My Experience as an ODU Intern
About myself
I am a Philosophy and Psychology double major. I hope to get into law school after graduating and eventually become a lawyer.
Internship Overview
I was hired by a philosopher professor and Spanish professor and a Mellon Foundation Humanities Internship Award supported my internship. We had to read, translate, and figure out the meaning behind a 16th century philosophy of arms manuscript by Carranza. In the process we had to become familiar with the text, Using AI for initial translations, performing experimental archaeology in the form of learning a Spanish form of fencing called Destreza as well. .
It was expected that I would familiarize myself with the material, translate what I could, and try to figure out what exactly the movements were practically in fencing. All within the context it was written. We had weekly zoom meetings and weekly in person meetings where we preformed the experimental archaeology.
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Aside from the commenting on translation and the fencing I am currently working on a project thinking about what philosophical and theological thoughts Carranza held and how they influenced his work. I would contribute in the sense that I would help put into practice and exemplify what carranza meant. Almost like finding out a new style of fencing.
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The hiring process was great and simple and there wasn't much training but there was a lot of guidance and effort into helping us learn and understand.
Internship reflection
Career exploration
This Internship made me realize that there are many things one can do with philosophy other than simply becoming a philosophy professor. There are many field where you can apply it.
Ive discovered the new career path that is archaeology. I actually enjoy discovering and interpreting things that we may take for granted nowadays.
Intergrated learning
My course work helped a lot as research and interpretation of philosophical text within its historical period are needed to some extent for both my majors. It connected to my class work often as it seemed to be the set just before the early modern philosphical period which I am taking a course on right now.
A new skill I learned is definitely experimental archeaology. When You are not sure what the text means it can sometimes help to experiment and do those what you think they meant and see what would have made sense for the time. It is very interesting
Professional communication
As a spanish speaker I believe I was able to have more unique and specific insight to what the spanish text could have meant.
My analytical skills and ethical reasoning skilled helped a lot since such a large part of this project is simply interpreting and understanding the the ethics and thoughts of the author.
Final Thought
The most challenging part was the time management to be honest. But I definitely learned to prioritize work and it was helpful towards that.
The most rewarding part was definitely the experiment archaeology. The learning and the discovery aspect of it felt so fulfilling.
