Many of our internships are funded through donations. If you’d like to support future internships, we encourage you to do so by supporting our internship fund.
Theresa Azemar (she/they)
Theresa works in the Reference Division as a supervisor in our Avenir Foundation Reading Room. She welcomes researchers to the Clements, checks out requested collection items, ensures proper handling, and answers questions. She also works in the Manuscripts Division processing collections. Paired up with fellow manuscript division intern Diana Baxter, Theresa is working to automate processes involved with updating the online catalog.
She is currently a School of Information student on the LAKES (Libraries, Archives, and Knowledge Environments) track. Theresa was drawn to the archives because of her love of history; in fact, she studied English and American studies at Notre Dame in her undergraduate education. At Michigan, she wanted a job that paired well with her interest in American history, and she found that at the Clements. Since working at the Clements, she’s realized how vast knowledge environment careers can be and wants to continue to support researchers.
Fun fact: Theresa can say the alphabet forward and backward in 6 seconds!
Diana Baxter (she/her)
Hailing from Hoboken, New Jersey and now living in Northport, Michigan, Diana is a Library Assistant in the Manuscripts Division of the Clements. Her work so far has included arranging and describing collections, writing finding aids, rehousing the George Sackville Germain papers, and using Python (a programming language) to streamline the Manuscript Division’s workflow for creating encoded archival finding aids.
After studying history at Colgate University in New York and working as an archival intern at the Leelanau Historical Society, Diana’s love of history inspired her to want to work with primary source materials in the form of archivism. In her own words, she caught the “archive bug” in her senior year of college and wanted to be part of the process of facilitating research. As a result of these experiences, Diana is now a master’s student at the School of Information on the LAKES track. She hopes to work in a museum after graduation, doing both archival work & research and development of exhibits.
Fun fact: While working at the Leelanau Historical Society, she worked on a historical timeline to guide a film that the society was producing. The documentary went on to win the State History Award awarded by the Historical Society of Michigan in the media category.
Evelyn Best (she/her)
Evelyn is the Edward Surovell Assistant funded by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. In this role, she is working on adding to and enriching the catalogs of approximately 300 books, many of which are Indigenous language texts, donated by Edward Surovell to the Clements Library.
Evelyn has always had an interest in cultural heritage preservation. She studied English with minors in ethnic studies and music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. There, she read a lot of contemporary work by Native American authors, some of which focused on language preservation. During this time, she also worked at Cranbrook Institute of Science, which featured Great Lakes Native American history and culture. It was here that she discovered the power of creating records for previously inaccessible materials, and realized she wanted to work in a library.
Now, as a School of Information student on the LAKES track, Evelyn wants to empower people through information literacy. In a time where there is low trust in public and academic institutions, she wants to make sure people have access to materials, while also providing context to those materials to enhance a reader’s understanding of the item which they are viewing. In the future, Evelyn hopes to work in a museum, archive, or library space doing cultural heritage preservation. This includes intangible materials, such as language and oral history and tradition preservation.
Fun fact: Evelyn is a musician. She’s played the clarinet for 12 years.
Sirianna Blanck (she/her)
Sirianna is a College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) student who works in the Graphics Division as the graphics assistant, where she processes collections and writes their finding aids. As part of her museum studies minor, she’s visited the Clements for multiple classes and is currently using her knowledge of our collections to pitch a redesign of the “Unsettling Histories” exhibit in the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) with guidance from their curatorial staff. Specifically, she’s reinterpreting the John Mix Stanley landscape painting, Mount Hood from the Dalles, from an environmental and indigenous lens, and has chosen photographs from the Clements collections which feature Native Americans fishing on the same river to be exhibited alongside the painting.
In addition to her museum studies minor, Sirianna is a double major in the Program in the Environment (PitE), specializing in Environmental Policy & Law, and German. In the future, Sirianna is interested in living and working in Germany, perhaps looking for museum studies opportunities there. She also wants to attend law school in the U.S. and focus on food and agriculture law.
Fun fact: Sirianna is originally from Atlanta, but now lives in Western North Carolina. She loves the Appalachians.
Milo Boatwright (he/they)
Milo works as a Development Assistant at the Clements Library. They are responsible for assisting Angela Oonk, our Director of Development, with various projects, including processing donor forms, entering and transferring data, and maintaining contact lists. He chose to work at the Clements because he loves libraries and the environment they provide, and also because he’s passionate about history.
Originally from Meridan, Idaho, Milo is a sophomore majoring in sociology with a sub-major in sociology & social work. He plans to attend graduate school for social work and become a social worker. Their work here has introduced them to working in a professional environment and helped them develop critical skills for their future career, such as organizational skills, excel use, and data management.
Fun fact: Milo is a member of the Michigan Marching Band as an MFlags member. He’s present at every game during the football season!
Ella Brooks-Kamper (she/her)
Ella joins the Clements Library as the Historic Visual Culture Graduate Assistant. She processes and writes finding aids for the Graphics division. She also assists with classes and helps students engage with the Clements’ materials. In the future, her work will also include writing catalog records.
Ella is a LAKES student at the School of Information. While she didn’t anticipate working with graphics, her research interests aligned with the library’s strong 19th century holdings, and she had previous experience working with graphics in her undergraduate education at Haverford College. For her senior thesis in English, she researched in the archive of Zitkala-Ša, a native author and activist from the late 19th and early 20th century. Through this project, she learned how archives function and how materials and collections are made presentable and accessible for research, which inspired her to apply to the LAKES program. Ella intends to be an archivist or curator at an academic library working with either graphics or manuscripts. She wants to continue to work hands-on with materials and make them accessible.
Fun fact: Ella’s middle name is America in honor of her great grandmother, who was named after the country during World War I.
Annalia Buchanan (she/her)
Annalia is our current Joyce Bonk assistant, working to digitize and make accessible collections such as the Richard Pohrt Jr. Collection of Native American Photography. Her current project is working with German auxiliary muster rolls from the Revolutionary War to create searchable tables that enhance the usability of the materials for researchers. Annalia’s interest in digitization stems from her love of working hands-on with materials. She’s excited to work in this role to gain new experiences in the field of archives. While she’s previously worked at the Clinton Presidential Library, she’s excited to pivot to digitization and working with older materials.
After double majoring in History and Religion at Florida State University, Annalia became a LAKES student at the School of Information to work towards her goal of being an archivist. She wants to work hands-on with collections and better understand the tools used in the field.
Fun fact: Annalia’s favorite book series is Little House on the Prairie.
John Castellanos (he/him)
John works as the Clements Library Associates Board of Governors intern. In this role, he leverages his knowledge of Spanish to describe, translate, and transcribe collections. One of the collections he works in most often is the Cuba Collection. He came to the Clements last winter for a History 202 class, and was looking for primary sources to use in his thesis for the class. There, he met Jayne Ptolemy, Associate Curator of Manuscripts, and the two discussed the collection and the translation that needed to be done to make the collection more accessible to researchers.
As a junior political science and history double major, John plans to attend law school and become a lawyer. To him, there’s a connection between history, political science, and law: all require careful deciphering of the text and its meaning, as well as the social and political context of the text when it was created.
Fun fact: John can answer LSAT questions just by reading the answer choices with 70-75% accuracy!
Ellie Franklin (she/her)
Ellie is the inaugural Milo Quaife Intern in Conservation, made possible by the generosity of Nancy Quaife, the granddaughter of Milo Quaife, to support the conservation, cataloging, and processing of archival collections. Ellie works in conjunction with conservator Julie Fremuth to ensure the library’s materials are preserved for future use. She previously worked in conservation while pursuing a degree in Social Relations and Policy at Michigan State University, and she applies the skills she learned there to construct book boxes to protect materials at the Clements. Ellie is currently a LAKES student at the School of Information. She hopes to work in a public-facing librarianship after graduation this May. For her, working at the Clements has taught her a completely different aspect of librarianship from her previous jobs, specifically archivism and working with rare materials.
Fun fact: Ellie loves cozy British murder mystery anything, including books and movies.
Samantha Huck (she/her)
Sam is a junior at LSA studying statistics and sociology with minors in quantitative methods in the social sciences and data science. At the Clements, she works as an Outreach Assistant, writing blog posts (like this one!), assisting with events at the library (such as the Haunted Histories event on October 29), and escorting patrons through the Avenir Foundation Reading Room to explore our rotating exhibits.
Sam came to work at the Clements after interning at the Ypsilanti District Library in high school. There, she worked in the communications department and discovered she loved working to promote libraries and the resources they provide to their communities. Given the amazing collections housed here, she’s excited to extoll the unique experiences the Clements offers patrons.
Fun fact: Sam was recently accepted into the Michigan Program in Survey and Data Science’s Pathways to Graduate Training in Survey and Data Science program!
Madison Lay (she/her)
Maddy works in the Development department as an Outreach Assistant. Her main responsibility is leading our exhibit tours, but she also assists in various administrative tasks and facilitates Clements events. As a business student at Ross with plans to work in consulting or financial services, working at the library has taught her how history affects the present day and has given her both soft and hard skills that will serve her in the future, including public speaking, organizational skills, and data entry.
Fun fact: Maddy is a true crime junkie. She especially enjoys listening to the Crime Junkie podcast.
Brynne Smith (she/her)
When Brynne Smith was still in high school, she attended a community resources class that featured a visit to the Clements Library where she met our Librarian for Instruction and Engagement, Maggie Vanderford. This course introduced her to special collections libraries and the archival world, and she wanted more! Now a sophomore studying Art History at LSA, Brynne is working in the manuscripts division working to modernize our workflows. In particular, she’s working to digitize the individual cards in our card catalog to make them easier to access and sort through in the future. She has greatly enjoyed her time working with archival collections and hopes to pursue this as her career, planning to eventually go to grad school to get her MLIS.
Fun fact: Brynne is on the Women’s Glee Club!
Kelsey Turgeon (she/her)
Kelsey joins the Clements this year as an Outreach Assistant. In this role, she gives tours to interested patrons, works with Marketing Coordinator Isaac Burgdorf to write social media posts, and is working on an upcoming “Day In The Life” series for the blog and social media. As a history major, she loves hearing about American history and the Clements collections. She grew up learning about her grandfather’s World War II memorabilia, and her grandparents’ house was filled with antiques and historical pieces they would purchase at auctions. In the future, Kelsey hopes to work as an archivist, and she’d love to work somewhere like the National Archives or the Clements!
Fun fact: Kelsey started a small business called the03collective, where she sells art prints and crocheted items such as scarves, blankets, and flowers.
Jimmy Watke-Stacy (he/him)
Jimmy is an Intern for Instruction and Fellowships at Clements. He works with Maggie Vanderford, our Librarian for Instruction and Engagement, to set up instruction spaces for classes using materials from the Clements. He also helps manage the fellowships program. Jimmy has wanted to work at the Clements since he was a freshman attending a history class held at the Clements. He’s passionate about history and wants to help facilitate the same learning environment he enjoyed as a freshman.
Jimmy is currently a senior at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy studying public policy, and plans to pursue a Master’s degree in the same field. His role at the Clements is helping him develop research skills and gain soft skills that will be useful in his future endeavors.
Fun fact: Jimmy collects coins.
Naomi Yu (she/her)
Naomi works as a Graduate Assistant Cataloger in the Book Division here at the Clements. Her duties include cataloging newly acquired books in the library and creating call slips for processed books. As a LAKES student, Naomi knew she wanted to work in an archival or library setting. Working at the Clements has given her that environment, as well as the opportunity to work with old, rare books. One of Naomi’s favorite aspects of working at the Clements is the Tea Times with visiting research fellows, where Clements employees and visiting researchers gather to discuss the researchers’ work. She enjoys getting to hear about work being done in the field.
Naomi originally attended Washington University in St. Louis, where she received her BFA in art with a minor in art history and worked in the Kranzberg Art & Architecture Library. That work helped her discover she loved being around books and that she wanted to work on the academic side of art and work with knowledge institutions. Now, here at the Clements, she’s learning how a rare books library functions and about the life cycle of a book in a knowledge institution such as the Clements.
Fun fact: Naomi likes to knit and paint. She recently finished knitting her first sweater!
