College students often benefit as much from meaningful internships as they do from classes and West Liberty University students have a growing list of community partners that offer hands-on work to compliment a major.
“We coordinate many internships in the Learning and Student Development Center and are constantly seeking to match our students with willing area organizations,” said Director Bridgette Dawson.
“In my recent graduating student survey, we learned that 53 percent of our May 2015 graduates completed both paid and non-paid internships, which is up from the previous year,” she said. “Some of these were arranged by my office but many were coordinated by professors.”
Olivia Best is a good example of a student who benefitted recently from a perfect internship.
Best is from Wellsburg and is the daughter of Jim and Annette Best. She’s a museums study major in WLU’s College of Education and an ambitious sophomore.
Her internship at Oglebay Institute entailed assisting museum curator Kelsey Traeger. Best secured the paid internship due to her participation in the Civic Leader Fellowship Program through the Community Foundation of the Ohio Valley. This program invites students to apply for internships that matches them with non-profits in need. (Visit cfov.org for more information.)
“During the OI internship I learned how to catalog and preserve collections, and how to use the museum software called Past Perfect. It was so interesting — I learned a lot. I helped Kelsey on a daily basis. I did accessions, took down the summer special exhibition and I also worked with children during the summer camps,” she said. “I loved it.”
“This is the first year that we had an intern from the Community Foundation’s Fellowship Program. We enjoyed Olivia and are glad we participated in the program,” explained Traeger, who joined Oglebay Institute’s professional staff last April and originally is from New Hampshire.
“We try to have at least one intern per year, sometimes we have more. Many of them have been West Liberty students. Olivia was very interested in the museums and made great contributions,” added Traeger. “We are happy to give these students hands-on experience that will be useful in their careers.”
Best also got to work on the early preparation for the upcoming exhibition at the Mansion Museum called, “First Folio! The Book that Gave us Shakespeare,” a traveling exhibition from the Folger Shakespeare Library that opens May 9.
“I helped in moving a collection of books and the bookcases to make room for the Shakespeare exhibition. I had to update catalog records in the digital catalog as we moved the books from the Sauder Gallery to the Dreihorst research office,” she said.
What was her favorite treasure that she handled at Oglebay Institute?
“Since I used to be an art major, my favorite piece was an historical sketchbook by Karl Knoblich. It dates to the early 20th century and almost didn’t make it. It was discovered in the trash I think,” she said.
Knoblich was a designer for the Wheeling Decorating Company and the story goes that OI employee Phil Maxwell noticed it when passing by the old Wheeling Decorating Company facility as it was being cleared out. When he saw it was about to be thrown away, he asked if he could have it to donate to the museum.
“The Oglebay silver from last year’s springtime exhibit is the most expensive thing I handled though,” she said.
Best now appreciates antiques and artifacts much more than she used to.
“I wasn’t sure about working at Oglebay Institute’s museums when I got my internship because I didn’t think I wanted to work in archives. I didn’t realize how much history happened here in Wheeling. I loved it so much that now I want to live in Wheeling,” she said.
“Olivia was a wonderful asset and I am so pleased that her experience with us made such a significant impact on her life, including her decision to stay in Wheeling. These collaborative partnerships are so important to us at Oglebay Institute and to the community as a whole,” said Oglebay Institute President Danielle Cross McCracken.
The university has a growing list of area employers in fields as diverse as Brooke County Public Library, area police departments, lawyers’ offices and even the U.S. Olympic Committee. Dawson encourages any student in need of an internship to call or visit her office in Main Hall.
For more information on the Learning and Student Development Center, please contact Dawson at 304.336.8018 or bdawson@westliberty.edu.