combine her anthropology major with minors in environmental studies and reporting and documentary storytelling during her summer internship at the summer at The Library of Congress Washington D.C. Gelenian worked as a summer Bartis Intern at the library’s American Folklife Center, helping to create a podcast series for the Occupational Folklife Project. Her responsibilities included research, identifying themes for scripts, gathering audio assets, and preliminary editing of episodes. “I've been exposed to a broad spectrum of public programs and archives work. This aligns with my interest in sharing cultural documentation to wider audiences, amplifying community voices and cultivating cross-cultural engagement and understanding,” Gelenian says. Her work also feeds into her senior honors thesis at UVM on a unique tradition practiced by Armenian-Americans in Racine, Wisc. “This experience has really informed my mission of integrating creative multimedia formats into the work of anthropologists and ethnography to increase the accessibility of cultural research.”

Carter Bradshaw '20 is a double major in anthropology and French and is interested in working in a non-profit service organization after graduation. She’s gained plenty of experience in the summer of 2018 through an internship at Champlain Community Services (CCS), a local organization that provides services to intellectually disabled adults. She took advantage of a College of Arts and Sciences scholarship which pays for her living expenses during the summer. “I’m extremely grateful to UVM for that,” she said. “Many internships like this are unpaid so the funding helps me with living expenses while I’m working.” Bradshaw worked on several communication and development projects, including conducting interviews and writing stories for the CCS annual report and running the organization’s main fundraiser. “I think my anthropology studies really relate to what I'm doing . I'm making connections with people by learning about their different lifestyles as well as advocating for and working with a population of people with disabilities who are often excluded from the community." 

Stella Cunningham ’21 is focused on a career in non-profit management, and in the summer of 2018 she gained invaluable experience as an intern at the Art League of Ocean City, an Ocean City, Md., organization that promotes visual arts through education, exhibits, scholarships, programs and community art events. She worked with children attending ALOC summer art camp while shadowing the organization’s executive director in her day-to-day activities. “I’ve been learning a lot about how non-profit organizations operate. Since this is what I see myself doing as a career, this internship has helped me focus on which positions and responsibilities I would want to pursue someday.”