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
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.
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
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
