The Department of African and African Diaspora Studies has opportunities for students to earn academic course credit while working as interns during the semester. Internships offer students the opportunity to utilize skills and knowledge from the classroom into real-world opportunities.
To earn credit, students must have an academic component in addition to their internship position. This is done by the student enrolling in AFRIC 489. Students will need class permissions to enroll in the course, which will be assigned by the Internship Coordinator once a placement has been secured.
Student Eligibility Requirements
AADS internship opportunities are open to all students regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexuality, or gender. Non-AADS majors and minors may complete internships/AFRIC 489, but priority consideration will be given to AADS majors and minors.
Students seeking to enroll in AFRIC 489 must meet the following prerequisites:
Must be a currently-enrolled student at UW-Milwaukee
Must have achieved junior or senior standing and have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.25
For non-AADS majors and minors, completion of at least one 300-level or above course in African and African Diaspora Studies
Permission of the department to enroll
Responsibilities for Credit-Bearing Internships
All students who participate in an AADS internship experience/AFRIC 489 must complete the following requirements:
Take the internship course concurrently with the internship (credit will not be given for past internships)
Must work a minimum of 120 hours (or 40 hours per credit) during the semester.
Complete substantial appropriate academic work to earn academic credit, which is outlined in the syllabus they create with their faculty supervisor.
The on-site supervisor must also contribute to evaluations of the student toward the end of the semester.
The internship must be related to the students’ program of study
Procedure For Internship Course Enrollment
Please be sure to start this process with enough time before the semester starts!
Students should connect with the Internship Coordinator Lin Haggerty, mshgerty@uwm.edu, as soon as possible and express their interest in completing an internship. Students can find an appropriate internship opportunity and apply on their own or the Internship Coordinator can provide assistance in the process of identifying, seeking, and securing an internship.
Students will be assigned a faculty supervisor that will work with them for the academic component and they work to create a syllabus.
Students communicate with the internship site to obtain an on-site supervisor.
The student, faculty supervisor, and on-site supervisor sign the Internship-Agreement-Form and the student turns the form into the Internship Coordinator before the internship begins. The desired deadline to turn in the completed Internship Agreement is one week prior to the start of classes for the appropriate term but can be submitted up until the add/drop deadline. Email your internship coordinator if you are unable to make that deadline.
Once the internship position is approved by the coordinator, the student will receive information on how to enroll in AFRIC 489 (Students cannot enroll in AFRIC 489 unless they have secured the internship first).
The student begins the internship and follows deadlines for the academic component.
Placements
Placements can vary based on students’ interests, but tasks must be related to their program of study, and not merely administrative duties. Some common placements are government agencies and nonprofits. Students are encouraged to identify internship opportunities on their own, but they must obtain approval from the Internship Coordinator beforehand.
Organizations that are interested in AADS student interns include:
About America’s Black Virtual Holocaust Museum via Nurturing Diversity Partners
In early 2012, four years after its physical facility was forced to close, the America’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA was revived as a unique, cutting-edge, interactive, online museum. America’s Black Holocaust virtual Museum is a one-of-a-kind 3400+ page website of digital exhibits about Black history as part of American history. The website serves as both a history museum and a memorial to the Black holocaust in the United States.
The museum’s mission is to build public awareness of the harmful legacies of slavery and Jim Crow in today’s America and to promote racial repair, reconciliation and healing. ABHvM’s vision is to help produce a society that remembers its past in order to shape a better future – a nation undivided by race where every person matters equally.
ABHvM receives over a quarter of a million visitors annually from over 200 countries. The virtual museum’s overwhelming success contributed greatly to the reestablishment of ABHM’s brick-andmortar facility in February 2022.
Scholar-griots (storytellers) from around the world curate its online galleries. Regularly every week new exhibits are added, including current news, event and opinion posts to the blog Breaking News: History In The Making several times per week.
ABHvM is operated by Jackson-Kaplan Consulting LLC (dba Nurturing Diversity Partners), an equity and inclusion training and consulting firm. Interns work with and are supervised by NDP, whose CoLead Educator Dr. Fran Kaplan was a founder of the virtual museum and has coordinated its development since 2010.
Students — both undergraduate and graduate — have provided critical support to the virtual museum from its inception. Current ABHvM offers three internships for graduate students: Assistant Exhibit Curator, Social Media Writer, and Breaking News Blog Assistant Manager. Junior and senior undergrads may apply for these positions as well. ABHvM has long worked with freshmen and sophomores as Breaking News Blog Curators.
Some benefits to student interns are:
Professional development and future job references
Course credits (as applicable)
Access to the ABHM physical museum site
Promoting racial justice and repair through truth-telling and education
An accommodating, flexible schedule
Working with an experienced team of longtime committed and caring activist-professionals
Position Details: Assistant Exhibit Curator (Junior/Senior)
Job Description
The Assistant Exhibit Curator helps ABHvM develop new exhibits and galleries by:
recruiting academic and public scholar-griots to volunteer to produce exhibits for ABHvM within their fields of study; helping them to meet ABHvM’s exhibit guidelines as to word count, popular language level, still and moving images, etc.; and posting these to the website,
researching, writing, editing, and posting their own original pieces according to the site’s guidelines,
working remotely as a highly responsive, communicative and dependable member of the team, and,
assisting with other tasks occasionally, as assigned.
Required Skills and Qualifications
Demonstrable commitment to ABHvM’s mission.
Graduate study in History, African American History, Digital Humanities, Digital Communications or related communication fields like Information Sciences or Journalism. (A relevant undergraduate degree or work experience is helpful.)
Excellent research and written communication skills, including editing.
Demonstrated ability to communicate academic subject matter to a general population in engaging ways and mindful of flow, readability and sentence variety.
Ability to cooperate well with other writers and editors to complete projects.
Ability to give and receive precise and supportive feedback with ABHvM team members and external scholar-griots.
Preferred / Willingness to Learn:
Experience with content management systems and word processor applications.
An understanding of search engine optimization best practices.
Responsibilities
Offer ideas for new exhibits, identifying gaps in content and recommending new topics.
Adhere to ABHvM’s scholar-griot guidelines, making complex concepts understood and editing it to ensure voice, grammar, style, and reading level is appropriate for a worldwide general population.
Revise content as needed and upon supervisor’s request.
Complete projects on deadline.
Optimize articles for SEO and accessibility.
Work closely with ABHvM team to ensure alignment and consistency in messaging, branding and style.
Regularly report project development to direct supervisor
Support to team members and respond timely to team correspondence.
Assist with related ABHvM tasks.
Position Details: Social Media Writer (Junior/Senior)
Job Description
The Social Media Writer helps ABHvM execute its social media efforts by:
assisting with the design and execution of ABHvM’S social media campaigns,
developing social media content that highlights the educational activities and mission of the museum,
posting (new exhibits, breaking news, events, etc.) across a variety of social media outlets, and
assisting with other occasional tasks, as assigned.
Required Skills and Qualifications
Demonstrable commitment to ABHvM’s mission.
Graduate study in History, African American History, Digital Humanities, Digital Communications or related communication fields like Information Sciences or Journalism. (A relevant undergraduate degree or work experience is helpful.)
Excellent research and written communication skills, including editing.
Demonstrated ability to communicate academic subject matter to a general population in engaging ways while mindful of flow, readability and sentence variety.
Mastery of the major social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Snap, and Google+.
Knowledge of social media analytics software including Facebook Insights, Google Analytics, and Twitter Analytics to track audience engagement and campaign performance.
Ability to cooperate well with other writers and editors to complete projects.
Maturity of judgment.
Ability to give and receive precise and supportive feedback with ABHvM team members and external scholar-griots.
Experience with word processor applications and image/video editing applications.
Preferred / Willingness to Learn:
Proficiency with content management systems.
An understanding of search engine optimization best practices.
Responsibilities
Post across social media platforms in accordance with ABHvM’s education and marketing values and goals and personal maturity.
Support ABHvM team at live and online events.
Perform social media marketing research.
Respond to comments and DMs on social media platforms according to ABHvM values and social media guidelines.
Create and find compelling graphics to share across social channels.
Ensure social media content adheres to ABHvM’s scholar-griot guidelines, making complex concepts understood while ensuring voice, grammar, style, and reading level is appropriate for a worldwide general population.
Track social media engagement to identify high-performing content and campaigns for scalability
Revise campaigns and content as needed and upon supervisor’s request.
Complete projects on deadline.
Work closely with ABHvM team to ensure alignment and consistency in messaging, branding and style across the organization.
Regularly report project development to direct supervisor
Support team members and respond timely to team correspondence.
Assist with related ABHvM tasks.
Position Details: Breaking News Blog Assistant Manager (Grad Student
Job Description
The Breaking News Blog Curatorial Assistant helps ABHvM aggregate, curate and archive current media and news stories as “Breaking News” exhibits by:
monitoring Black media and Black journalists for content that complements ABHvM’s mission,
choosing relevant and meaningful current content to spotlight,
producing new Breaking News exhibits that adhere to ABHvM guidelines and brand standards, and
assisting with other occasional tasks, as assigned.
Required Skills and Qualifications
Demonstrable commitment to ABHvM’s mission and vision.
Graduate study in History, African American History, Digital Humanities, Digital Communications or related communication fields like Information Sciences or Journalism. (A relevant undergraduate degree or work experience is helpful.)
Interest in and ability to teach and supervise young undergraduate students.
Excellent research and written communication skills, including editing skills.
Ability to work well with others.
Mature judgment.
Ability to give and receive precise, supportive feedback
Preferred / Willingness to Learn:
Experience with content management systems and word processor applications.
An understanding of search engine optimization (SEO) best practices.
Responsibilities
Assist supervisor in attracting, selecting, training, supervising, and supporting young undergraduate students in community learning and work-study positions with ABHvM as BN blog curators.
Contribute periodically to BN by reading Black media outlets and Black journalists to find current content that promotes ABHvM’s mission and vision and serves to engage and educate the museum’s diverse worldwide audience.
Choose appropriate articles and images about Black lives past and present, current events, and opinions relating to the legacies of enslavement, Jim Crow and the movements for Black civil rights and liberation.
Excerpt and post articles in a careful and timely manner on the Breaking News (BN) blog, adhering to ABHvM’s Breaking News guidelines and brand standards, including the management of copyrighted materials text and images.
Revise content as needed and upon supervisor’s request.
Complete projects on deadline.
Optimize articles for SEO and accessibility.
Work closely with the ABHvM team to ensure alignment and consistency in messaging, branding and style.
Regularly report project development to direct supervisor.
Support team members and respond timely to team correspondence.
Other related ABHvM tasks, as assigned.
African American Roundtable
Position Details: AART Community Engagement Intern
Job Summary
The AART Community Engagement Intern will serve as a support to AART staff. Their primary role is to support AART’s programming which includes and is not limited to the LiberateMKE campaign, Northwest side community engagement activities, digital communication, and other miscellaneous projects. The intern will be required to work five-to-10 hours per week throughout the semester.
Primary Responsibilities:
Reports to and has weekly check-in’s staff
Supports AART’s overall vision and mission
Supports program recruitment by emailing, calling, or texting our base and members to ensure their participation
Attend AART events in our office and in the community (some morning, afternoon, evening, or weekend attendance may be required)
Assist with setup, breakdown, and tabling at community events
Help recruit participants and speakers for events and public engagements
Participate in door-to-door and community canvassing
Participates in political education learning to sharpen their analysis of our work
Perform other duties as needed
Work with Programs and Logistics Associate at community meetings at events to field questions from volunteers and attendees to staff facilitators/coordinators
Offloading photos from AART camera and uploading to AART’s Photos Google Drive folder during high capacity moments as well as video recordings as necessary
*If you are interested in one of the above internship opportunities, contact the Internship Coordinator Lin Haggerty, mshgerty@uwm.edu for information on how to apply.
This list will grow as our internship program continues to develop. You can find more opportunities on sites such as Jobs That Help and UWM’s Handshake
Internship Coordinator
Lin Haggerty, mshgerty@uwm.edu, is serving as the Internship Coordinator for AADS. Contact her with any questions regarding internships or to set up a meeting.
