(
By Bettina Kovacs, Intern
“Why Indianapolis?”, “Where are you from - Australia?”, “Where does your accent come from?”—These are some of the questions that I encounter the most while working almost 5000 miles away from my home in Vienna, Austria. It’s an extraordinary adventure, which gives me the opportunity to gain international work experience and to strengthen friendships in Kentucky and Indiana.
There have been many obstacles all along the way. One of the obstacles was finding the appropriate workplace. Luckily, I found that The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis (TCM) has a big and professional internship program with many interesting opportunities. Even more, TCM accepts international interns! This is not true for many other companies because it demands a lot of paperwork from the company in order for the student to get a VISA. However the professional organization of TCM made it work and here I am all the way from Austria! I am more than happy that I got this opportunity.
Working and living on another continent is exciting in itself. It provides a lot of surprises and new cultural encounters every single day. But even more—I could not have imagined a more exciting place to work than TCM! Where else can you see a live Flash-mob performance during President’s Coffee (museum staff meeting) on the third day of work? Or where else can one go to learn more about Dinosaurs, Anne Frank, Egyptian culture, the constellation of stars in the planetarium and much more during “work”? This is a great and fun atmosphere and the learning opportunities at the Museum make it an extraordinary internship that is hard to find somewhere else.
Not only have I experienced these exceptional work surroundings, but also the professional organization of TCM provides me with a great learning opportunity. Interning in School Services and Professional Development (in Human Resources) has already given me great opportunities to strengthen my theoretical knowledge in these areas for the last three months. A quarter of my internship at TCM has flown by! I am already looking forward to the upcoming challenges, cultural encounters, new exhibits, questions about “Why Indiana?” and much more at TCM. I have no doubt that after these twelve months I will return to Austria with an incredible amount of knowledge and hopefully transfer this to Austrian companies so that they can become as highly professionally organized as TCM.
