Why Zeum?

Finally, I, Lilian Fernando, am creating a blog post. It's taken me the whole summer to actually settle on what I should blog about. I've finally decided on TALKING ABOUT THE BENEFITS we ZeumMasters, the teens working the floors of Zeum, get from participating in the internship program. It's NOT YOUR TYPICAL TEENAGE JOB. It's not just a thing to do for the money. It's unpredictable, fun, and nurturing.

Imagine a hands-on MUSEUM FOR VISITORS OF ANY AGE, OF ANY GENERATION. A museum that can change a kid's childhood by opening the door to endless possiblities in the areas of visual and media arts; a place that can help a family bond while creating clay figures, and where parents or kids can discover that THEY CAN STEP OUT OF THEIR BOX and perform on our production stages. It sounds FAR FROM ORTHODOX OR TYPICAL, right? Those are just some of the things that are happening at Zeum every day.

Now imagine being able to EXPERIENCE A FAMILY BONDING at a set, creating a clay animation movie that you taught them how to do. Imagine recording a little five year-old singing, 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star', standing at center-stage all by herself. And WOULDN'T YOU LOVE TO BE THERE when a couple, celebrating their 50th anniversary, become experts at using Photoshop. As a ZeumMaster, those are just some of the things I've been lucky enough to be a part of; BET YOU'RE JEALOUS NOW.

But of course this place is not facilitated by teens alone; in almost every room, you might find the older-looking staff member. That staff member is the 'Educator'. Our EDUCATORS help make sure that rooms are running smoothly. Beyond that, they HELP OUR VOICES BE HEARD. They encourage individuality, they encourage us to develop our interests and talents, and THEY ENCOURAGE US to show ourselves off. This summer, we have been given the opportunity to work on projects, with the aid of an Educator, that will be in a show, that our parents are invited to, at the end of the summer. Each ZeumMaster is creating a project within the realms of visual and media arts. A majority of us are working with Video Production and Clay Animation, so NEVER THINK THAT WE ARE INCAPABLE of answering questions in the Clay Animation Studio, or on the Production Stages.

So, if you become a ZeumMaster, you get to work with people of all ages, you get to see kids overcome their 'safe-zone', and you are encouraged, by the people you work with, to create projects that express you using visual and media arts.

COOL.

End of Junior year. Beginning of Zeum Summer.

My junior year has come to a close. I made it through finals. This past year was stressful and very busy, and working at Zeum only added to my crazy schedule. Although my Saturdays were always occupied from the hours of of 10am to 5:30, I'm glad I had Zeum this year.

It's hard to believe that I've been at Zeum for an entire year. The time has gone by so fast partly because working at Zeum is so much fun. The kids are great, the staff is even more amazing but I cant lie though, it is hard work. Overwhelming crowds made me question how much I wanted to work with kids. Some days were crazy, running from room to room, trying your best to please every visitor, pay attention to every creation, always an impossible task when the numbers reach the 500 mark.

The only way I was able to survive and have such a good experience was because of the other staff, seriously. We made the hard days go by faster by laughing.

Saturday mornings at Zeum are always fun. We'd spend the first few minutes before morning meetings trying to catch up and explain what had happened during the past week. Eventually Christian would summon us to "Animators" for our morning meeting. That never stopped us, we would still be telling our stories from across the table. We have our own inside jokes, our favorite songs, and Angee is the founder of the ZeumMaster hand sign. (see me demonstrating in photos)

Like most Zeum Masters, this is my first real job, and working on a team is not new to me, but not something that I've had a ton of experience with. A big part of life at Zeum is teamwork. We work together with the common goal: to try to make the best overall experience for the visitors, most of the time that includes making a fool of ourselves. We perform all the time. High School musical is a favorite - we'll act as silly as possible to embarrass ourselves and try to encourage shy kids to perform.

People constantly ask me "What do you do at Zeum?" That question often stumps me. I have to think about it for a while, but eventually say "We help kids perform and create art." and they just give me that puzzled look and I know they're thinking "thats all." But the truth is it's so much more than just helping kids with art.We ZeumMasters facilitate and practically run the museum with the help of the educators. The ZeumMaster team helps with not just the art and the performance, we help make the overall experience an amazing one, a hard but possible task.

I now look forward to another busy summer at Zeum. This summer I can call myself a senior staff member and have the pleasure to help the newest Zeum Masters. The summers at Zeum are always with swimming with camps of kids and visiting families. The most exciting experience is meeting all the new Zeum Masters.

I met so many new people this past year and at times we had just as much fun as the visitors. Summers at Zeum bring out the kid in all of us.

End of the Reel: last day at zeum

This is my final blog post. My internship is coming to an end and my last day is May 16 so I decided to write a blog comparing my first day to my day yesterday and see how I have changed from this internship.

My first day at Zeum I had no idea of what I was getting into I knew no one but my mentor. I didn’t know if I would get along with any of my co-workers and I didn’t think I could handle the 7 hour days. It is very strange how things can change it 12 weeks.

My first day on the job I was very reserved and just talked to the people I knew, which by the way were my classmates and fellow interns. After my first day I had no clue if I was even going to enjoy my time here.

As I look back to yesterday and compare it to my first day I can give a big smile. I am going to miss all my co-workers, the happy kids and their families, and my mentor. Over the 12 weeks of work I have been able to develop a professional and personal relationship with everyone there. Hanging out in the office, the main floor, eating lunch with the other interns, can’t forget watching the Matthew and Perry singing and dancing. I would really like to thank all the staff for making my internship exciting and always making ready to come in.

Finally I want to talk about my project. My project to me was simple but ended up being very hard. I felt that editing a movie of teens playing games was going to be a piece of cake. First of all I just like to edit - it is a passion for me. Here, the part that got hard was that I didn’t understand any of the footage. I also didn’t understand how important it was to the teen interns and to Zeum in general.

After having 2 meetings with my mentor and director of the intern program I knew it had to be good. Still I wasn’t moved to try my hardest. In fact it was after meeting the other teen interns and seeing their reaction I put all my effort to making it good for them. This project taught me that it is important to think of others because one small thing to me can mean a whole lot to the others.

I want to thanks the ZeumMasters who made working there a good time for me.