"You Really Love Your Job, Don't You?"

Being a ZeumMaster has given me loads and loads of experience working with people and working as a team. I can definitely say that I've learned a lot from this internship.


One of my many lessons was one day in Main Gallery when I was working on a performance with a family. As always I was ready with a positive attitude and a huge smile. I became super involved with what this family was doing. I helped them with ideas for their script and costumes to go along with it. The family requested a whole bunch of background changes and scene transitions that took a lot of work on my part, but I was more than happy to see a family leave satisfied with a DVD that they could watch over and over again.


As they were finishing up, the mother came up to me and said "You really love your job don't you?" I responded "Yes, I do." Then she continued and told me how great it was to have someone helping them who really cared about the outcome of their production.


That mother made me realize that although we probably talk to hundreds of people a day, if we just put a little extra effort into each of those conversations, we can really mean something to them. If we make each experience with our visitors just a little more personal, families can leave feeling like they were in a caring atmosphere and not just being fed mechanical directions.


Seeing families truly enjoying what they have created here at Zeum is one of the most satisfying parts of the job - knowing that my help actually made a difference in a child's, or a family's, experience. My moment with this mother was just a little reminder of one of the many gratifying parts of this internship.

Zeum as Community

What makes Zeum a community? There is many things that makes Zeum a community. One thing that makes Zeum a community is that we care about our visitors. This makes Zeum a community center to the general public. We work very closely with our visitors. We greet them and help them when they walk into the exhibit. We take turns rotating and talking to visitors to make sure everything is running smoothly. When a piece of equipment is broken we walkie the tech person as soon as we are notified of the broken equipment so it is running back up as soon as possible so we can please our visitors.

Another thing that makes Zeum a community is that we are open to anyone, not just to people living in San Francisco. You can be from a totally different country and visit here. We had some people from Europe visting while staying on vacation to San Francisco.

I decided to take pictures of Zeum Staff. The reason why i decided to take pictures of Zeum Staff is because we are a community. What I did was uploaded the pictures from the camera to the computer and opened them up using Adobe Photoshop. Once the program was open, I used the different filters to change how each picture looks. Somethings I did was use the paint brush to paint on the pictures, blur filter, wave filter and so much more.

Everyone on the staff has been like family to me. They all care about me and check up and see if everything is going ok. Besides Zeum being a community center for the general public we also have a community within the staff. Everyone of the staff cares about each other. When ever ZeumMasters need help with a personal problem or a problem with a piece of equipment we know we can turn to each other for support. Being part of the Zeum staff community has changed my life. Before I was all sad and miserable because of home life but being here, away from my home is the happiest place I have ever been to. I wait every week to come here on Fridays because I get away from home.

When Fridays come I am happy because I get to see the people who care about me. I truly love everyone on the Zeum ok. When Perry was giving me a ride home after seeing Assassins, the play that he was in I was talking to him about personal stuff that was going on in my home, he was totally supportive and gave me advice about what to do and how to handle the situation. That showed me that he cares and is there for me whenever I need someone to talk to.

I am going to mention a few words i would like to say about how the staff touched me.
Perry, Ari, and Noel touched me by caring about me. When I would have a problem I would then with my problem and they would listen. They are totally supportive and help me with my situation the best they can. They would come to me on occasion and make sure everything is ok and I'm doing well. They truely ment the most to me and I will miss them.

Debbo and Derrek touched me by making me laugh. Whenever I was sad they would always give me a high five or do something to make me laugh. Sometimes Derrek would say someting to make me laugh.

Paul and Michelle F.,Musiliu,Sharon touched me by caring about me and keep saying that they will miss me so much. It's nice to know that they care so much that they keep telling me that they'll miss me. I WILL MISS THEM MUCH because they are like my brothers and sisters.