Advice

The Mid-America Museum of Aviation and Transportation is a wonderful place for an internship if you’re looking for the following type of experience:

• Opportunity to learn about many aspects of museum administration including record-keeping, marketing, security, guest relations, fundraising, archival storage, display creation, and more

• Mostly independent work

• Visitor interaction and tour guiding

• Small museum atmosphere

• Self-motivated progress and initiative for new projects

As its motto states, the MAMAT is always a work in progress and will never be finished. This creates room for many projects; there is so much that can be done in the museums so all work and ideas are appreciated and valuable. Each day can bring a new project if you like, or you could choose devote your time to a few larger projects. The executive director is very knowledgeable about the museum and its contents but welcomes student input and expertise. The atmosphere is very relaxed and one can quickly become comfortable with the work environment.

I enjoyed the freedom to work on new projects by myself and take ownership of the progress. I became infinitely more comfortable in the space as the semester went on and learned so much new information. The museum is very large but I was surprised how quickly I learned about each exhibit and was able to interact with visitors. Overall this was a great first internship for me to dip my toes into museum careers.