Name: Sarah Golobish
Class Year: 2020
Major: Undeclared
Hometown: Princeton, N.J.

Internship Placement: The Franklin Institute
Job Title: Gender, Adult Learning and Community Engagement Intern
Location: Philadelphia

Museum Programs staff and volunteers after testing the new “Intergalactic Escape” room.

“Scribble Bots” I made to help train teachers to lead Maker lessons with their students.

What’s happening at your internship?

Most of my work this summer has had me on the fourth floor of the museum in the Museum Programs and Outreach Initiatives office. I help the museum staff with their everyday programming, which includes free monthly community nights and their Discovery Summer Camp. I’ve also done work to support the professional development program the museum runs for Philadelphia-area school districts. My internship also fell just as they finalized the institute’s strategic plan for the next 7 years. This plan comes with a large push to evaluate all programming the museum does so I have been helping facilitate these efforts (mostly for the summer Discovery Camp and the professional development sessions). A good chunk of my time, however has been dedicated to revamping and reorganizing the kits for LEAP into Science, a partnership effort with the Free Library of Philadelphia and other science centers across the nation that pairs science activities with children’s books. Working on all of these different projects has given me a great perspective into the work that goes into running the outreach initiatives and other programming that goes on at the museum. It has also been so much fun to experience a new side of the museum and to get the chance to learn from the other volunteers and staff!

Why did you apply for this internship?

I’ve been coming to the Franklin Institute my whole life and I remember how exciting it was to be able to walk through the giant heart whenever I got the chance to come. (I even made my roommates go with me earlier in the year; you’re never too old for the giant heart!) When starting to consider internships for the summer I saw the Franklin Institute position on the LILAC website and I knew that I’d have to apply. So, I was beyond thrilled to learn that I’d be able to intern here this summer. It has been amazing to be a part of something that brings science to life for so many young children and inspires them the way I was inspired!

While searching the LILAC website I also found the Summer of Service program, which has turned out to be an incredible experience that I encourage everyone to check out! As part of the program you live as a cohort of 10 in Batten House and you participate in group reflections and weekly activities. The program also provides you with a SEPTA pass that gives you amazing access to the city that is hard to get during the traditional school year. The support from LILAC and my fellow housemates is what drew me to this program and in the end, it is also what has made it so meaningful.

Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?

Because I worked on a few different long-term projects and would also help with smaller office tasks, I could really decide for myself what I wanted to do each day. In that environment, I really relied on my time management skills and ability to independently prioritize my different responsibilities. This ability to work on a number of tasks without letting some fall to the wayside is important in almost any work setting and I think that my work at TFI has prepared me to do just that.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

A lot of my work was based in the office this summer, but I was given the opportunity to shadow my supervisor when she visited sites and lead Maker workshops with a summer program. It was wonderful to see some of the kits that I had helped to assemble be used and get to see how much the kids learned and all the fun they had experimenting. When you spend your days in an office it can be easy to forget the real-world impact of what you’re doing. Visiting these sites really brought home to me what The Franklin Institute tries to do in its mission to “inspire a passion for learning about science and technology,” and I am so grateful that I could help foster that inspiration, even if only for a summer!