One Foot in the Door
Interning. Something almost every college and high school student experiences, especially those in the arts. It’s how we get a foot in the door of The Industry, learn what will be expected of us, and begin to hone our professional talents. These “jobs” can range from the easy but mundane (filing payroll receipts seven days a week) to challenging and vitally important (interviewing, transcribing and writing for a magazine)—but they’re almost always valuable and provide much more than good references for our future employers.
Interning at Poets House certainly will help those of us who volunteer in our future career moves, but it also provides something more: we’re given opportunities to learn everything from ALA-standard cataloguing to video editing on programs such as Final Cut Pro to writing copy for event listings throughout various media. And while we might range in age and experience, none of the interns—or staff—at Poets House are lacking in spirit. As coworkers on projects and friends after hours we’ve formed a sort of family quickly.
Between our assignments, patrons, events, literary debates and after-hours adventures we Poets House interns, dubbed “Guide Stars” at the 2010 Bridge Walk (Poets House’s annual Gala), have accumulated plenty of stories to share. And here we’ll be doing just that.
-Sophie Bloomfield
