Link description:
At Animas High School all junior year students get a internship opportunity to grow their knowledge about themselves and their future interest . Students get to choose an internship of their choice based on their personal career interests. This three week long internship happens in May and during LINK students collaborate with their mentors and work crew in the work area creating lifelong skills and relevant skills to the real world. LINK stands for Leading Internships of New Knowledge.
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Business description:
Pesata Creations is Jicarilla Apache owned business. The artist provide services of bead work, leather work, and silversmith work. The artist are located on the Jicarilla Apache Tribe Reservation in Dulce, NM. Co-owner Eldina Pesata has created bead work and made jewelry for over 15 years and her husband Melbourne Pesata has created bead work and silversmith for over 10 years. They do quality custom work. As Native American artist they take pride in making sure their products are not duplicated, all items are unique and one of a kind. They sell around the United States and Canada, by vending at local Native American arts and craft sales and have also sold items via social media.
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Link anticipation and preparation:
My internship process was long and frustrating. I knew that I wanted to leave town and wanted an internship that would be art related. In the beginning of this process I was really excited about going somewhere out of Durango and allowing my creative skills to expand. My first approach to it was to find a business in graphic design because I've been interested in graphic art for a while and this was my opportunity to take it. While I was searching for graphic design internships, I saw that there were many opportunities out of Durango but these internships where either way out there like New York, LA, Washington, and California. I soon realized that it was pricey and it would take extra work on finding a place to stay and to have money to provided for myself in these locations. So I shortened my internship distances to areas where I would have enough money to pay for it or locations near family that I would be able to stay with. Long distance internships were possible but it would be extra work. That was one of the challenges that I faced during the internship process. After a long time trying to find an internship I decided to find a art related internship and not only focus on graphic design. My main goal was to be able to learn a new form of art and a style that I have not done so that way I would be able to experience and learn new things in the art field. I checked in with Janae here and there and she kept checking on how I was doing, I thought that it was helpful because she checked in on me. We both came up with a plan on how I would be able to find an internship that would be fit for me. While my search still continued to find an internship, a student that attend Santa Fe University of Art and Design came to Animas and gave a presentation about the school there down in Santa Fe and that really sparked something for me. During my sophomore year I went on a art immersion Osprey week and while we were down there we visited lots of art museums and art galleries and I had a great time down there learning about all of the different styles of art. Since I have been to Santa Fe before and know where the main art museums and galleries are I started looking into Santa Fe area for internships becasue its a community that presents lots of art. I contacted Bryce who was the presenter for the Santa Fe University of Art and Design and asked him if he knew any locations in Santa Fe that do internships or areas of recommendation to try out and he gave me about 3 locations and I was on the next step which was contacting them. I contacted these three locations and one of them said that I had to be a certain age in order to do a internship there so I moved on to the other two and one of them said that only offered internship opportunities in February with two down and one more to go. The last one that I contacted didn't respond to me at all even though I emailed them and called them multiply times so I was back to searching. While I was searching I found these 5 awesome Native American artist and I each of them were well known and I saw how great their work was and I wanted to be apart of it and I emailed them and contacted them. Once again I got shut down by all of them because they didn't do internships or they didn't respond to my multiply contacts I sent them. But while I was contacting those 5 artist I was contacting about four other museums in Santa Fe and hoped that I would be able to work with one of them. Out of the four museums I contacted only one of them responded to me and that art museums was Meow Wolf.
I was really excited that I finally got someone that responded and was interested in me. The art director and I emailed each other. I explained the LINK internship program and how long it would be and basic information about me. She was interested and she wanted to do interview with me but she didn't know that I lived in Durango, Colorado and she thought that this could be a problem due to the fact that I wasn't living in Santa Fe. I told her that I had family down there that I could possibly stay with during the internship and we crossed the problem of the list. The next thing that she let me know was that if I were to do an internship there would very little things to do like little side projects and weird activities and there would be certain days that I wouldn't have anything to do. I spoke with Janae about it and even if didn't have anything to do on certain days I could still be able to go to Sante Fe to talk and meet different artist that worked there, I would be able to learn from them as well. So I decided to try and make Meow Wolf work for the remainder of the time. After a week of staying in contacted with the art director she was getting concerned because she knew that I would be a good fit for Meow Wolf but she would have to speak with the other art directors that worked there. After she was done talking to the other art directors and based on the amount of work that they would give me they couldn't let me intern there. She said that she if I were to go there was already about 15 interns that signed up before me and there wouldn't be any room or work for me. She mentioned that she was sorry and if I were to ask for an internship opportunity I would have a spot for next year. With five weeks before the LINK would start, I've been shut down multiply times. I was feeling really frustrated and concerned about not finding an internship. I realize this was bound to happen during this process, just like real life situations. So I kept pushing forward and continued my search for an internship. After I sent more internship request I attended the 78th annual Hozhoni Day Pow Wow at Fort Lewis College and while I was there I was looking at all of the vendors art and jewelry that they were selling. I became really interested and pulled in on what they were selling. It was a form of art that I have not learned yet and was interested in and I immediately thought of my grandparents because they do bead work and silversmith work just like these vendors. So I called them and asked them kindly if they would be willing to take me in as an intern. They told me that they have never had an intern before that they would be willing to take me in as their first one. I let Janae know and she and I were both excited that I finally found an internship that was art related. I had finally found an internship after this long and hard process that I went through and it was a major stress relief for me. After all of the paperwork was filled out I was really excited to start my internship becasue I would have a place to stay and would be learning a new form or art. Before going into this internship I was hoping to gain more experience about working in the jewelry business, marketing, learning more about myself. This would be an opportunity to learn a new form of art that I would be able to challenge myself. What I hoped to bring to this internship was my ability to learn and produce beautiful work. I really wanted to make this internship the best experience that I could ask for. The mark that I wanted to leave was that I'm able to do anything if I put my mind and dedication to it. I also wanted to leave my grandparents with the experience of mentoring an intern and hope they would be willing to do more internships with others that were wanting to learn about the jewelry business.