Undergraduate Opportunities

With the Summer Intensive, we want to foster a cohort of peers who learn with and from one another. In alignment with our objective to support students who will encounter economic challenges in a career in the arts, we aim to develop a cohort that represents a diversity of backgrounds, academic levels, ways of thinking, and experience level with museums. Applicants should meet the following qualifications: 

• Undergraduates who are currently enrolled at a university, college, or community college.
  
  
• Students who have an interest in learning more about museums and how museums work, art and art history, and the wide range of career paths in the museum field. Previous coursework or job experience in these fields is not required.
  
  
• Students who are based or attending school in the greater Chicagoland area and the Midwest are prioritized. Applicants must be eligible to work in the United States and able to physically access the museum for the duration of the program.
  
  
• Students who are able to attend the McMullan Family Foundation Summer Intensive program for the entire week.
  
  
• Most importantly, students who aim to support the goal of promoting inclusive museums that showcase a multiplicity of voices, perspectives, and identities, and who would benefit from the unique support and access that this opportunity provides.

The McMullan Family Foundation Summer Intensive application will open in early January and will be available through Friday, March 7, 2025, when it will close at 11:59 p.m. CDT. No late applications will be accepted. 

In addition to submitting short answers to the Google Form linked in the job posting, your application must include the following:

1. One Letter of Recommendation 

Applications must include one confidential letter of recommendation. A letter of recommendation can be submitted by faculty at your college or university or by current or past employers who are familiar with your skills and abilities. Recommenders are asked to explain how this program would help the applicant in their academic and career pursuits. 

The letter of recommendation must be submitted via email by Friday, March 7, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. CDT. The recommendation must come directly from the recommender’s institutional e-mail, should be formatted as a PDF file, and the email subject line should be formatted, “[APPLICANT NAME]-2025 SUMMER INTENSIVE PROGRAM.” 

We will only accept the recommendation letter submitted by the applicant’s designated recommender. 

For more information about requesting a letter of recommendation, please review our Internship FAQs.

2. Application Document

When applying to this position on the museum’s HR Career Portal, please upload a single word document or pdf file that contains all three of the components listed below:

Short Essay Questions

Instead of a traditional cover letter or personal statement, please respond to the following questions in three short essays (no more than 250 words per answer). We encourage you to provide specific examples to support your answers or to illustrate your ideas:

• What interests you about the McMullan Family Foundation Summer Intensive?
• Based on an experience you had, what is one specific change you would like to see in art museums? Please be specific. 
• Provide an example of an experience where you were able to offer your unique perspective to a project, discussion, or dialogue, and explain the impact you had.

Résumé

In your resume, please include:

• Contact information (phone number, email, current mailing address, and permanent address)
• School and area of study/major
• Expected graduation date
• Relevant employment, volunteer, and/or extracurricular experiences
• Computer and language skills
• The exact name and email address of the person submitting your letter of recommendation.

Academic Transcripts 

We are interested to learn about your coursework and overall academic trajectories. Please provide unofficial transcripts for your entire undergraduate career, including the college or university you currently attend and any you may have previously attended.

For more information about crafting a strong application, please review our Internship FAQs.

We anticipate accepting 15 students into the 2025 program. Applicants will be notified whether or not they have been accepted by Friday, April 4, 2025.

Participants will be given a stipend the week before the program begins to assist them for the duration of the Summer Intensive.

All participants must stay in SAIC student housing, which we provide as part of the program. Each participant will be given a single-person room. Student housing is walking distance to the museum and will enable participants to reach the museum in a timely manner each morning, while also allowing space to connect with their cohort and work on assignments together after hours.

Check-in for SAIC student housing will occur the Sunday before the program begins, and check-out will happen the Sunday after the program concludes.