SCUA supports student success by providing opportunities for internships, capstone projects, practicums, student workers, and volunteers. Their projects include conducting research and archival processing, creating libguides and story maps, creating exhibits, and writing blog posts. Some of the experiences in SCUA lead to external internships and job opportunities in the field.

Alina Ramirez: UNCG MLIS Student, SCUA Intern

Alina created an online exhibit about the Literary Societies at Woman’s College (now UNCG). In lieu of sororities, which school founder Charles Duncan McIver thought were exclusionary, students were assigned to one of four literary societies: Adlephian, Cornelian, Dikean, and Aletheian.

See the exhibit at: https://sites.google.com/view/uncgliterarysocieties

Jennifer Larsen: Student Worker

Since the Spring semester of ’23, I have worked as a student employee in the Manuscripts section of SCUA here at UNCG. I was eager to learn about what it takes to work in an archive and see if it was a career I would want to pursue once I finish my History degree. This position has definitely met my expectations. I feel like I am learning some of the essential elements of archival work while helping to process several fascinating collections. My tasks are primarily processing text, photographs, and artifacts for inventory then entering data into the ArchiveSpace online database to modify or create finding aids so researchers can discover them. The Manuscripts collections focus on North Carolina Piedmont heritage, and the collections I have worked with have direct connections with UNCG or the Greensboro area.  

So far, I have helped inventory items for a variety of collections including a WWII veteran and UNC nursing instructor, a bookstore serving the gay and lesbian community of North Carolina, a Greensboro author and UNCG English professor emerita, an association specializing in music education, and a collection of Spanish language poetry from Central and South America. Even just scratching the surface as a part-time student worker, I feel like I am gaining skills and knowledge that will be valuable in my future career search after graduation.

Tori Hinshaw: Graduate Assistant

Graduate student Tori Hinshaw returned to a familiar place for her summer internship – her home state of Tennessee and the birthplace of country music.

Hinshaw, who is working toward a master of arts in history with a concentration in museum studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a collections intern at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. The collections department is the caretaker of thousands of items displayed in the museum. Hinslaw has worked in several smaller museums including the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama and RCA Studio B in Nashville, so she was interested to see how working at a larger museum would compare.

“I saw the collections internship and also took a collections class last fall, which taught me a lot about what that looks like as a career,” Hinshaw says. “I also work with collections in the University Archives, so I thought this would build upon that experience.”

Hinshaw started the internship in May – just in time for Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” to arrive in Nashville and a pop-up exhibit about the music star to be set up in the Hall of Fame.

“It’s been really surreal,” she says. “I got to see the original Taylor Swift cardigan, her ‘Folklore’ coat, you name it. So, that’s been my favorite moment so far.”

She credits many of her professors in the museum studies program with helping her get the opportunity.

“I cannot stress how wonderful the professors in this program are for preparing us,” she says. “Dr. Ann Parson’s class taught me a lot about best practices working with artifacts and working in a museum in general. Dr. Torren Gatson has taught me a lot about professionalism. UNCG has prepared me enormously.”