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Field Schools & Internships

Internship Sites

Location: 503 Market St., Wilmington, NC 28402-1176

Opportunities and experiences to be provided for the intern are Museum Exhibit Construction, and general hands-on experience in museum studies, or research project.

The Bellamy Mansion Museum, built between 1859 and 1861, is an architectural treasure of the antebellum period. With its rebuilt carriage house and intact slave quarters, the site exhibits a full picture of life of a wealthy, slave-holding household in a bustling city of the time.

Interns have created lesson plans, created and given tours, put together informative and educational brochures and handouts, written press releases, researched various areas of the history associated with the site (particularly African American history), aided with database organization, organized education files and written educational pieces consolidating some of the information there, and worked on organization and implementation of educational programming. Interns will work on fundraisers and help restore slave quarters, among other projects.

Explore more about the Mansion

Location: Brunswick Town, 8884 St. Philip's Road SE, Winnabow, NC 28479

Brunswick Town is on the banks of the Cape Fear River. It was founded in 1726 by Maurice Moore of South Carolina and grew to be a thriving port town known for shipping forestry products to England. It quickly became a center of colonial life in the region and home to two early royal governors. By the end of the Revolutionary War, the town was deserted as families left for Wilmington and other parts of the south. Foundations of the town buildings remain today.

Fort Anderson is next to Brunswick Town and became an important Confederate fort in 1861. Earthworks provide evidence of the extensive layout of this site and its significance in the defense of Wilmington, NC.

Student interns work on a variety of projects concerning the archaeology and ethnohistory of the site.

Learn more about Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson

Location: 224 Market St., Wilmington, NC 28401

The oldest museum house in Southeastern North Carolina, displays the fine detail of the Georgian style architecture, complete with 18th and early 19th century furnishings. You will electronically categorize the house inventory, photograph the furniture, assist with New Hanover County fourth-grade class visits, and conduct research on the Wright family, John Burgwin and architect John Hawke.

Tour the Museum

Location: 814 Market St., Wilmington, NC 28401

This internship will be within the Collections Unit of Cape Fear Museum. The Collections Unit is a vital part of Cape Fear Museum. It is the repository of the artifacts and research materials that support exhibits and programming. Its mission is to manage and preserve the collections, and to provide accurate historical information, accordingly to professional Best Practice standards. To expand the accessibility and visibility of both the collections and the collections staff.

The intern will be locating and handling artifacts to prepare them for photographing and scanning. He/she will digitally photograph 3-D objects and scan paper items within the collection. They will then work with those images in Adobe Photoshop and ultimately attach the photos to their records in our database system. Other projects include Native American and natural history components.

They will learn the methods Cape Fear Museum uses to identify, catalog, permanently mark and house these objects. They will also have the opportunity to work on photographing incoming donations and loaned objects.

The intern will also be able to see the day-to-day working of the collections team of CFM and every opportunity will be provided to expose the intern to other teams within the museum.

Read more about the Museum

Location: 116 Orange St., Wilmington, NC 28401

The Children's Museum is a 10+ year old organization in downtown Wilmington. It is housed in three historic buildings: the Old Masonic Temple, the St. John's Church and Cowan house. These three buildings connected afford nearly 17,000 square feet for interactive exhibits for children and families.

The Children's Museum stimulates children's imagination, curiosity, and love of learning by providing magical and playful experiences for children of all ages. Their goal is for all visitors to learn amazing things about themselves and the world through informal, playful, hands-on and child-directed experiences.

The Children's Museum is looking for an intern that could work with the development and marketing department to get some real-world and practical experience managing a nonprofit organization.

Check out the museum!

Location: 3705 Erwin Road, Durham, NC 27705

The Duke Lemur Center offers internship opportunities during the summer and throughout the academic year. DLC internships allow students to have hands-on experience to expand their strong interest in animal care, education or research. Specific opportunities include: Field research, primate enrichment, and development/fund-raising at a center that promotes a deeper appreciation of biodiversity and an understanding of the power of scientific discovery.

Learn more about the Duke Lemur Center

Location: 524 S. New Hope Road, Raleigh, NC 27610

ESI is a full-service environmental consulting firm specializing in ecology, site management and remediation, archaeology, forestry, water and riverine systems, and GIS predictive modeling services.

This internship is offered on an intermittent basis. If you are interested, please get in touch with Dr. Reber!

Location: 316 Princess St., Suite 543 or PO Box 352, Wilmington, NC 28401

The student will gain hands-on experience with the legal aspect of forensic science and understand socio-cultural factors of the legal system from an anthropological perspective.

Get more information about the Court

Location: 109 W Church St., Atkinson, NC 28421

In the Manos Unidas Farmworker Health Program, interns assist in providing health care outreach to migrant farmworkers and their families. This internship requires some fluency in the Spanish language and a vehicle. Their offices are at the Black River Health Services clinic in Atkinson, NC, in Pender County. For more details, please contact Dr. William Alexander.

Learn More about the Health Program

This agency provides employment-related services and support for individuals with disabilities and mental health diagnoses. Interns provide assistance, support and employment success strategies to clients under agency supervision. This internship requires a vehicle. For more details, please contact Dr. William Alexander.

Check out Learning Perspectives

Location: 10200 US Highway 17 N, Wilmington, NC 28411

The Poplar Grove plantation is one of the oldest peanut plantations in North Carolina. The plantation was in the Foy family for six generations, from 1795 to 1971. Opened as a museum in 1980, the present Manor House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and sustained through the continuing efforts of the Poplar Grove Foundation Inc.

Poplar Grove Plantation preserves the homestead of a successful farming family, along with the outbuildings and crafts typical of a 19th century working community. The 15+ remaining acres of the homestead are under the stewardship of the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust, as well as an adjacent 67 acres in the Abbey Nature Preserve.

Interns will help with historic research, archaeological evaluation, museum exhibits, and evaluation and maintenance of archival materials as required by the Plantation director. Excavation and/or conservation may be included in this internship, as needed by the museum.

Visit the Poplar Grove Plantation

Location: 80 Sandy Bend Road, Rocky Point, NC 28457

This new nonprofit organization is focused on recording and recovering archaeological sites endangered by development on private land. The goal is to raise public awareness of local cultural heritage and to inventory sites of archaeological significance on private land.

Interns will assist with the mission of the organization. Opportunities may include archaeological surveying, archaeological excavation, archaeological/historical research and public outreach.

More information to come!

Check out the Public Archaeology Corps

Location: P.O. Box 58, Kure Beach, NC, 28449

This internship enables UNCW students to learn about underwater archaeology, which is currently unavailable at UNCW in a classroom setting. Students gain hands-on experience working with recently recovered materials obtained during underwater excavations at local sites.

This provides the student with valuable training and experience in artifact processing, analysis and curation that will assist them in their professional life outside the university. Students might have the opportunity to learn archaeological field techniques by participating in limited excavations of terrestrial sites in the Cape Fear region.

Interns will process, analyze and conserve archaeological materials obtained during local underwater archaeological projects.

Gain Hands-on experience at the Shipwreck District

Location: 789 NC Highway 24/27 E, Troy, NC

Students will engage in the practice of ethnography and applied anthropology as part of a team set up by the US Forest Service to investigate the area's 1934 African American Hillfield community, by exploring historic homesites, interviewing living family members, collecting memories, evaluating informative sources, and creating a digital record of these memories in the form of digital files of voice and/or video interviews and photographs.

This internship is offered on an intermittent basis. If you are interested in this site please contact Dr. Reber.

Find out more about the National Forest

Location: 2815 S. College Road, Wilmington, NC 28412

"What's Wrong With Different?" is an anti-bullying program developed by the YWCA Lower Cape Fear as a way to teach students to value and respect the differences between people. The goal of this program is to focus on diversity and inclusion for third-grade students in New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender and Columbus counties.

Make an impact through the anti-bullying program

Location: 303 W. Salisbury St., Wrightsville Beach, NC 28428

The WB Museum of History exists to preserve and share the history at Wrightsville Beach. Students will aid with the newsletter, write/edit press releases and publicity text, greet guests at the reception desk, aid the archivist with museum inventory, and help with pre-publicity and organization of Claude Howell Day in September, annual meeting in October, Holiday Flotilla events in November and Jingle Bell Run in December.

Be a part of this interactive internship

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