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  2020-08-26

  JOTPY ASU Intern Meeting August 26, 2020

  Why is it so hard for me to say goodbye to this group of interns? I’ve taught face-to-face classes, I’ve taught online, and I’ve never had this reaction at the end of a class. HST580: Professional Experience is done. Normally this is the point where I turn in grades and post a meme or giphy about grading. But I didn’t do that, because I don’t want to want to look at their portfolios and I don’t want to read their last journal entries. When I do that, it’s really over. The oh so experimental 15 week internship completed remotely and asynchronously proved to be one of the most fulfilling experiences of my higher ed teaching career. Today, as the dust began to settle after their last meeting, I asked myself. What is the big deal? Why did you cry (again) when saying goodbye to this group of students on Zoom? I think there are a lot of factors at play. One is that we all took a crash course on rapid response archives together. I had barely a hair and sometimes no more expertise than the interns, and their critical analysis of curation, best practices, and ethics helped the team solve problems in real time. Second, although I love teaching online, like many I’ve felt very isolated with the shelter in place rules. Even though I have a wonderful family and a less than wonderful dog, I looked forward to our weekly meetings quite earnestly. It felt like my one or two moments of the week that I got to connect with people and talk about really interesting things, even if sometimes I was just venting. We all got to vent. We vented about the pandemic’s effect on our mental health, the almost overwhelming feeling some days that we just can’t stand it anymore, and the frustration that it feels like things aren’t getting better and normal is so ephemeral we fear we might never know it again. Third is that the interns were true to themselves and authentic. No two were exactly the same, but they were willing to push themselves and evolve with a constantly moving target. What more can one ask for than to work with genuine people, who took on a huge project and found the path of collaboration instead of competition. Today’s meeting culminated in a recorded conversation with a representative from CBS. Potentially, some of the conversation could wind up the program “60 Minutes.” The conversation was so rich, diverse, and truly heartwarming that the entire meeting needs to be a part of the archive. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything, and I feel so lucky to have worked with such an incredible team.