Gallery House 'Internship' Program: Applying Lessons Learned

Asa Maria Camnert, Lead Coach and Curator for the Gallery House Internship Program

Despite launching into and continuing post-graduate life, recently inducted DGT Alumni who completed the Gallery House Program in 2015 or 2016, have given innumerable volunteer hours to develop the program for continued and improved implementation in fall 2017. Alexa Telano, Eric St James-Lopez, Maria Camila Pava, Ariane Williams, Rudolph Strelis, Aika Mukhambetova, and Asa Camnert have all put in many hours at meetings and additional hours at home. Asa, pronounced 'ohsa,' will provide an important role in the fall, in the capacity of Lead Coach for a new incoming class of Gallery House interns. Asa will also serve as Lead Curator for the 2017 DGT Alumni Exhibit, scheduled for Pratt Alumni Day, October 7, 2017. Aika has committed to continuing on as a link to Pratt faculty and administration and in carrying through with logistical aspects of promoting Gallery House on campus. Maria Camila Pava, like Asa and Aika, has gone the extra mile, by putting many hours updating the 'Program Page' at the DGT Website. This page is being readied to be uploaded and launched by no later than August 15 when the application period commences for Pratt students seeking to participate in the fall internship program. The page will link to an online app for submitting a completed application with required attachments.

The group has worked hard to apply lessons learned from implementing the first three semesters of Gallery House, fall 2015, spring 2016 and fall 2016.  During the spring of this year the group evaluated for strategies to make the program far more compelling to undergraduates.  As a result, the program will now be described as an 'internship' program that not only offers a $1,000 one time wage, but also provides academic credit at Pratt.  Especially helpful in this effort was the Pratt Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD) which has been and ally and supporter of the program since the beginning in 2015. The Gallery House Task Force also developed and approved an instruction manual, containing experiential learning objectives for each week of the internship. The task force is also gathering all materials and forms developed over the past two years that would be helpful as instructional aides. 

To better target undergraduates, particularly juniors who have completed their foundational work at Pratt, the Gallery House Program will be promoted through the Pratt-Pro system of CCPD, announcements on the Video Screen coordinated by Student Activities, posting and distribution of a flyer about Gallery House, and promotion of the program within each Pratt Department via Department Chairs.  In the spring the group briefed all of the Department Chairs about the program, and all the Chairs will all have an up-to-date description of the program as they return to the campus for the fall semester.  Indeed, the level of current involvement by past beneficiaries of the Gallery House Program is itself a measure of the success the program is having.  Thanks go to this dedicated group of DGT members.