This post was written by Katherine Raymond, a third-year History major in the Teacher Education Concentration. She will also minor in French and Political Science. Last summer she completed an internship at the American Historical Association for her HI 390: Internship in History course with Dr. William Kimler.
Each summer, the American Historical Association provides undergraduate internships at the AHA office in Washington, DC and remotely. I was accepted to work remotely. My main assignment was working in collaboration with members of the Teaching and Learning Department, directed by Dr. Brendan Gillis. We analyzed state education legislation to provide legislative overviews for the general public to access. The states for which I completed legislative overviews were North Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. Additionally, I got to be a part of conversations at the AHA surrounding academic standards revisions and advocacy work on behalf of social studies/history teachers. This focus was what drew me to the AHA in the first place, as a student in the Teacher Education Concentration.
I worked remotely this summer, with a fairly consistent schedule. On Mondays, the T&L Department would hold a department-wide meeting; interns were always invited and we would be given the opportunity to share what we’d been working on and contribute to department-wide discussions. Every Wednesday, I would meet with my supervisor for the legislative overview projects, and we’d troubleshoot, bounce ideas off each other, and work together to go through state legislation. When I wasn’t in meetings, I’d devote the majority of my time to working on these legislative overviews, researching individual states’ education systems, and keeping up to date with any major news in the education world. I worked mostly asynchronously, but was able to communicate back and forth with AHA staff and other interns if I had questions or wanted someone to look over something I had written.
Despite the remote format of my internship, it went well because my supervisors had worked out how to communicate effectively with me and the other interns in my cohort. Everyone I worked with seemed very excited to hear my perspectives on conversations surrounding education policy and history education, and I felt I was able to grow my understanding of those two things through my discussions with my fellow interns and supervisor.
Overall, this internship served as a great opportunity for me to both grow professionally and enhance my knowledge surrounding history as a discipline. In working on legislative overviews, I was able to learn more about both education history on a national level and how each state’s history influences its education policy. As someone who wants to work in history education, I valued being able to increase my knowledge surrounding education governance and what forces influence public education in America aside from the federal government.
I really enjoyed my time working for the AHA and would recommend applying for this experience.
