About the Internship Endowment Fund

The Curatorial Internship will provide paid summer learning opportunities for Southern Vermont Supervisory Union (SVSU- includes MAUHS and Arlington HS) and Southwest Tech (SWT) students. It is supported by a growing internship endowment fund.

The selected student primarily reports to the Collections Manager, but will also gain experience in the Marketing, Education, and Visitors Services aspects of Museum management. The position will run for approximately two months during the summer, with the intern reporting for around 26 hours of work each week and earning standard Vermont minimum wage.

We are thrilled to have this opportunity as it will help Museum staff during a very busy time of year, and create a valuable career pathway in the non-profit sector for the young people in our community. We look forward to working with the SVSU and SWT teams in the coming year to identify prospective candidates and build a long term pipeline for cultural engagement.

Apply to be a Curatorial Intern

If you are a rising junior, current junior or a senior at MAUHS or Arlington HS or enrolled in SWT and interested in this exciting and challenging summer position with Bennington Museum, you may apply by following the link below.  Applications for the summer of 2025 will be accepted until May 15, 2025.

Bennington Museum is pleased to announce that rising MAUHS junior, Rozlynn Wert, has been awarded the competitive high school summer internship position for the summer of 2024.

Rozlynn says: “I’ve always been interested in history and have even considered going to college to be an AP History teacher. I think that working in the Bennington Museum will give me a great opportunity to explore my future interest in the subject.”

During past summers she has volunteered at a local library and also helped to manage a daycare service.

Bennington Museum is pleased to introduce the 2023 recipient of the curatorial internship position this summer: Thomas Scheetz. Thomas graduated as Salutatorian of Mount Anthony Union High School in 2024. At school, he was a member of the student senate and the National Honor Society, and ran on the cross-country team in the fall, and on the indoor and outdoor track teams in the winter and spring. Through his Community-based Learning class, He had the privilege of interning at the Bennington Town Offices, creating PDFs to map out local cemeteries. Outside of school, he enjoys baking, running, biking, and researching the history of his old house and the other old houses around it.

We asked Thomas to tell us a little bit about why he was interested in working at Bennington Museum:

“My deep interest in the rich and sometimes little-known history of our area led me to apply for this position. Years ago, I began researching the history of my old house, built in the early 1800s originally as an outbuilding on Sen. Jonathan E. Robinson’s State Arms property, after my father showed me a 1920s Griswold postcard of the place back when it was a B&B hotel called the Wentworth Arms. I never stopped researching. Once I had ascertained the history of my own house, I moved on to the others surrounding it, and then the others surrounding those. Now I am working on compiling a thorough house-by-house, parcel-by-parcel, building-by-building history of my Village, Old Bennington.”

See Thomas’ work in progress HERE.

We were beyond thrilled to welcome Sophia Anisman as the summer Curatorial Intern in 2022. Sophia just graduated as Valedictorian of Mount Anthony Union High School in 2024. She worked at the Bennington Free Library as a page and has researched and written speeches for Bennington Battle Day ceremonies. She was the Youth Representative for the local ACT, an organization preventing substance abuse in youth, and ran their social media accounts. Sophia also holds leadership roles in the Student Senate and the Interact Club.

“[Through this internship] I’ve been able to learn so much and gain a realistic understanding of what pursuing a career in this field will entail, which is invaluable as I begin looking at colleges…I have always loved history, and here I was able to explore every aspect of life in the past few centuries, and I honestly could not think of a better way to spend my summer. This internship is so significant for Bennington as there aren’t other opportunities like this locally. I believe that this opportunity will continue to make a positive impact on students here for years to come.”

Volunteer

While we do not have any paid internship opportunities for high schoolers during the school year, Bennington Museum is always looking for volunteers who can help out with administrative tasks such as welcoming visitors or assisting with store checkout. Our Collections Manager has has data entry needs and Marketing can always use a hand at posting calendar listings online. For students with more specific skill sets we have graphic design opportunities too. Whether or not your school requires community service hours, a demonstrated commitment to your local non-profit brightens up your college application package, and we are happy to provide recommendations upon request.  Also, taking the time to get to know the Museum, and giving us a chance to get to know you only improves your chances of landing this competitive position!

About the Fund

In May of 2021, Michele and John Pagán made a $25,000 gift to the Museum’s permanent endowment intended to provide paid summer internship opportunities for Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union (SVSU) and Southwest Tech (SWT) students. Michele Pagán credits her early experiences with organizations like Bennington Museum for opening new doors to her, allowing her to envision a unique career trajectory.

“John and I have begun this student internship fund at the Bennington Museum in order to give Bennington students a leg up. Having grown up here, it is wonderful to be able to give back. We hope that this experience will encourage a student to become part of the Vermont History Day competition each year, write a successful college application, and go on to a college career of some sort. In the end, the goal is to develop a citizen with a much better appreciation of museums and their role in cultural heritage preservation.”
-Michele Pagán

Beginning in December of 2021 this gift was matched annually by Richard and Sandra Johnson as a tribute to Richard’s mother, Priscilla Blake Johnson. The fund reached a sustainable balance of $125,000 in December 2024.

“My mother was born in 1919 on the 400 acre Blake Family Farm in Chester, Vermont where she grew up with three siblings. She absolutely loved everything about Vermont. She passed away ten years ago, and to honor her, my wife suggested that we make a gift to a cause that my mother would have liked. After studying several possible options, we decided on Bennington Museum and the Internship program. My mother would be pleased because that money is now helping Vermont and some young students in Vermont expand their horizons.”
-Richard Johnson