Manasota ASALH: Education Committee Intern (PAID Fall 2021 SMAH Internship)

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY AND THOROUGHLY: This paid internship position is a part of the Fall 2021 Sarasota-Manatee Arts & Humanities (SMAH) Internship Program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant and private donors to New College of Florida. Thus, this internship has certain expectations per the funding and program requirements.

The Mission of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) is to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community.

The internship will be interning for the Education Committee of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) of Manasota, Florida. The Education Committee has the responsibility of producing educational programs such as Beyond Black History Month (BBHM) for the ASALH membership. This program is focused on demonstrating that Black History does not occur only in the month of February and is to be celebrated throughout the year. 

In addition to BBHM, The ASALH Education Committee is working with several Sarasota and Manatee cultural, civic, and governmental subdivisions on Sarasota/Manatee Community Remembrance Project Coalition (SMCRPC): a partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to memorialize the occurrence of several lynchings in Sarasota and Manatee Counties, erect a marker, and then educate the community on the tragedy and senseless of those acts, as well as on the larger history of racial violence in America. 

The intern will, with the supervision and oversight of the ASALH Education Committee Chairs Gene and Linda Crump, assist with the execution of BBHM events, including contacting BBHM partners and presenters, determining the BBHM topic, monitoring zoom events, evaluating the success of events via feedback, calculating and executing timelines, and suggesting future programming ideas. 

As a component for the historical marker project, EJI sponsors an essay contest for public high school students, where grades 9-12 are challenged to write an essay that reflects on a historical event and connects it to present-day issues and their lived experiences. The intern will, with the supervision and oversight of Gene and Linda Crump, develop the essay program, working with the schools and teachers within Sarasota/Manatee school districts to produce these important essays that put into contemporary times the Florida lynchings, so they are not forgotten but learned from and memorialized.

It is our hope that the intern for ASALH Manasota will leave the internship with a greater appreciation and understanding of Black history, and how imperative it is that we continue a dialogue in our communities and internationally that moves equality and justice ever forward.

While working with the Education Committee, the intern will experience producing a BBHM event in all components, lending a greater understanding of program implementation and execution - nurturing an idea and theme, being involved on a day to day to basis in a hands on way that allows for decision making and professional growth The Intern will have the opportunity to use their specific life skills learned thus far and augment them with new skills and new work environments, with new expectations of broadening said life experiences for future work. 

By assisting with the essay component of the SMCRPC, the intern will also learn how to engage with teachers and students and again further their understanding of project creation and implantation. They will see a program from start to finish and be able to evaluate the results of their work, with the hope of making their community a better place.

Options: Hybrid (in-person and remote or completely remote, and flexible options