By Catherine Cervone

It’s not often you get to combine both subjects you’re studying into one internship, but Ann Kast was lucky enough to do just that.

Ann Kast, a junior Elementary Education and Art History minor from Lakeland, Fla. spent her summer and the first part of her junior year interning with the Polk Museum of Art, which is one of Florida Southern’s newest affiliates. FSC joined forces with the Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College on June 1, making it Central Florida’s only community academic art museum, according to the FSC website.

https://polkmuseumofart.org/

Kast was one of the few chosen by an art history professor at FSC to do the internship in its inaugural year. She worked with the museum and the Polk County School District to design materials for fourth grade teachers to use when they bring students on field trips to the museum. Every fourth grade class in the county has a trip to the museum in their curriculum, so designing the materials on topics from everything from how to behave in a museum to post-visit activities was very rewarding.

The ability to combine two of her favorite things was her favorite part.

“I’m a huge art history nerd,” Kast said with a smile.

She has been researching arts integration in the general education classroom since she came to FSC, and is a huge arts supporter. She proudly attends every FSC Theatre Department show in support of her sorority big and twin, Gabriella Scoleri and Catherine Cervone, respectively. She also took an art history and photography junior journey to Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin at the beginning of last summer.

Collaborating with so many groups to get a finished product that everybody liked was an important lesson too.

“I have loved being able to take what the museum wanted to convey, what the school district wanted the students to learn and things that I’ve personally seen students struggle to understand in my classroom observation to make what I hope is interesting and engaging for the students and will foster a love and appreciation of art,” Kast said.

Kast said she learned that asking for help is important in any collaboration process.

“It is honestly amazing what a bunch of people working together towards one common goal can accomplish…speaking out and asking for help can sometimes be very difficult, but the results are incredible,” Kast said.

 

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