Ethics and stuff

In the current market the word Intern is now synomonous with abused. There are a lot of issues I face daily with the demands of the field and not just with the irony of the life as a professional intern.

In blogging about my pursuits in conservation I want to focus on my experiences as an intern and the problems and successes in my long journey in this career. But it is also essential to respect the privacy of the projects that I work on which is why, as you may have noticed, I do not show treatments or even give specific names and description of materials. Ethics in conservation is very important and at times subtle, I would not want something that I wrote, especially at such a junior level, be taken differently from its intent.

There of course are publications where this information can be shared. The AIC conference is a few weeks away and all of the conservators are in a buzz to go learn what is new, network and see former classmates and colleagues.

Currently I am scheduling my summer with a branching of opportunities and decisions. I have been applying for other summer internships which are usually unpaid which is fine with me as long as they are educational, but do pose a problem if the company is private for profit. Previously the Internship Director at my school tried to tell me that an internship I had was in violation with labor laws and to be in compliance with this I must register and pay tuition to the school even if it is just  for one credit. Yes, there are labor laws, but they are there to protect me not force me to hand over my very limited money to a college that is not providing anything in return for this tuition.

I interviewed last week and was offered a position in a major NY institution that is private, but receives excessive public funding. As a essential government agency they are very focused on insuring that my free employment is not a legal issue and are requiring proof of the credit or possibly a letter from an academic adviser. What is the purpose of having labor laws to protect interns when even a government agency can find loopholes. This abuse of free labor is a growing problem that needs to stop somewhere. I, unfrotunately, will have to decline the position for financial reasons, but mostly because I fear it will not be as education as other opporunties. There are several summer programs that are promising, but unfortunately the one that I am most interested in for its location, impressive staff and educational opportunity in paper, comes with a very generous stippend,  making it extremely competitive especially to a pre-program student such as myself.