My name is Riley Herman and I was an arts administration intern for the Office of Student Engagement Programs within Penn State Student Affairs during the 2020-2021 school year. In this role, I got to work with Penn State IllumiNATION frequently by either fixing up the website or helping plan events. It was so exciting to work with individuals across the university to set up resources for students that involve sustainability and the arts.
As a double major in theatre studies in the College of Arts & Architecture and advertising in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, the arts are very important to me. I spend a lot of my time outside of the internship studying plays, creating graphics, and strategizing how to reach an audience. I also spend a lot of time watching how to be more sustainable on YouTube. However, through the internship, I got a glimpse as to what it truly means to be sustainable. I had the opportunity to convey what I have learned through art and collaboration. After all, I believe that art sparks community while sustainability requires community. The two go hand-in-hand.
My responsibility for IllumiNATION was primarily content creation. I also got to do some event planning as well. I had the honor of running the Instagram account which consisted of sharing sustainability ideas and doing several craft projects throughout the semester. I also revamped the website, put together an Adobe Spark page for the 2020 Sustainability Arts Competition, and took on my own project. I created a short film surrounding the topic of what it means to be sustainable, which you can watch and read about here. Finally, I was tasked with creating various social media, email, and digital signage graphics that promoted various events such as Earth Hour and Earth Day.
This experience helped me with my professional development in a few ways. First, I got to grow in learning how to work with a team while also having independent projects. Being a student taking 18 credits and participating in 2 internships while living in a pandemic taught me a little something about task and time management with the heaviest workload I have ever experienced.
Throughout the various tasks and projects I worked on, I learned a lot about what it means to be sustainable and how to contribute to society so that the world becomes a more sustainable, ethical place. You can read more in depth about what I learned in my blog post about the short film I wrote and produced.
Finally, it was really fulfilling to participate in projects that not only helped our students during a difficult year, but also will help the Earth. I still have a long road ahead in my journey of living a more sustainable life. Yet, this internship taught me a lot about what it means to be sustainable as an artist. I will cherish what I learned and take it with me into my future endeavors.
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