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Profile
of Stephanie Meyer, Intern, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, Inc.,
4/05
Stephanie Meyer is a Psychology major with a particular focus on
developmental psychology. She hopes to work in public policy or
in community organizing as a career. She feels that the PPW certificate
will help her achieve her career goals, since all of the fields
that she is interested in require excellent written communication
skills and the ability to persuade others.
Last semester, Stephanie interned at the Pitt Office of Child Development,
where she helped to create advocacy and informational pieces concerning
key programs and legislation affecting education in Southwestern
PA. This semester, she is an intern at the Children’s Museum
of Pittsburgh in the North Side. She works with the Education Department’s
Child Development Specialist. Her tasks involve hands-on experience
with children in our Tot Time Classes, designing parental handouts
on child development, and creating brochures to encourage others
to volunteer and intern with the museum. She also attends Education
Department meetings, sets up and takes down Tot Time, designs Tot
Time lesson plans and activities with fellow interns, and monitors
in the museum’s nursery.
Stephanie chose the Children’s Museum because she always enjoyed
visiting there with her family, and she agreed with their principle:
play is critical to development and learning. She found the internship
by talking with a woman from the museum at the Pittsburgh Association
for the Education of Young Children (PAEYC) annual conference last
fall. The woman later arranged for her to meet with the museum’s
Child Development Specialist.
Stephanie feels that her internship was most useful in terms of
connecting her theoretical knowledge of developmental psychology
to actual practice with children in the museum. She learned about
the funding (or lack thereof) in museums and how they must operate
short-staffed and underpaid. Stephanie believes that in order to
thrive, one must truly love his or her job.
Stephanie would absolutely recommend the PPW certificate and internship
experience to other students. The courses teach writing techniques
and tasks that Stephanie believes are needed in the professional
world, but the courses are never cut and dry. Rather, she thinks
that the courses allow students to follow their own interests and
use those interests to effectively create pieces that they care
about. PPW students leave college with an impressive portfolio of
practical pieces that will be sure to impress potential employers.
Also, the program directors are always willing to help in any way
they possibly can. |
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