UNDERGRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS IN PUBLIC HUMANITIES Six King’s students thrive in newly-created work experiences by Josh Hoffman
THE UNIVERSITY of King’s College’s new work-integrated learning program, the Undergraduate Fellowships in Public Humanities, provided exciting professional experiences to a group of talented students, despite beginning in the middle of a pandemic. The program launched last summer to offer King’s students short-term jobs at a variety of organizations and businesses. King’s Vice-President Dr. Peter O’Brien oversaw the program’s inception and described the fellowships as a way for “students to make the link between their studies and their future career possibilities.” In 2020 six students were awarded fellowships and learned—like the rest of us—how to work virtually in the COVID-19 era. That the program took place is worth celebrating in its own right, given the uncertainty that characterized the past year. “When the pandemic hit, we initially had to cancel the program,” said O’Brien.
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TIDINGS | WINTER 2021
“Then as organizations made the transition to remote working conditions, we realized that we could still make this work.… This work-from-home variation on the program had the unintended benefit that students were able to be placed with organizations regardless of their geographical location— we had one student in Winnipeg working at an organization in Halifax, and another living in Halifax working for an organization in Calgary.” Sophie Lawall was an Ocean Gallery Facilitator for the Discovery Centre in Halifax. “It was an amazing experience,” said Lawall, a third-year Early Modern Studies and English student. Lawall’s primary tasks included writing and interviewing for a new exhibit by Ruth Munro and researching literature on climate change research in Nova Scotia to create educational content for Ryan Jameson, manager of science education at the centre.
These were subjects Lawall knew nothing about. “I’m from the Prairies,” she joked. “I didn’t learn much ocean science.” Her job was to take information and rewrite it in a way that could be understood by elementary school students. She found she could determine what information was most crucial to include in less than 100 words of text by, “using the critical thinking and reading skills I’ve learned at King’s to understand that kind of information.” Third-year History of Science and Technology student James Ersil, who is also studying acting at Dalhousie, was thrilled to hold an artistic internship with Outside the March, a Toronto-based theatre company. “It was a dream come true,” Ersil said. They initially thought the position involved paperwork. It did, but they got to join in on the fun as well. Ersil participated in a weeklong phone call theatre experience called Ministry of Monday Mysteries that helped
