#summerofrcah

RCAHer Audrey Matusz has worked at MSU’s student radio station for several years and spent these past few months exploring the role of station manager. Earlier this summer, Audrey shared some advertising concepts that are in the works for The Impact.

This summer, I've been exploring the position of station manager at MSU's student radio station, The Impact 88.9FM. To benefit the station through my art, we are working on an advertising campaign for campus that highlights the diversity of our listeners. There is still a lot of re-evaluating and brainstorming to do, but I've started by making these illustrations of directors at The Impact:

From July 5 through August 5, RCAH professor Dave Sheridan led a group of RCAH students in the Advanced Cultures of Creativity in Detroit study away program. From a tour of the MBAD African Bead Museum with Olayami Dabls to conversation with Carleton Gholz of the Detroit Sound Conservancy, RCAH students explored the city’s creative organizations, spaces, traditions, and institutions.

This summer, we learned that recent RCAH grad Claire Babala was chosen as a Challenge Detroit fellow (you can watch her application video above). Challenge Detroit is “a leadership and professional development program that invites approximately 30 of tomorrow’s leaders to live, work, play, give, and lead in and around the greater Detroit area for one year.”

RCAH senior Maggie Hermanson spent her summer on Mackinac Island, and we’re grateful to have such a thorough and thought-provoking reflection about her time there on this first day of fall. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and gorgeous photos with us, Maggie!

For these past three months, I spent my time on Mackinac Island. I worked for the Mackinac State Historic Parks (an underling of the Department of Natural Resources) as, primarily, an Art Studio Intern. This experience was very good, and has been further explained in other blog posts found here. But what I did not intend to happen was that I found other experiences in working for other positions within the parks that were immensely more towards my taste and style.

Before I begin, I’d like to preface that if you find an internship – or even a job – that you believe you might be interested in taking it, it is okay to not like it. It’s fine to change your mind and it’s fine to misinterpret your passion.

What’s not fine is living in a rut while you’re doing it. It’s a mistake I made during the first couple of weeks I was working for the Parks. I had only the Art Studio Intern position, and it was difficult for me to accept that I wasn’t passionate about it. Part of me tried to force myself to like it; after all, I’m on an island equivalent to 3.5 square miles, so where else was I to go? After that didn’t work, I detested my job. Hated it. Partially because I tried to force myself into liking it, which is exactly the wrong thing to do. And partially because I was realizing that I actually did not like it. I wasn’t as passionate about art education as I thought I was. This really disturbed me and made me feel defeated, because one of the main aspects of being an RCAH student is being driven, passionate, and inspirational.

But if I didn’t know what my passion was – if I couldn’t even do something that I was passionate about weeks ago without wanting to cringe – then what kind of RCAH student was I?

I WAS A NORMAL HUMAN BEING.

That’s right, kids: changing your mind, or changing your passion, IS TOTALLY OKAY. Just don’t get stuck in it, okay?

So instead, I decided to explore other opportunities that the Parks offered. One of the posit ions that I held was being a GSR (Guest Service Representative), which technically was a paying position that I applied for before having gone to Mackinac. It was a very informative position in that it helped me to understand how revenue and sales worked for a museum. There were multiple locations for GSRs to be located, and at each of those locations there were different tasks to be done. For instance, there were two different locations on the island where souvenirs would be sold. One of those places was the Visitor’s Center, and the other was the Sutler’s Store up in Fort Mackinac. In each of those places, there would be different visitor needs. In the Visitor’s Center, people needed directions to different places on the island, whereas in the Sutler’s Store, people needed directions to different parts of the Fort. This experience really helped me to understand the different parts of visitor experience – what visitors need, how to answer their questions effectively, etc.

I was also a Historic House Interpreter, where I wore authentic 1820s and 1830s clothing and did tasks like sewing and quilting to demonstrate different skill sets that people would have. This afforded me the opportunity to be able to start conversations with visitors that helped them learn and connect with the history around them. During this volunteer time, I learned so much about what interpreting was (not translating languages) and how important a position it is to the Parks. In fact, I liked doing this so much that I’m planning on going back next summer to do just this!

So all in all, it was one of the best summers of my life. I learned so much about museums and museum work, but also in being passionate and human. 10 out of 10 – would recommend to a friend.

As last summer break wrapped up, we didn’t get the opportunity to share RCAHer Sydney Meadowcroft’s reflection about her time working as a cabin leader at Camp Miniwanca in Shelby, Michigan. This year’s #summerofrcah is just getting started, and soon, Sydney will be headed back to Shelby for another summer at the camp. We can’t wait to hear about this year’s adventures!

If you have internship, job, study away & abroad and/or other summer experiences that you want to share via our Summer of RCAH blog, drop us a note at [email protected]. We’d love to share your photos, videos, and reflections!

This summer I spent nearly two months working as a cabin leader at Camp Miniwanca in Shelby, MI. I discovered Miniwanca as a shy rising fourth grader through a friend at school who was a third generation camper. Although my first year was riddled with homesickness and a lot of confusion as I struggled to learn the camp’s many songs and traditions, I decided I’d return the next year. By the end of high school I’d been attending for nine years. So when the opportunity arouse for me to join the Miniwanca staff for my tenth summer on the camp’s beautiful sand dunes overlooking Lake Michigan, I was ecstatic.

Over the course of the summer, I led three cabins of fifth, sixth, and seventh grade girls, showing them the ins and outs of Miniwanca life and instilling in them the camp’s values of balanced living and being one’s best self. We lived in small, open-air cabins, learning to get along in close cabins and appreciate living simply with no electricity or windows. Through my years, the camp’s motto “My own self, at my very best, all the time” has taught me a valuable lesson about confidence and being my true self instead of conforming to what others want me to be. It was amazing to be able to share this idea with my campers, leading by example as I danced and cheered and played with my fellow staff members.

There were many times during the summer when I would turn to coworkers in the midst of a silly song or crazy skit and say “this is our job,” smiling at the fact that I was paid to go to the summer camp I love and act silly all day. One of these moments was on an overnight camping trip with all of the seventh grade girls. We slept in tents and taught them basic camping skills to help them build a love for the outdoors. During a shelter-building activity my friend Julia (whom I’ve known since we were cabin mates in sixth grade) and I were making ridiculous storm sound effects, mimicking the wind and rain that we told our campers was causing them to need to build a shelter quickly. I stopped my whooshing sound to laugh and express my happiness to Julia that this was our job, that we got to spend the summer hanging out with some amazing kids and laugh and joke with them all day. As a staff we always tried to continue this carefree and fun environment for the campers, sometimes even coming up with our own holidays such as Onesie Tuesday.

One small moment during an impromptu after-dinner dance party became one of the highlights of my summer. I was dancing and laughing with a few other leaders and campers, and as I walked out of the Eating Lodge with one of my campers, she turned to me and said “It’s just so easy to be yourself at camp!” with a big, bright smile on her face. This little comment of hers made my day and it felt like a big accomplishment for me and the rest of the staff, since giving the girls confidence and bringing them joy were some of our biggest goals.

The whole summer was a dream. My cabins were full of life and energy and jokes. I loved getting to know these wonderful girls and helping them find a balance in mental, social, physical, and religious living, as the camp’s philosophy encourages. Miniwanca has given me so much confidence and support over the years and has become a second home for me, and I hope it has and will continue to do the same for all the girls I met this summer. One of my favorite memories of the summer is the first time my cabin encased me in a big group hug. They clung to me, big smiles on their faces. After that I often called them my barnacles, as they would frequently gather around and cling to me, surrounding me with love and a lot of Miniwanca Magic. Throughout the summer I learned many valuable skills in leadership and working with children. This experience has helped me confirm the direction I want to take with my RCAH education, and I can’t wait to explore the opportunities the college and Michigan State as a whole have to help me develop my skills as a Youth Development Professional.

Some people discover what they’re good at and what they love after years of searching and trying several things out.  Some lucky few find it early.  19…

Because summer's not (quite) over yet, we still have a handful of posts to share in these remaining days before the start of a new semester's classes. RCAHer (and last year's Balocating Prize winner!) Jenny Crakes recently shared her experiences with us, and we're excited to pass along her reflections and photos from Camp Hoffman, a Rhode Island-based Girl Scouts camp that Jenny's worked at for four years now.