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Interning at
the Oberlin Heritage Center

The Oberlin Heritage Center is very fortunate to be in a college town with many students who are interested in the town's history. We have a dynamic college internship program. Students from Oberlin College and other colleges in the area have worked for us in a variety of capacities: as volunteers, Bonner Scholars, work-study students, and summer interns. These students gain valuable skills and knowledge during their work here. Interns participate in a variety of tasks -- they give tours, help staff our office, assist with research projects such as the Oberlin Historic Inventory and the Oberlin Oral History Project, collections cataloguing and care, special events, and website and database maintenance. Students from all areas of study are encouraged to apply--you need not be a history major (although you certainly may be)!

The internship program recently was featured in an article published on Oberlin College's website. Many wonderful interns at the Oberlin Heritage Center have come through the Bonner Center for Service and Learning and the Community Service Work-Study Program of Oberlin College.

And there is, of course, always the option of serving as an intern in a volunteer/unpaid capacity. If you are interested in becoming a student volunteer with the Oberlin Heritage Center, please fill out and return to us a volunteer information form.

We train new interns or volunteers at the beginning of a semester, winter term, or summer term, so please plan your schedule accordingly.

The Oberlin Heritage Center also attempts to provide internship opportunities or special projects for Oberlin students during Winter Term.

See our current intern page or read comments from former Oberlin Heritage Center interns:

Joshua Aerie, OC '99
"I have fond memories of all of the [Oberlin Heritage Center] folks, the 'grounds,' and of course the Jewett House. Shoveling/plowing snow in the early winter mornings, emptying the trash in the Monroe House in the late evenings, and vacuuming around the fantastic gingerbread house displays at Christmastime. My experiences at [the Oberlin Heritage Center] are among my fondest Oberlin memories."

Genevieve Baudoin, OC '02
"I loved all the volunteers and staff I got to work with, it was a great experience. I'm now about to graduate from Harvard Graduate School of Design with a Master's in Architecture. Obviously architecture stuck!"

Jonathan Edmonds, OC '98
"Working at O.H.I.O. was a perfect complement to my American history studies at the college and piqued much of my interest in exploring the layers of social history within Oberlin, including radical history, women's history, African-American history, and the religious history of Oberlin in the larger scope of the Second Great Awakening.... I also valued so much the connections and friendships I enjoyed with people across the generations outside of the Oberlin campus. It was wonderful to run into O.H.I.O. volunteers whilst walking around town and stop and chat with them as fellow community members."

Hyun-Jung Kim, OC '96
"When I was in college, sometimes it felt really hard to go into work because I often found college life mentally and emotionally exhausting....Therefore I'm very happy I had the opportunity to do work in a very nurturing, low-stress environment that encouraged initiative and creativity....I'm also glad I got to see and participate in a side of life at Oberlin I would not have had access to had I only maintained a life within Oberlin College itself. I also had the luck of having positive adult role models like Pat [Murphy]."

Sarah Lariviere, OC '97
I so enjoyed giving tours of the mansion ('notice the Italianate design') and compiling a book about the history of 'little red schoolhouses' for Oberlin's own. Spending time with both the books in the schoolhouse and memoirs about people's one-room schoolhouse experiences really ignited my imagination. I sometimes think about it in comparison to my work today, as a social worker at an elementary school in downtown Brooklyn, NY. Given the limited resources available to NYC public school students, perhaps some of the children with whom I work would benefit from the intensity of a one-room schoolhouse environment, complete with walking miles and miles to school and drying wet wooly mittens on the stove!"

Laurie Stein, OC '06
"I wanted to let you know what great preparation the Museum Fellow position was for this type of program (M.A. in Historical Administration). I'm pretty much the resident expert in building surveys for Historic Preservation class, but it's more than just that. In our Administration of Historical Organizations class we spend most of our time reading and discussing standards and best practices, fundraising, community engagement, governance, accreditation, etc., and everything I read/every speaker that comes to talk to us further impresses on me what a wonderful model I had working with you at the Oberlin Heritage Center...so, thanks!"

Further questions about the Oberlin Heritage Center internship program should be directed to Pat Holsworth (ohiobiz@oberlinheritage.org).