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The U.S. Naval Academy
English Department

Summer Training Internships

Below are examples of past English Department-sponsored internships and internships available to English majors through the school of Humanities and Social Sciences. A wide variety of internships sponsored by other departments can also be found at https://intranet.usna.edu/AcResearch/USNA-Approved-Internships.php

Rainbow History Project at the Historical Society of Washington, DC  
Founded in 1894, the DC History Center maintains and provides access to materials donated by families, organizations, businesses, neighborhoods, and other communities that comprise Washington, DC. These materials are an invaluable common resource for current and future Washingtonians, to deepen understanding of the city’s past to connect, empower, and inspire. Since 2008 the DC History Center has served as the archival partner for the Rainbow History Project, a 501(c)3 non-profit educational and research organization whose mission is to collect, preserve, and promote an active knowledge of the history, arts, and culture of metropolitan Washington DC’s diverse LGBTQ+ communities. In this internship, midshipmen will contribute to the promotion of LGBTQ history and education of the public in their roles as amateur archivists for four weeks at the DC History Center. Midshipmen will learn fundamental archival principles; inventory and describe collections material; transcribe oral histories; and create access points for the Rainbow History Project and other LGBTQ collections to make them more accessible.
The Rainbow History Project/Historical Society of Washington, DC  internship will offer enrichment in four areas: enhancing information technology skills, critical thinking, professional communication, and cultural awareness.
Colonial Players Internship

This internship will involve working with the Original Works Program to help organize and develop feedback for emerging playwrights, which would entail creating panels to provide feedback or joining panels that provide feedback for new play development. Interns would also focus on dramaturgy by researching setting, socio-economic, or specialty topics within plays that the Colonial Players plan to perform in the coming season. They would then create a packet of the materials for the production team and/or actors as such research would help inform directorial, design, or actor choices. Finally, Mids would perform tasks in the marketing department such as writing press releases, working on social promotion, developing program inserts, reaching out to local newspapers, and fostering relationships with businesses and communities whose work intersects with thematic elements of upcoming plays.

Problem Solving Players: 

A midshipman participating in this internship will exercise critical thinking and problem solving skills when workshopping and both accepting/providing feedback for plays. A key component of this would be looking at things creatively, a skill that is crucial for good junior officers to be capable problem-solvers once they leave USNA. This would also involve being comfortable working with varied groups of people and accepting/acting on feedback for projects.

In working with the production team and actors, midshipmen will perform research on important socio-economic topics and gain new insights on these ideas before utilizing their findings to help inform directorial choices. Throughout, midshipmen will be forced to apply critical thinking to new, highly-relevant topics and then exercise decision-making skills that will be highly important as officers.

Participants will also practice and hone their critical writing skills as they work within the marketing department and interact with media, businesses, and communities whose work intersects with thematic elements of upcoming plays.

Park Books and LitCoLab Internship
This internship will involve researching current trends in literature in order to curate sections of fiction and nonfiction that align with the current mission and vision of the community independent bookstore. Intern will be expected to communicate with publishing representatives regarding upcoming title releases, read and review advanced reader copies (ARCs) and vet in order to determine if books are appropriate for market. Close attention will be paid to equitable representation of authors, narratives, and authenticity of voice. Intern will be expected to create reports for booksellers regarding trends and controversies regarding current and forthcoming titles. Intern will analyze inventory reports to ensure the store’s current canon meets the mission and vision of the store.  
Midshipmen to Determine Cannon: 

A midshipman participating in this internship will learn what goes into vetting published books for collections in a bookstore and how the publication process works for authors and narratives of every variety; work with publishers and authors from all walks of life to decide which books should go in what collections; improve close reading and critical thinking skills by reading and vetting works; gain a broader understanding of what works comprise the current canon and why; and learn how to interact with the literary world in a more hands-on way than academic courses during the school year can offer.

Midshipmen participation in this internship will develop fleet-specific skills such as critical thinking, research analysis, and technical writing. Navy and Marine Corps officers must evaluate data from multiple sources and construct one, clear document outlining the situation. This internship would provide an opportunity to hone this skill by looking critically at individual books and creating a coherent collection with one unifying narrative or theme. Additionally, interns would be encouraged to develop and grow the military collection at the bookstore to reinforce their own interests and the military applicability of the project.

Finally, the collections midshipmen will curate with Park Books & LitCoLab connect with both Departmental and Yard-wide initiatives in diversity and cultural awareness.  It is also important to note that the areas of critical thinking, professional communication, and cultural awareness are also topics stressed within the Education for Seapower (E4S) report.  This internship directly aligns with E4S strategic objectives.

History Department Sponsored Internship for English Majors:

United States Naval Institute 
This internship introduces archival methods and the importance of metadata cataloging to capture information that future generations of Naval leaders could learn from in the course of their research.  Throughout this process, Midshipmen interns would learn and be involved in fact checking, research, editorial decisions, web posting, social media posting, and web analytics. Midshipmen interns would also experience a Naval Institute monthly editorial board meeting where ten active duty members of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard meet with Naval Institute staff members to discuss and approve or reject articles for Proceedings magazine.  Editorial board members range in rank from senior enlisted to O-6.  Deliverables may include work in support of a Midshipman’s capstone project or other degree-driven study effort or a work suitable for potential approval in Proceedings, Naval History, or a USNI Press book.  Any work that is deemed suitable for publication shall be reviewed by a USNA faculty member and/or USNA Public Affairs Office.

Midshipmen participating in this internship will be exposed to Proceedings and Naval History content, archives, the USNI Library, and staff members who possess a combined experience of over a hundred years in military service and military professional publishing.  This internship will enhance a Midshipman’s professional development by emphasizing the importance of the lessons of the past. They will also learn how to document current events (through photography and journals) for study by future generations.

 
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