The Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) increases youth and young adults’ ability to pursue careers that pay well and are meaningful to them. This year, two interns joined us: Kevin Duong and Monica Kelley. Hear what they had to say about their time at ARTS below!

Monica Kelley 

My time at the Office of Arts and Culture has been an amazing and fun experience. Coming into ARTS, I was a bit nervous and didn’t know what to expect, but once I entered the building everyone was super nice and welcoming. I immediately felt at home with how close everyone is and how included they made me feel. 

Interning at ARTS was a refreshing and interesting experience. I didn’t have many expectations walking in, but I am leaving with a fresh new perspective on ARTS. I have done many things here at ARTS; From getting people’s inputs for a park redevelopment, reviewing applications for a panel, and many office gatherings. I also have gained new insight on panels and the reviewing and funding aspect of it. At first, I thought it would be a bit boring but as time went by and I eventually got onto the panel, it was quite fun to know about the innerworkings of one.  

Everyone who I have met during my time here at ARTS has been so nice and welcoming. I am very grateful to have interned here and have the learning opportunity I received. I have gained a sense of patience, knowledge, and growth during my time here and I am very thankful to everyone here who has helped and guided me these last couple of weeks. I will never forget this learning experience and the people as well. 

Kevin Duong

My time here at Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) as a Seattle Youth Employment Program intern will be remembered as the most valuable experience I have had for my career growth. ARTS has given me an opportunity to grow as a person in a professional working environment to help shape the next steppingstone in my personal career. I will remember the warm welcome from many staff during my first week here at ARTS. They provided me with what it’s like working at ARTS and what ARTS is about. From there, I was able to settle in easily and jump right into work.

At first, I didn’t know what ARTS was about and had little interest in working for an art department at the City of Seattle. My area of interest is data analysis and helping with any data collection. Working at ARTS made me realize that data analysis is important in every field of work no matter what kind of job it is. I came to realize that data analysis plays an important role in many grant programs that ARTS runs. From there, I was able to put in my area of interest of data analysis and combine it with helping analyzing data of these grant programs.

ARTS made me learn about the arts perspective and the rich community it had built around Seattle. ARTS showed me how big of an impact art has culturally, and how important it is to be represented in the community. I now realize how art is important in ways that can make an impact: to make a community, building representation of many different backgrounds, and helping small artists make a name for themselves. ARTS provides unique opportunities that made me have a deep appreciation for how much of an impact ARTS can have with using art. As a result, this made me more motivated and passionate about the kind of ways I can personally make an impact for others with my future professional career.

While working on my main project of helping the data analysis on grant programs at ARTS, I was also given the opportunity to help other staff members with their own project. I was able to do community outreach to get their feedback on Public Art installations at Bitter Lake Reservoir Park. I was also able to help with data collection at ARTS at King Street Station’s First Thursday and at Seattle Center for the Artists at the Center events. With these amazing opportunities, I was able to broaden my knowledge of working at ARTS and see the many projects that other staff members are working on. I learned many valuable takeaways from their experience and saw the things they do at ARTS outside of data analysis and collection.

My main project was to give a presentation to one of the grant project managers. The project was to do a data analysis and then present the results. As the days were getting closer to the presentation, I was rushing to get my slides done and do many practices runs. Then when the day came, presenting it went amazing. I was able to develop my public speaking skills and communicate my insights and recommendations from my findings thoroughly. I was able to help the project manager understand everything that I pointed out. Presenting was the main highlight of my time here at ARTS, as it was my main project and the most valuable project I worked on.

I will always be grateful for what ARTS provided me during my time here, including all the small things that made my experience very unforgettable and valuable. Interacting with many staff members every time I show up to work, the emails, team messages, team meetings, and small talk were all firsts to me during my time here. All the things I learned at ARTS will be used in my future career and personal growth. I learned how much of an impact arts can make culturally, and how many communities from various backgrounds can be represented through art.