A University student was hired into a competitive paid internship known as the Lipper program for the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City.
Pegah Efterkarazadeh was one of 16 individuals chosen for the program, undergraduate and graduate students in the Northeastern region of the country.
The program aims to inform people about the history of the Jewish people.
Loren Silber, the museum educator and recruiter of the program, said their board is very selective when choosing their applicants and that only motivated and dedicated individuals should apply.
“We look for a lot of things in an applicant such as a high GPA and a strong letter of recommendation,” she said. “We are looking for people who are very flexible and very interdependent who work well in a group and have the ability to teach individuals.”
Efterkarazadeh,a psychologymajor, explained her motivation for applying to the program was to gain experience in a field that can help further her desired career.
“I applied for the position because it allows me to merge my two topics of interest, history and psychology,” she said.
“Psychology is huge especially when looking at the holocaust. How was it even possible for the Nazis to mobilize an entire country to follow those inhuman orders, especially in one of the most advanced civilizations at the time? It’s definitely something I see myself studying in the future.”
Efterkarazadeh continued to say how her internship accommodated her passion for teaching and informing younger generations.
“I have the opportunity to educate the younger generations about the atrocities that happened and still happen today and how we can move forward,” she said.
“I have in me a resolution to teach, educate and inspire and this internship is a great place to start.”
Emily Lake, an employee of the museum and a previous intern of the program, said how the experience she gained from the internship benefited her in perusing her occupation.
“The internship was extremely beneficial for my career,” she said.
“It further solidified my passion for history and museum work and made me more confident that this was the right profession for me.”
Lake said the program is also helpful in that it helps to establish networking connections between those participating in the program.
“My teaching partner actually ended up doing his student teaching with one of the teachers we worked with,” Lake said.“It was through the Lipper program that they first connected, so the internship can definitely open a lot of doors both in the museum field and in other areas as well.”
In 1998, the Lipper program was founded with the incentive for college students to study Jewish heritage and unite with northeastern public middle and high schools to further educate students in a three-phase instruction about the history of the Holocaust.
The overall mission of the museum, according to their website, is to educate individuals of all ages and backgrounds the history of Jewish life in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Students can apply online by April 1 for the upcoming fall semester or November 1 for the spring semester.
