Intern Update: Jasmine Fernandez
Intern Jasmine Fernandez at the Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History.
My name is Jasmine Fernandez. I am an Ethnic Studies major at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM). I am a board member of the Ethnic Studies Student Association, a registered independent organization operated through UHM. Our focus is to promote and teach diversity to the entire student body as well as its surrounding communities. Our involvement in the community includes volunteering, planning public events such as lectures and film screenings, as well as promoting the arts through live events such as spoken word and hip hop performances. Outside of school, I am an improvisational comedian. I have been involved in improv comedy since I started college. My interest in improv led me to expand it into a research project on Asian American Stand-Up Comedians at the APA Program.
At UHM, I applied for the Francis & Sarah Sogi Smithsonian Fellow Scholarship. This scholarship allowed me to intern at the Smithsonian APA Program for the Fall 2011 semester. My research project revolved around the history of stand-up comedy stemming from race-based entertainment, or minstrelsy, and how it has transformed into a method of identity formation for people of color.
The APA Program opened my eyes to opportunities not available in Hawaii. Through this program, I had access to all of the Smithsonian museums as well as their library facilities. Public and private events occurred on a daily basis and I tried to take full advantage of them. Some of my favorites include the opening reception of the exhibition Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter at the National Portrait Gallery. I was given the opportunity to interview all seven artists featured in this exhibit. There were other events that related more to my home in Hawaii, such as Kip Fulbeck’s 100% Hapa public program. Through his presentation and performance, Kip analyzed identity formation for mixed race individuals. Being multiracial myself, this event really spoke to me on a personal level.
Working for the APA Program allowed me to see the integration of academics and public programming. My background in Ethnic Studies provided me with enough preparation for this internship. I recommend this internship to any college student and though Washington D.C. is far from Hawaii, the experience allowed me to grow as a student, a young adult, and a future leader. Through the Smithsonian APA Program, I learned new perspectives on what it meant to be an Asian American. This internship taught me educational and professional skills that I look forward to utilizing when I return to Hawaii.
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