During her college search, Hailee Brandt ’25 was certain about what was most important to her in deciding on a school.
“This was for my career, and I needed to have good internships,” she explains. A friend who was attending Virginia Tech suggested that she take a look at Hollins. “His dad chimed in and said, ‘Oh yeah, Hollins is great.’” Brandt visited the university’s website and was impressed with the real-world opportunities Hollins offered, particularly the Signature Internship Program, which offers January and summer internships with stipends and paid housing.
“I saw that a student had interned at the Smithsonian, and I thought, ‘I want that!’ I’m from Southern California and there are a lot of good colleges out there, but I only applied to Hollins.”
This summer, the history major achieved that goal when she was accepted into the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum’s Because of Her Story (BOHS) Cohort Internship Program in Washington, DC. BOHS seeks to lift up a diverse range of women’s stories, both past and present and largely untold, as a means to inspire and empower and share a more accurate and thorough history of the United States.
“This is an extremely prestigious and competitive internship,” says Ruth Alden Doan Assistant Professor of History Christopher Florio, who discovered the opportunity and encouraged Brandt to apply. “Hailee was selected from more than 400 applicants,” he notes, for the cohort of 14 BOHS interns this year.
From June 10 through August 2, Brandt was assigned to a program called “Star Stories: The Women Behind the Science.” She worked specifically with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and NASA’s Universe of Learning team, which, as its website notes, is “immersed in exploring, researching, and communicating about space.”
“Even though I’m a history major,” Brandt says, “I wanted a STEM-focused program because I thought I should develop other skills for my resume.”
NASA’s Universe of Learning produces the Diaries of the Cosmos podcast, which highlights key figures in the history of astrophysics. Brandt’s main project during her internship “was that I had to come up with an idea for a podcast episode, get it approved, and then write it. I don’t listen to podcasts, and I didn’t know a lot about them, but it was a lot of fun.” Diaries of the Cosmos focuses, Brandt adds, “on scientists whose stories go under the radar. They made huge discoveries, but we don’t recognize their names. My episode is supposed to be released in the next couple of years.”
Brandt also represented the Universe of Learning at the annual Astronomy Festival on the National Mall, a free public event that features an array of hands-on activities and demonstrations. “I ran the booth celebrating the 25th anniversary of Chandra (the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope), and I worked until 2 a.m. It was exciting.”
Half of the BOHS cohort was made up of rising seniors like Brandt while the other half was composed of those who had recently completed their undergraduate careers and were getting ready to go on to graduate school. In a typical week, interns worked independently Monday through Thursday and then gathered together on Fridays to take part in what were called “enrichment days,” featuring guest speakers as well as exclusive tours of museums and archive spaces.
“I love going to museums and we were getting to access areas that aren’t open to the public,” Brandt states. “I especially enjoyed going to the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum. My number one hobby is letter writing and I got to see all these old letters and cool stamps and the original drawing for the stamps.”
Brandt says she also cherished the bond she formed with her two mentors: astrophysicist Rutuparna Das, with whom she worked closely throughout the BOHS program, and Athena Michaels, an administrative resource specialist at the Smithsonian who coordinated the cohort’s enrichment days.
“They are two fantastic women who helped guide and support us in so many ways. They gave us great advice, made sure we knew where to go and what to do, and offered constructive criticism in the kindest way. My family is all on the West Coast, so having someone check in on me and make sure I was having fun, that was amazing.”
The BOHS cohort internship is just the latest example of how Brandt is fulfilling her commitment to experiential learning. Florio also helped her pursue an opportunity locally during her first year at Hollins at the Vinton Historical Society Museum, and she has also completed internships on campus through the university’s Wyndham Robertson Library, working with Archivist and Special Collections Librarian Isabel Folck and Digital Pedagogy and Scholarship Librarian Sara Sprague. An internship during last year’s January Short Term with the White House Historical Association, Brandt believes, was the deciding factor in her acceptance into BOHS.
“I realized after that J-Term internship that I wanted to pursue a career in digital archiving,” she says. “In my experience this summer, I acquired a new skill set that I don’t necessarily want to be the focus of my work but will nevertheless be of help to me in digital archiving. I’d never used scientific databases before, and I’d never learned how to parse long scientific research papers for historical information. I had to learn to do that very quickly, and that has had a pretty significant impact.”
Brandt, who is graduating from Hollins on a three-year track, is dedicating her senior year to exploring further opportunities, either through the Signature Internship Program or internships she identifies on her own.
“I came here on a mission,” she asserts. “Hollins has so many opportunities for internships and getting people into their careers compared to any other college. I encourage students to take advantage of that here.”
