Internships: Explore Your Future in History
You want to learn about a career devoted to promoting history’s relevance – one that shows history is a vital life skills tool, one that engages in historical preservation and scholarship.
You’ve come to the right place.
A Kentucky Historical Society internship gives you hands-on experience in a variety of areas to help you build your future. At the same time, KHS interns play important roles in helping us to fulfill our mission to help prepare people for the future through history. Internships are available for undergraduate and graduate students. While they are designed to help meet specific institutional needs, we often can tailor individual projects to your skills, interests and academic requirements.
Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D
KHS is a state agency and membership organization that has full American Alliance of Museums accreditation.
Smithsonian Affiliations - Leadership for Change Internship
The Smithsonian and its Smithsonian Affiliates, in collaboration with the Emerson Collective and the George Washington University, will offer the Leadership for Change Internship to rising college sophomores, juniors, and seniors who are committed to helping communities, are passionate about social justice, and are driven to accelerate positive impact in our world. Visit the Smithsonian Office of Internship's website, and scroll down to "Smithsonian Affiliates, Leadership for Change Internship" to learn more.
Aligning with our vast oral history collection, we will identify specific collections that reflect our statewide values and focus points for our America250KY programming. Intern(s) will listen to recordings from the oral history collection of their choice, learning how to identify pertinent information and how to convey it in both short and long forms that each communicate robust storytelling. From one of these topic areas, interns will utilize a template recently created at Northern Kentucky University that visualizes oral histories into infographics. Using the infographic tool the intern(s) will create a visual representation of an oral history collection that can easily translate to social media posts while further educating and engaging Kentuckians on their shared history to inform how we meet the present and then move forward together, per our mission. Additionally, intern(s) will produce a learning lab for deeper exploration and visualization of the topic that will live on. We will also encourage a critical eye on the infographic template to improve the effectiveness of storytelling, institutional branding, and other aesthetics. This feedback will be used to help refine the template for future use. By working across multiple departments (Oral History, America250KY, Education, and Marketing) the intern(s) will get a broad view of how projects can be applied to larger initiatives across organizations. In addition to experience navigating large institutions, skills will also be gained in museum and oral history collection practices. There will likely be a virtual presentation on the final created projects as well.
Emerson Collective Youth Collaborative (ECYC) places college students in paid summer internship opportunities within Emerson Collective and through our national network of partners, including KHS.
Apply on their website through February 22, 2023.