Summer Internship Blog

I had to take the last week off, but I am back with some exciting events from this week. The theme of this week's camp focused on animals from my understanding. Given the various extra activities on the schedule, I did not get to see all of the scheduled class activities. The kids visited the nature exhibition in order to learn about the natural environments animals live in here in Florida. In terms of the regular class activities, the class created pet rocks and clay animals in order to get them thinking about animals. We also had the kids build spider webs and fly around like hummingbirds to show how animals behave in the wild. While these class activities were fun, the real highlights were the special activities.  Starting with the field trip, this week went to the WonderWorks located on I-Drive. If you haven't been to a WonderWorks before, it is a science museum chain filled with various games. While some of these games are standard games, most of the games feature educatio...

This is the second week of the Summer Camp for the Orange County Regional History Center. Each week of the camp focuses on a different aspect of Florida history. Last week' focused on Florida's tourism. For this week's lessons, the theme was set around the pioneers who built Florida.  As I talked about in my last blog post, the activities at the camp focus on either experience activities and crafting activities. This time around, I will start with the experience activities. I did not get to experience this activity, but the kids focused on acting out a script since famous singer and actress Ariana Grande comes from Florida. The main experience activity I assisted with was another artifact exhibition. This time the exhibition took place in the Pioneer gallery on the 4th floor. This section focuses on the Native American and Pioneer history of the 1800s. During this visit, the kids got to handle several pioneer tools like a teapot, an old-fashioned iron, a hoof knife from the...

This week I began my internship in earnest as part of the Orange County Regional History Center's Adventures in History Summer Camp. During this week, I focused on getting a feel for the needs of the job. My scheduled time runs from 9 am to 2 pm, which covers most of the educational periods for the students. The camp follows a weekly scheduled with each week having a different theme. The activities for this week revolved around tourism in Florida. My job as an educator matched up to what I was expecting after my training day last week. The activities appeared divided into two main types, crafting activities and experience activities.  In the crafting activities, the students would be tasked with crafting, coloring, or building something related to the lesson. During these class activities, my main job involved assisting the kids with tasks that were too difficult or too dangerous for the kids to do on their own. The "danger" in question was a hot glue gun. For legal reaso...

As the title suggests, this week's blog post will be focused on my training day that took place last Saturday on May 24th. This training not only served as my first day as an intern, but also my first day at the Orange County Regional History Center.  My training day began at 10 am when we began with a PowerPoint presentation walked us through the basic requirements of our jobs as teachers and guides for the children we will be educating. The main focus of the presentation involved explaining the behavior of young children. Our presenters explained that young children mimic the adults and teenagers around them, so it is very important to remain engaged and excited for the activities we will be doing. What surprised me a little bit was how much a class of children go to the bathroom. We spent a few minutes on this topic as it is one of the primary tasks the volunteers will be carrying out. My training consisted of more than just a seminar, but actual hands-on activity. After the pre...

 Hello, I am John Hill and I am a graduate student at the University of Central Florida. I currently work at the Universal Orlando Resort. I moved to Florida very recently in 2022. Before then I lived in Georgia since 2008 and I was born back in 2000 in NC. My hobbies include gaming, history, and nature. My current research interests involve a focus on cultural history in the 20th century in the United States. I have a major interest in the creation of amusement parks, wildlife reserves, and advancements in home entertainment. Currently, I am aiming to make my thesis involve the rise of the video game industry in the late 20th century or building upon a recent digital project I made as part of a spatial history class. This second project covers the "fall" of the video game arcade. Instead of failing, arcades changed how they appear and manage their businesses, such as entertainment centers, kid zones, or restaurant hybrids.  As for what I want to get out of this internship, I...

While my internship begins on June 2nd, I do have something to discuss for this week's post. For this post, I will cover the process it has taken to reach this point in my internship. This journey began back in February when I applied for two internship positions. One position was for the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and the other was for the Orange County Regional History Center (OCRHC). After waiting for a couple weeks, I figured that I did not get the position at either place. Soon after I thought that two emails appeared in my inbox. The Smithsonian told me that I did not get the position. Meanwhile, the OCRHC asked me to meet over Zoom for an interview. I met for a brief interview over Zoom a week later, and after that I received an offer to join their team as a Summer Educator. It turned out that my job experience at the Universal Orlando Resort translated well to the potential challenges of being a Summer Educator. An obvious requirement involves being able...