My Final Weeks at PAMA: Confessions of a Student Intern

The Peel Art Galley, Museum and Archives has been the place where I explored archives, learned about Peel history, investigated the Peel County Courthouse and gained invaluable experience in a professional environment. Over the course of the last few months, I’ve been involved in staff meetings, staff celebrations, Family Day activities and I also found out that PAMA would be featuring some of my research in the Terry Fox exhibit in the museum. Here are some of the details of my internship at PAMA:

Research and Exploration:

I work as a research assistant to the museum team at PAMA which usually meant that I was responsible for collecting information about upcoming exhibits at PAMA. Conducting research was different depending on the topic I was researching. When I was compiling information about Terry Fox in Peel, I relied on newspaper articles and images. When I worked with information about Back Families in Peel, I stuck with more contextual information and was able to rely on other professionals to share some of their information with me. Currently, I’m researching Canada’s racist immigration policies and, specifically, the Komagata Maru. Each time I’ve been given a research assignment from PAMA, I’ve learned something new about how to conduct research and how I work best as a research assistant. This internship has increased my sense of self-awareness—something that is extremely valuable, not only in work, but in life.

Team Work and Collaboration:

This is a big aspect of being in a professional work environment. Though the nature of research is, in and of itself, usually independent, I found that I was working collaboratively on many parts of my research as well. For one thing, my supervisor Annemarie and I meet bi-weekly to discuss my work. In these meetings, she gives me helpful feedback about my information and asks me to revise some things and keep others as they are. Other times, I seek help from other professionals when I’m conducting research—the Streestville Historical Society has been really generous with me, lending me information and being available to talk and discuss ideas and resources. This aspect of my work has benefitted me in a way that will continue to be evident years down the line; these are skills that one does not often learn during the course of a conventional university experience.

My Work Gets Featured:

I recently learned that some of the research that I conducted for the Terry Fox exhibit will be featured in the museum space at PAMA! On top of all that I’ve learned at PAMA and all the people I’ve met and made connections with, I have been able to see where all my hard work is going. A tangible end result, physical proof of my work makes this whole experience that much more special.

Images of some of the research I collected being incorporated into the Terry Fox exhibit

That I got to have this experience with the people of PAMA is extremely important. I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to something substantial that will benefit others and hopefully help them learn something interesting about Terry Fox. I would strongly suggest that anyone thinking about getting involved in an internship (or something similar) go ahead and do it; the learning and enrichment I have gained from this is incomparable.