‘Wish You Were Here’ Internship Opportunities
The Florida Park Service’s Wish You Were Here (WYWH) project encompasses 6 state parks that were former retro, roadside attractions. The project is focused on developing creative products to enhance travel itineraries that help visitors plan trips to these parks. But we want to provide more than just logistical guidance – we want to inspire. These itineraries will also host electronic media which give visitors a glimpse at what these wonderful parks have to offer: their history, interpretive programs, exhibits, special events, natural beauty, wildlife, quirky tales, and local flavor.
The Florida Park Service and its WYWH team have developed internships to support this project. These positions are strongly oriented toward students with interests/experience in historical research, cultural resources, collections, archives, &/or electronic media. Each of the 6 parks maintain collections that require pruning, integrating, digitizing, safekeeping, and cataloging in PastPerfect Museum Software. Besides documents, their archives contain architectural plans, photographs, slides, video, film, and audio. We hope interns will not only assist each park with its collections management and digitization needs, but also create content that can be promoted on the Florida Park Service website to showcase their own talents as well as the park’s personality.
Training in Florida Park Service collections management procedures will be provided, though interns are expected to have the skills necessary to achieve their chosen projects (ie: an intern who chooses to create a podcast is expected to know how to record/edit/produce a podcast). This announcement is for summer internships, though specific start/end dates are negotiable. Below is a list of the 6 parks and project ideas. Do not feel bound by the examples noted; many are interchangeable and we encourage creativity. Applicants should email FPS Collections Manager Piper Ferriter (piper.ferriter@dep.state.fl.us) their resume/CV and a cover letter stating their chosen park/project proposal by deadline of Friday, April 24th .
Parks & Project Examples
- De Leon Springs State Park
- Virtual tour
- Oral history/research on Queenie the waterskiing elephant
- Documentary on The Old Spanish Sugar Mill & its pancakes
- Slideshow of digitized photographs/slides from archives
- Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park
- Virtual park & riverboat tour
- Slideshow/research on multifaceted history of Wakulla Lodge
- History of the dive tower & GoPro perspective of high-divers into the spring
- *Residency potential
- Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park
- Virtual tour
- Exhibit update with ADA compliance
- Animal biographies podcast, i.e.: Lu the Hippo
- Fish Bowl vodcast
- Manatee hospital vodcast
- Rainbow Springs State Park
- Virtual tour
- Silver Springs State Park
- Virtual tour
- Oral history/research of original attraction, including Paradise Park
- Glass-bottom boat tour YouTube video
- Film conservation, digitization, research, cataloging
- Weeki Wachee Springs State Park
- Virtual tour
- Oral histories of current & former mermaids
- Film conservation, digitization, research, cataloging
- *Residency potential
*Possible 7th park
- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park
- Virtual tour
- Exhibit update with ADA compliant component
- Research/digital “scrapbook” of recipes, photographs, ephemera