For this undergraduate work-study job, I work on the fifth floor of the University of Pennsylvania's Van Pelt Library where I assist in the relocation, retention, and organization of various books as the floor is transformed into the Global Languages Center. I am also responsible for checking the floor's study areas and seminar rooms for books that need to be reshelved or moved to shelving carts that are assigned to other floors.

As a marketing and publicity intern at Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, I gained a greater understanding of book marketing and publicity processes, systems, and day-to-day responsibilities. I conducted research for approaching marketing and publicity campaigns, gaining more knowledge and skills about book writers, outlets that love to share books, and the many ways and unexpected places books can be shared in. I was responsible for managing ongoing projects (i.e., building a comprehensive list of nonfiction podcasts for future titles, managing Net Galley requests, updating author travel schedules, tracking publicity for three titles, etc.) and fulfilling fundamental tasks in marketing and publicity campaigns, such as creating one sheets/press sheets that accompany book mailings, doing social media research, creating a media list for a forthcoming book and its comparable titles, and updating press contact information.

I was an intern in the trade editorial department at Norton. I reviewed fiction and nonfiction submissions, wrote readers' reports, line-edited, produced jacket copies, and gained other relevant experience in entry-level editorial work.

I was a Teaching Assistant for Dr. Zita Nunes in her class, ENGL 0051 — "Community Writing: [Post]COVID University." The class was a Fall 2020 Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course at Penn. The course was research-oriented — with students brainstorming and pursuing their own projects — and critically engaged with Penn's archives and alternative archives related to student life, Penn's relationship to West Philly, and more. I supported students with their independent projects, helped coordinate programming and off-campus events, and supported the course in other ways.

I supported the Rural Equity in Philanthropy project through research, writing, and outreach related to equity and prosperity in the South, rural investing in the South, and the development of a database on philanthropic practitioners involved in rural equity work. I also supported State of the South — MDC’s flagship research series that also features arts and cultural content. With this project, I supported programming and event planning by writing a blog about hidden histories in the South and working with colleagues to plan webinars and other events.

Throughout this full-time, 10-week research experience I worked as a research assistant under the mentorship of Dr. Nkemka Anyiwo on the Black Youth IMPAct Project. In this role I was exposed to foundational and important research on the sociopolitical development of Black youth, radical imagination, and more in order to complete a literature review, disseminate scholarly work to relevant communities, collect data through interviews with Black teens in Philly, and eventually present the qualitative study alongside two peers at the University of Pennsylvania's Fall 2021 Research Expo. I also specifically worked as Data Management Coordinator to organize data and schedule interviews, for example.