Anna interned at the Holocaust Museum as a translator.
Describe a day in your life as an intern.
As a remote and autonomous intern, I had the opportunity to create my own schedule. Every day I chose to put hours into my internship, I was humbled by how much I did not know about history and even about Russian. I felt the frustration of not knowing how to properly form certain sentences even as I felt the frustration of the Jews, whose history I was translating. I developed compassion for a targeted people in the same moments that I developed patience with myself and my inability. Some days the hours flew by, and others minutes crawled, but I grew.
What industry/job specific skills did you learn?
Planning, Referencing trustable sources for information, better language skills
What are three things that you learned from this experience that could be applied to other settings?
1. Time management: Every moment matters and can be filed with productivity. Procrastinating is never worth it.
2. Precision: Finding the proper words to express exactly what the author meant after a long search brought a lot of satisfaction. Knowing something is done well also brings satisfaction.
3. Move on with a problem and plan to address it later: a fresh view on things brings solutions that can't come to light in moments of worry.
What was your favorite part of your internship?
Learning about history from the perspective of people who lived in or around the time I was translating about
What was your least favorite part?
It could be pretty boring to translate the same ideas day after day
How did this experience affect your future goals?
I have a better idea of what level of Russian I have and where I can improve. I also know that I don't want to be a translator in the future.
How did you get your internship?
A professor recommended it to me to advance and practice my Russian, and I applied.
