MSU Experiential Learning

ANTHROPOLOGY IN ACTION: LAUREN + CORI AT THE BATH SCHOOL MUSEUM

As Lauren and Cori conclude their final week at the Bath School Museum, we’re celebrating two incredible MSU Anthropology students who have shown exactly what can happen when academic learning moves beyond the classroom and into the community.

Lauren and Cori have done fantastic work this summer—learning from history, contributing their talents, engaging with the community, and discovering new ways their anthropology education can make an impact in real-world spaces like a museum.

A HUGE thank you to the entire Bath School Museum team for creating such an immersive, engaging, and genuinely welcoming experience. You gave Lauren and Cori the opportunity to explore, contribute, ask questions, build confidence, and ultimately flourish beyond even their own expectations.

And THAT is what a great internship partnership looks like. 🙌
Students bring their curiosity and talent. Community partners provide mentorship, trust, and meaningful opportunities. MSU helps connect the classroom to the world beyond it.
The result? Everybody grows. Everybody learns. Everybody wins.

Lauren and Cori, I am incredibly proud of the work you’ve done and the way you have represented MSU Anthropology and the College of Social Science in the community.

To my new friends at the Bath School Museum: thank you for opening your doors, investing in Lauren and Cori, and showing us what an exceptional community partnership can look like.

What a fantastic experience for our interns, our community partner, and MSU.

This is anthropology in action. This is experiential learning at its best.

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🎬 Plot Twist: We Swapped the Interns!

What happens when you don’t just change internships... you change sectors?

This summer, the Flint Summer 3026 Study Away Internship Program piloted Internship Swaps, giving interns the opportunity to spend a day immersed in another organization’s workplace.

The response from both interns and supervisors was overwhelmingly positive—and it’s safe to say this experiment was an incredible success.

One of our favorite swaps featured Alya Kayat and Dominic Rector, both Human Resources majors, who quite literally traded worlds for the day.

Alya stepped away from her internship with the private-sector HR team at ROWE Professional Services to experience human resources in the nonprofit sector at New Paths, Inc.

Meanwhile, Dominic left New Paths to spend the day with the HR professionals at ROWE, gaining firsthand exposure to how HR operates in a private company.

Same major. Same profession.

Completely different environments.

The experience gave both students a rare opportunity to compare how one career field can look dramatically different depending on an organization’s mission, culture, priorities, and workforce. They didn’t just observe another workplace—they expanded their understanding of what a career in human resources can become.

The enthusiasm didn’t stop with the interns.

Both organizations embraced the experience, opening their doors, sharing their expertise, and demonstrating the collaborative spirit that makes Flint such an extraordinary place to learn and grow.

Sometimes the best way to learn more about your future career... is to spend a day seeing it through a different lens.

We’re incredibly proud to have piloted Internship Swaps this summer and look forward to expanding this initiative in future Flint Study Away cohorts.

💚 Go Green. Go White. Go Flint.

PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT 💡- Check out 3 ways you can fulfill your Experiential Learning Requirement through documentary filmmaking in Michigan & abroad! 🎥🇮🇳

🎓 Proof that the Flint Summer Study Away Internship Program is for every major.

Meet Andrea Guitron-Ortiz.

As a James Madison College student studying International Relations, Social Relations & Policy, and Chicano/Latino Studies, Andrea arrived in Flint with something every organization hopes to find in an intern: she was ready.

Ready to think critically.
Ready to ask thoughtful questions.
Ready to tackle complex policy issues.
Ready to contribute from day one.

Her internship with Abundant Housing Michigan wasn’t just a good fit—it was a perfect example of what happens when talented students are trusted with meaningful work.

And Andrea didn’t just succeed.

She soared.

She approached every challenge with professionalism, curiosity, and confidence. She translated the analytical skills she developed through James Madison College into real-world policy work, collaborating with professionals, contributing to important conversations, and demonstrating that learning doesn’t stop in the classroom—it comes alive in communities like Flint.

This is why the Flint Summer Study Away Internship Program is open to all majors.

We’re not looking for one type of student.

We’re looking for students who are prepared to learn, eager to contribute, and willing to embrace opportunities that stretch them beyond their comfort zone.

Andrea reminded us that when preparation meets opportunity, extraordinary things happen.

We’re so proud of everything she accomplished this summer and can’t wait to see where her journey leads next.

💚 Because of Flint, another exceptional student discovered just how far she could go.

Catching Up with Our Anthropology Interns 🏛️💙

This week, we caught up with our incredible anthropology interns, Cori and Lauren, as they represented the Bath School Museum at Bath Fest by bringing history out of the museum and into the community.

As anthropology majors, they understand that preserving history is about far more than protecting artifacts. It means being good stewards of a community’s heritage by sharing its stories, honoring its traditions, and ensuring that future generations understand the people and places that shaped the community they call home.

Throughout the day, Cori and Lauren welcomed visitors, answered questions, showcased museum collections, and invited community members to reconnect with Bath’s rich history. Every conversation, every artifact shared, and every story told helped strengthen the bond between the museum and the community it serves.

One of the most important lessons of experiential learning is that you don’t truly understand a community until you become part of it. By immersing themselves in Bath not only inside the museum but alongside its residents at one of the community’s signature events these two EXCEPTIONAL interns experienced history as something living, personal, and worth protecting.

The best museums don’t simply preserve objects. They preserve stories, memories, and a community’s identity.

Cori and Lauren have FULLY EMBRACED that responsibility all summer, serving as thoughtful ambassadors for the Bath School Museum and passionate stewards of Bath’s history.

Because the best anthropologists don’t just study communities...

They help preserve the stories that define them. 💚