NY Historical Society Internship
The New York Historical Society has a limited number of school year and summer internships for budding historians. The school year program meets weekly after school, and the summer program meets three days a week for six weeks during the summer. Participants in the program conduct research, write blog posts and dive deep on interesting issues relating to the history of this great city.
Returning Student Historian interns have the opportunity to participate in second-tier internships as Teen Leaders, who may intern in one of three departments:
Family Programs interns meet throughout the academic year to support DiMenna Children’s History Museum’s programming. Explore the Family Programs calendar.
Exhibition Curator interns research and plan a historically themed interactive digital exhibition during the academic year.
Exhibition Educator interns develop and facilitate programming around the exhibition and its content over the summer.
Teen Leaders are paid minimum wage. Student Historian internships are unpaid.
How do I get started? Check out the NYHS website.
How can I expand this narrative arc? Are you passionate about history and keen to expand this narrative arc beyond the classroom and your internship? Consider one of the many history-related transcription projects, for example:
Extend your work in the topic that is the subject of the work that you can submit to a nationally-known publication like The Concord Review.
Turn your work into a project for National History Day.
HOT TIP: This is potentially a really interesting opportunity for a New York City-area teen who is deeply interested in history and historical research. In addition to gaining exposure to higher level intensive historical research this provides opportunities for writing and publication on the NYHS website and beyond. This is also potentially a springboard to other interesting jobs and history-related opportunities. See below for more information about summer programs in general.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT SUMMER PROGRAMS: College admissions officers are very adept at identifying “resume padders”: expensive, one-off programs paid for by your parents which do not mesh with your narrative arc. Therefore, make sure any summer program or course you consider falls into one (or more) of these four buckets:
Highly selective/competitive
Totally unique + linked to your narrative arc
Evidence of adulthood (long hours, multi-year commitment or simply hard work)
A jumping off point or expansion for an authentic narrative arc.
If none of the above apply, a program could still have value to you if it allows you to test a potential interest. However, if it does not end up being a jumping off point for further interests, then you may not want to mention it in your high school resume